Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - ”Southern Accents” (1985)

I bought this album sometime around 1990, when you found it very cheap, ”For Sale”, in the stores. For me there was only one reason to buy it - the song Don't Come Around Here No More, a song I had, since the album's release, thought was a really groovy song. And it also had a really druggy and psychedelic video that came with it that made me suspect that Tom Petty was an LSD user and that his music mainly belonged to the hippie genre, at least in 1985. I hadn't heard much of Tom Petty's other works and had no proper idea of who he was. I had only heard his solo album Full Moon Fever from 1989, it was released when I lived a year as an exchange student in the US and thus had MTV. The songs Free Fallin' and Running Down A Dream were played / shown frequently and especially Running Down A Dream had a psychedelic touch that confirmed Petty's hippie streak.

Therefore, I was initially a little disappointed in Southern Accents. Except Don't Come Around Here No More it wasn't much psychedelia or magic mushroom trips on the album. I found one other song on the record I liked and that was Spike. These two songs were played some on the turntable, but the other songs were not. And after a while, I got tired of my favorites so then the record became unplayed.

Of course it was my expectations that were unrealistic, rather than it was a bad album. I will honestly admit that I still think my two old favorites are best numbers on the album, but there are other nice songs too. The opening track Rebels is good and appeals to the inner rebel in me that is not seen very often, but it's there (I wear a bandana sometimes). I was born a rebel... Another song I like, and which stands out with its different sound, is Mary's New Car. The song Dog's On The Run is also pretty good.

 
Dave Stewart of Eurythmics co-wrote three songs on the album, including Don't You Come Around Here No More. Apparently there were some tensions within the band during the recording, partly because of Dave Stewart's contribution that cut out three other songs from the album, and thus the original concept became less clear. At one point Petty became so frustrated during the mixing of Rebels so he punched his fist into a wall and suffered serious fractures in his left hand. Fairly advanced surgery was required for this.

Overall, I think it's an OK album but the music isn't really to my taste. It's a little Bruce Springsteen over it - great songs, but the American rock sound is not really my thing, especially not with a southern touch that mainly comes from Petty's own voice, which is a real Country & Western voice, and the harmonies that are sometimes used. Some individual songs are good and Petty seems to be a pretty cool guy based on the interviews I've read with him, so I wish I could enjoy the album a little bit more. But from the albums I've heard with him (which is not many) I probably choose Full Moon Fever in favour of Southern Accents.

 
And I now realize that I haven't really mentioned the Heartbreakers, but instead treated Southern Accent as a Tom Petty solo album. But make no mistakes, even if Petty is the one who has written all the songs (with a little help here and there), it's not a solo album. The Heartbreakers consisted at the time of Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Stan Lynch and Howie Epstein.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Rebels 5:20
2. It Ain't Nothin' To Me 5:10
3. Don't Come Around Here No More 5:06
4. Southern Accents 4:42

Side B

1.Make It Better 4:17
2. Spike 3:32
3. Dogs On The Run 3:39
4. Mary's New Car 3:45
5. The Best Of Everything 3:59