The song Tom Petty wrote to poke fun at the 1980s
By the latter part of the 1980s, Tom Petty was on the prowl for something new. His first solo debut, Full Moon Fever, would see the singer enjoy some of the biggest hits of his entire career and a recording process that would eventually become one of the most cherished highlights of his personal life.
The arrival of Full Moon Fever typically signified a departure in Petty’s work, especially when compared to the material he crafted with The Heartbreakers. His music appeared considerably more stripped-down, offering an endearingly acoustic sound while maintaining his knack for crafting memorable hooks and relatable lyrics.
This was particularly interesting considering the fact that most of The Heartbreakers contributed to the recording of Full Moon Fever — with enlisted help from Jeff Lynne, Petty’s former Traveling Wilburys bandmate and co-founder of Electric Light Orchestra. When discussing the initial stages with Rolling Stone, Lynne recalls the way each song rolled out with such ease.
He said: “I met Tom in England, and then I saw him again at some streetlight in Los Angeles. He said, ‘Jeff, pull over.’ I did, and he said, ‘I just listened to George’s album. What about coming over and writing some tunes together?’ I said, ‘I’d love to.'”
Continuing, he added: “Probably the second song we wrote was ‘Free Fallin’. I got the chords to it, and we both fleshed out the chorus,” Lynne claimed. “It was like ‘Evil Woman’ in that we got a repetitive chord sequence, and then the melody turns into a chorus. Everyone who heard it knew it was a hit, and the next song we did was ‘I Won’t Back Down’.”
Petty concluded the decade with ‘Yer So Bad’, a track that humorously critiques the era’s excesses. Within the song’s narrative, Petty depicts his sister marrying a wealthy man and takes his money after their divorce, leaving him devastated and emotionally scarred. This anecdote adds a cathartic touch of wit and satire to the record.
While creating the album, Lynne and Petty were also busy focussing their collaborative efforts across multiple musical endeavours during this period. Nonetheless, Petty wanted the album to stand apart from his other projects. “I wanted this album to have a sense of humor,” Petty told BAM. “But I wanted it to be where the humour illuminated some important things. That was the idea.”
