The 1989 song Tom Petty could barely stomach: “I would have thrown that out”
Tom Petty would never put out a song that he wasn’t proud of. While most ageing rock stars tend to serve the bottom line for most of their fans, Petty saw his songwriting as an art form, crafting the best songs he could on every project.
Though his first proper solo efforts were seen as a high watermark for his career, Petty thought that one tune should never have seen the light of day.
After going through most of the 1980s with his backing band, Petty had been on sabbatical from the Heartbreakers camp. Having been on tour after his house burned down and working on the follow-up album Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), Petty thought he was spinning his wheels in the band when he got a call to work with some of his favourite writers in the Traveling Wilburys.
Made up on the spot when George Harrison needed a B-side for one of his singles, the band knocked out a quick batch of tunes with Petty playing bass. Inspired by the new experience, Petty tapped ELO frontman Jeff Lynne to produce his next album, only to be told that Lynne would be heading to England.
Knocking out an album’s worth of songs in a few days at guitarist Mike Campbell’s studio, Full Moon Fever became Petty’s first project without the Heartbreakers, boasting tracks that would become staples of his career, like ‘Free Fallin’ and ‘I Won’t Back Down’. Although the musicians had a blast writing the final product, Petty could have done without the album’s final track.
Assembled in the studio during the sessions, ‘Zombie Zoo’ was a throwaway title taken from a phrase that a bunch of punk kids had said to Petty and his fellow Wilburys when they were out one night. Liking the title, Petty put together a traditional skiffle-style song that talked about everyone who was walking like zombies through life.
Although Petty did think he made the strongest album of his career, he thought that putting ‘Zombie Zoo’ as the closer was a big mistake in retrospect, recalling, “What frame of mind produced that? 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”.
Petty would find himself in even more trouble when his label rejected him from releasing the album. Thinking that it conflicted with his image, MCA Records thought he should stick to making a new album with the Heartbreakers instead, before Petty insisted that it be released.
Even with Petty’s reservations about ‘Zombie Zoo’, the strength of the rest of Full Moon Fever was impossible to ignore. Songs like ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’ and ‘Yer So Bad’ captured him sounding revitalised, freed from the pressure of steering a full band and able to chase whatever ideas came naturally in the studio. There was a looseness to the sessions that suited him, allowing Petty’s songwriting instincts to breathe in a way they hadn’t for years.
Part of that freedom came from the chemistry between Petty and Jeff Lynne. The pair shared a love of classic rock and roll craftsmanship, and Lynne’s polished production style gave Petty’s songs a sharper melodic focus without sanding away their personality.
Even if Petty later winced at one or two moments on the album, Full Moon Fever still marked a turning point, proving that he could step outside the Heartbreakers and create music that stood proudly alongside the best work of his career.
The collaboration proved so well that Lynne stuck around as producer for Petty’s proper band album, Into the Great Wide Open. Since that signature style may not have clicked with the rest of the Heartbreakers, it didn’t take long for Petty to move onto a more organic form of production, working with Rick Rubin to create his late-career renaissance, Wildflowers. Full Moon Fever may have had a few blemishes in Petty’s mind, but this was the sound of one of rock’s living legends rediscovering his love of music.
