‘A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)’: 45 years on from the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers hit
Back in 1981, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released ‘A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)’ to the world, a single that failed to set the charts alight but would stand as one of the Florida songwriter’s most celebrated works.
Across three albums, Petty had been gaining momentum with his rootsy meld of a little new wave spike and power pop stir that made total sense in the late 1970s rock scene while also evoking music’s yesteryear spirit. From 1977’s eponymous debut, a blue-collar grab glowed from Petty’s lyrical pen, bottling universal themes from the dirt road and explored in a conversational, narrative style that won him a dedicated fan base.
Their first album of the 1980s would attest to Petty’s reverence for his fans. Hard Promises’ release date was delayed due to Petty and the band arguing with MCA Records over their LP’s “superstar pricing”, adding an extra dollar as they’d done for Steely Dan and the recent Xanadu soundtrack due to their supposed big-name value. In a dispute that would be remembered by fans, Petty eventually won out against the industry bigwigs and finally let loose the much-awaited Hard Promises record in May 1981.
Lead single ‘The Waiting’ would score a top 20, but follow-up ‘A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)’ would flash Petty’s emerging sophistication as a songwriter. Previously, cuts like ‘Refugee’ or ‘I Need to Know’ would burn with the old Petty defiance that turned British heads before America’s chart catch-up, but Hard Promises’ second single saw a chink in the lyrical armour, cutting a new dimension of vulnerability to The Heartbreakers’ gusty songbook.
‘A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)’ doesn’t waste its time. From the first second, a dramatic whirlwind of Mike Campbell’s soaring guitar howls and driving keys from Benmont Tench ensures total arrest of the senses.
Countering such passionate tundra is old Stax bassist Donald Dunn. Handling the track’s drops into terse, tense-ridden R&B, such veteran credentials imbue a soulful air to Petty’s cinematic snapshot, as well as leaving the frontman starstruck due to the former’s glittering session CV, boasting collaborations with Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, Muddy Waters, and his day job with Booker T & the MGs.
But it’s the lyrics where ‘A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)’ shines the most. “She laughed in my face, told me good-bye / Said ‘Don’t think about it, you can go crazy / Anything can happen, anything can end / Don’t try to fight it, don’t try to save me’,” Petty croons in the opening verse.
In four lines, he’s already bottled heartbreak and all the devastation that comes with it, all pride and stoicism shifted aside to unveil relationship loss in all its painful and knotty upend. But the killer line swoops in just as Campbell and Tench weave their storm clouds: “She’s a woman in love, but it’s not me”.
‘A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)’ would see life as a single in June 1981, but only peaked at 79 on the Billboard Hot 100 due to the towering success of Stevie Nicks’ ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, a number-three hit written by Petty and featuring the Heartbreakers on the record. But time would reveal Hard Promises’ second single’s wounded power, a pained bellow of a heartland stomper that marked the arrival of an Americana songwriter.
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