“That just blew my mind”: Tom Petty’s favourite synth-pop era album
It is always surprising to remember that Tom Petty was part of the musical generation that brought us synth-pop and punk. Throughout his illustrious tenure fronting the Heartbreakers and later joining legends like George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan in the Traveling Wilburys, Petty never failed to exhibit his classic rock and country inclinations. A penchant for guitar-driven anthems gave Petty’s catalogue a timeless quality.
Petty’s music celebrated his influences, which were, for the most part, artists of the classic rock era. At just ten years old, Petty’s dream vocation manifested after he met Elvis Presley. In the summer of 1961, Petty’s uncle was working on the set of Presley’s aptly-titled movie Follow That Dream in Ocala and invited him along to watch the shoot. Acting didn’t interest Petty all that much, but he could certainly imagine himself wielding a six-string and commanding a riotous audience.
While receiving his MusiCares honour in 2017, just a few months before his death, Petty also noted the debt he owed to The Beatles for keeping the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll alight for so many years. He explained that the first wave of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s made the American government “very nervous”, especially the Republicans. “They put Elvis in the army, they put Chuck Berry in jail,” Petty said. “Things calmed down for a couple years, but it was too late, the music had reached England and they remembered it.”
Like thousands of others in his generation, Petty first discovered The Beatles in February 1964 when they played a set on the Ed Sullivan Show. The national broadcast spread Beatlemania to the states and predated a storm of the Billboard Hot 100, thus initiating the British invasion. “In 1964, The Beatles came, and I had my eyes opened like so many others, and I joined the conspiracy to put Black music on the popular white radio,” Petty said.
As a Florida-born man, Petty invited Southern musical influences into his style, eventually settling into an associative sound of anthemic country rock. Although The Beatles inspired his move to pick up the guitar, Petty was inspired by a host of pivotal artists, including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and John Fogerty. After breaking through in the late 1970s, Petty maintained an association with older artists of the classic rock and singer-songwriter spheres and had very little to say about punk.
Despite his aversion to punk, Petty wasn’t a complete stick in the mud. In 1982, Petty and the Heartbreakers embraced contemporary synth-pop influences in their successful fifth album, Long After Dark. They also made an early impression on MTV with the album’s lead single, ‘You Got Lucky’. “I think it’s a little more modern than the other albums,” Petty observed in a 1983 interview with Hit Parader. “The pacing is a little more up, the tempos are faster, and it’s probably the most energetic album we’ve ever done.”
In 1981, Petty collaborated with Stevie Nicks on her highly successful solo debut, Bella Donna, and seemed to have a taste for popular appeal. Long After Dark was a significant step forward in Petty’s career as his first dabble with synthesisers, though he ensured that the guitar was still the central focus. “I try to use them to create a sound texture rather than put them out front,” Petty noted.
Given Petty’s allegiance to classic rock styles, it came as no surprise that he felt the need to explain his approach to the synthesiser as an ancillary tool. “I didn’t want to use synthesisers just because they’re a neat toy. You can create a wide spectrum of textures in the music, but I don’t like it when synthesisers kind of wash out the whole record,” he asserted.
While explaining his use of modern technology as a method of elevating a traditional composition, Petty noted the influence of Roxy Music’s 1982 album Avalon, which turned out to be their last. “One of my favourite albums of the year was Roxy Music’s Avalon,” he said. “There were things on there that just blew my mind.”
When Roxy Music set out in 1972 with Brian Eno on a rudimentary synthesiser, they were a unique art rock band with a contemporary glam-rock aesthetic. Over time, Bryan Ferry steered the band towards a more refined synth-pop sound that greatly influenced the pop music of the 1980s. As Petty pointed out, Avalon was a masterpiece of the synth-pop era, but part of its appeal was its refusal to submit entirely to modern technology. Ferry’s voice still soars with an earthly croon over Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay’s prominent instrumental work.
Concluding his defence of the synthesiser, Petty noted how some of his friends were vehemently against modern tech. “I’m fascinated by the technology, all the new instruments that are coming out, and even though some of my purist friends think they should be avoided at all costs, I think they’re the instruments of the times,” he said.
