Did ‘Zombie Zoo’ wreck Tom Petty’s ‘Full Moon Fever’?
While all musicians feel the songs they write and the art of songwriting is important, nobody has ever held it as close to their chest as Tom Petty. Pick to string, pen to paper; fans could be assured that every track Tom Petty ever put his name to was equal parts truthful and earnest. That truthfulness resonated in Petty’s retrospective assessment of songs, too, so he was always transparent about how he felt about his previous releases.
One of the tracks he was particularly nasty about was his 1989 number ‘Zombie Zoo’. The song was the closer for his album Full Moon Fever, and while some fans enjoy it, Petty regrets putting the track on the record, let alone closing things with it. Given that Full Moon Fever was Petty’s first album without heartbreakers and represents a different side to him, it’s worth discussing whether or not he ruined his album with the inclusion of ‘Zombie Zoo’.
“What frame of mind produced that?” he asked when discussing the song, “I don’t understand. Because normally, I would have thrown that away. God knows we’ve thrown away far better. That was nearly a perfect album until the very end.”
Full Moon Fever came about after Petty had initially worked as part of The Traveling Wilburys and enjoyed teaming up with Jeff Lynne so much that he was keen on making another album with him. The two got together in England and made the majority of the songs for the album within a couple of days.
On a night out, they bumped into some punks who described Petty and his fellow Wilburys as a “Zombie Zoo”. The term resonated with Petty, who decided to make a song about criticising people who walked through life unaware, like zombies. While the track may have a solid premise, it ended up being a bit silly and didn’t fit the album’s overall tone.
Given the theme of Full Moon Fever, which is to create something that sounds serious and spontaneous, ending the album with a track that is silly and inspired by a punk’s passing comments seems a little bit out of pocket. Petty is right that the track doesn’t belong on the album and certainly shouldn’t be the last track that people who listen to the band hear. It gives off the wrong impression and feels incredibly anticlimactic.
The song doesn’t ruin the album. Full Moon Fever still has some of Petty’s most innovative and well-renowned songs, such as ‘Free Fallin’ and ‘I Won’t Back Down’. He really proved himself as a songwriter with this album, as he stepped away from The Heartbreakers but still managed to deliver something captivating that also sounded unique. The final song brings things to an off-kilter conclusion, as, unfortunately, Petty wasn’t able to create a closing track consistent with the tone of the record.
