“What’s he doing?!”: The one song Tom Petty thought was a terrible waste
Tom Petty didn’t want to take a minute of the time he had making music for granted.
The journey from him being a garage rocker in Gainesville to becoming one of the biggest artists in the rock genre wasn’t lost on him, and there were bound to be a few ‘pinch me’ moments along the way when he started to produce records by Roger McGuinn and hang out with members of The Beatles. But even if he tried his best on everything that he ever made, he could admit that there were a few songs where he felt that he didn’t go the extra mile as he should have in front of his idols.
But before he even had a proper album to his name, Petty could go pretty far by being friends with a few rock and roll legends. He was already working with Leon Russell when his first band folded, and when he first got together with what became the Heartbreakers, he had connections with the same producer who had helped Procol Harum create ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’. He clearly had the right connections, but no one could have imagined what happened when he started rubbing elbows with the real legends.
There wasn’t a real chance that he was going to be hanging out with Elvis Presley or anything, but the idea of him being one of George Harrison’s closest friends in the business seemed like a pipe dream when he first thought of making a name for himself. And yet when you look at every member of the Traveling Wilburys, Petty doesn’t look all that out of place, always joining the band with a big smile on his face when performing tunes like ‘Handle With Care’ with Bob Dylan by his side.
Most people would have been absolutely shaking when they were in that position, but Petty had a job to do, and he figured that he would give it his best shot even if he was standing next to rock royalty. That didn’t mean that they couldn’t put him in his place, either, though. Harrison was the one who called Petty out for phoning it in a little bit on the first draft of I Won’t Back Down’, but even though they tidied up that part of Full Moon Fever, the idea of turning the record into a partial Wilburys reunited was both a blessing and a curse.
There wasn’t a good chance that Dylan would contribute to the album, but when Roy Orbison came down one day to jam, working on ‘Zombie Zoo’ probably wasn’t the best choice. The hook is definitely there, and hearing Orbison’s backing vocals in the mix would have practically made any song better, but Petty felt that he hadn’t used the opportunity like he should have when the record was finished.
After all, he had one of the greatest singers in the world, and forcing him to do backup on a mediocre song wasn’t Petty’s idea of a good time, saying, “Roy would drop in from time to time, drive up in his black Corvette. Yeah, like a black and red vintage Corvette. And he’d get out all dressed in black with red leather shoes. Red leather loafers on, you know. He just looked like a rock god. It seemed like a terrible waste. [Laughs] It’s like, what’s he doing singing backup?”
If Petty really wanted to be cheeky, though, he would have probably given Orbison his own part to sing in a different song. There’s no way to properly gauge what notes would have fit in Orbison’s register, but had the band decided to go in a different direction than using The Bangles on ‘Waiting for Tonight’, giving a verse or two to Orbison would have made for a chilling ending to the album.
Hindsight might be 20/20 in a lot of these situations, but chances are Petty was happy enough to have one of the greatest singers he had ever heard on one of his records. Many people would have been happy to have at least a little bit of that magic, but Petty being able to call him up whenever he wanted felt like holding a piece of musical gold in his hands.
