‘Yer So Bad’: How Tom Petty parodied the 1980s
Most artists that had been around as long as Tom Petty had had no time for the indulgent side of the 1980s. Some knew how to play the game, but considering the heartland rocker always played by his own rules, there was no chance that he was going to resculpt himself as an MTV star the minute that the biggest radio station became the television. Petty was still the same biting lyricist he had always been, and right as the decade closed things out, he offered up one bit of commentary on everyone getting greedier by the minute.
But considering where Petty was during Full Moon Fever, he didn’t seem to have much to complain about, either. He had come off of playing with some of his childhood heroes in the Traveling Wilburys, and when he eventually decided to make a solo album with Jeff Lynne, tunes like ‘Free Fallin’ or ‘I Won’t Back Down’ couldn’t really be described as intellectual commentaries on the world by any stretch.
Then again, it’s not like Petty was blind to the greedy side of rock and roll. Outside of using tunes like ‘You Got Lucky’ as vehicles for synthesisers, albums like Southern Accents made him see the ugly side of fame up close and personal, whether that meant people getting strung out on cocaine or hangers-on spending hours in the studio with no good reason to be there.
So when making his solo album, Petty wanted to make things a bit more serious, saying, “I wanted this album to have a sense of humour. But I wanted it to be where the humour illuminated some important things. That was the idea.” Petty had been no stranger to making funny songs throughout his career, but ‘Yer So Bad’ is as close to black humour as he ever got during his prime.
Although Echo might have more grim subject matter, hearing him talk about the yuppie generation of the 1980s and how everyone is concerned about money is both hilarious and tragic at the same time. From tales of his sister marrying for money and taking him for all he’s worth to her old flame attempting to kill himself, this was Petty telling everyone that no one really cared about love if they weren’t getting paid by the end of things.
Even when he gets to the chorus, it’s not like he’s completely comfortable with his relationship, either. He might say his lover is there to save him from the best of times, but considering how bad he says she is, who’s to say whether Petty will truly be saved or end up falling on his ass like the countless other saps that he sang about in the verses.
Despite being one of the catchiest tunes on Full Moon Fever, it also might have been the reason why Petty eventually had to answer to his label. Because if you look at what happens when record executives get money-hungry, it’s a wonder whether they rejected this album due to its lack of hooks or that this song specifically hit a little too close to home for the suits going through the same issues Petty was talking about.
Still, ‘Yer So Bad’ remains one of Petty’s best black-comedy affairs and reminds everyone how dark things can get when you prioritise status over love. But wait a minute. A song about how love is dead and how people only want to serve themselves instead of having some human connection? Are we sure that Andre 3000 wasn’t taking notes here when he wrote ‘Hey Ya’?
