Impulse: Daydreams lead to worldwide fame for the Gainesville Rocker
By Dave Luhrssen
The Milwaukee Journal - Friday, April 5, 1985
A toothy, unpopular teenager named Tom Petty from the Gainesville (Fla.) high school he was soon to leave forever. Petty spent much of his time listening to music of the Byrds, CCR and others.
A few years later, Petty was on the corner of Sunseat and LaBrea in Los Angeles, feeding times to a pay phone, running his finger down the Yellow Pages that listed recording companies. Incredibly, the young man who couldn't keep the bangs of his yellow hair from falling into his eyes got lucky. His stab into the dark netted a recording contract.
Although the road from his initial inking with Shelter Records and his 1976 debut on wax with the Heartbreakers was pitted with enough problems to fill a two-hour film, Petty persevered. In those years, punk-rock was defined as music made by practically anyone white and under 25, so Petty found himself double-billed with Blondie and Elvis Costello. Despite the smirk he wore in place of a smile, Petty felt no ties to the new wave, and was quoted as saying "call me a punk and I'll cut you." Coming from a man who bragged of renegotiating a contract by pulling a switchblade in a corporate boardroom, this was no idle threat.
Singles: Tom Petty Comes Around With An Unlikely New Sound
By Len Righi
The Morning Call - April 6, 1985
Work, work, work to find an identifiable trademark sound and once you have it, milk it until the record-buying public gets tired of it.
That's the tried-and-true formula uncounted bands have used to pursue The Unholy Grail of pop music, and judging by the latest crop of singles, formula hasn't lost its potency.
But every once in a while, along comes someone willing to try something a little unexpected, and the most recent example is Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. The band's new single, "Don't Come Around Here No More" (MCA), is unquestionably an odd song. It was co-written by Petty with an unlikely partner, the industrious Dave Stewart, the Eurythmic who isn't Annie Lennox. (Stewart has been full of surprises lately; recently he worked on The Ramones' "Howling at the Moon" single.)
The Petty-Stewart collaboration features sitar (played by Stewart), synths, and what sounds like "Eleanor Rigby"-style strings, a startling departure for the guitar-drums-bass-organ rock 'n' roll Petty usually does (and does so well).
Review: Petty album satisfying
By Michael Lawson
Regina Leader-Post - April 6, 1985
The new album from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers may not be worth breaking a band over -- as Petty is reported to have done in a fit of pique during a particularly frustating recording session. But if the singer-songwriter never lifted pen or guitar again, Petty will have put the stamp on his career with Southern Accents (MCA Records).
His first release since 1982's Long After Dark, and infinitely more satisfying, Accents has Petty concerning himself less with the musical mainstream and more with stylistic divergence. The result is a song collection that's uneven on the surface but surprisingly appealing.
From track to track his vocals and song styles shift, borrowing liberally from other rock notables, including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and Bruce Springsteen -- the cut Dogs On the Run, in fact, has elements of all three.
But Petty's writing has never been stronger, nor more varied. From a commercial standpoint, his safest tunes, Rebels and Make It Better (Forget About Me), both pack considerable appeal. However, the quirky stuff accounts for the album's real value.
Sounds of Music: Songwriter tries different sounds
By Ken Tucker
Beaver County Times - April 7, 1985
Tom Petty has always been a hard-rocker caught in a bind.
On one hand, he and his band, the Heartbreakers, are committed to making the sort of raucous, fast rock-'n'-roll that prides itself on its unpretentiousness and immediate accessibility. On the other hand, Petty is a thoughtful fellow who, at his best, finds fresh details to illuminate such pervading rock themes as romantic betrayal, regret and celebration.
Tom Petty
By Richard Defendorf
Orlando Sentinel - April 7, 1985
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Southern Accents (MCA-5486): Erase whatever preconceptions you've been harboring about this band. Petty has been doing some shopping during the two years he's been off the tour circuit (and recovering from a hand injury) and the stuff he brings home doesn't always resemble the Byrds-rock goodies of the Heartbreakers' past.
Though it contains some of Petty's best lyrics and most adventuresome work, Accents is diffuse and less well-realized than Damn the Torpedoes, Hard Promises and Long After Dark. Accordingly, Southern Accents might not capture as many mainstream hearts as its predecessors.
Editor's Note: This review leaves me wondering if the guy even actually listened to the album beyond "Don't Come Around Here No More."
On Record
By Carson Hoag
Cardinal Points - April 11, 1985
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS - "Southern Accents" (MCA Records)
The sound of five pairs of feet jumping up and down in their own puddle of urine. Don't get me wrong; I'm dumping on these folks just because they happen to be commercial, but this vinyl slab is a real nosedive. (Anyone who remembers the brash, trail blazing "Damn the Torpedoes" should agree.) Cuts like "Rebels" and "The Best of Everything" make one wonder why dribble like this is ever committed to plastic. "Don't Come Around Here No More" sounds like the Ohio Express overdosed on Cosmic Candy. Save your money and go buy some Mr. T cereal.
Records: Tom Petty puts Dixie in his rock
By Allen Hogg
The Daily Iowan - Thursday, April 18, 1985
Southern Accents | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | MCA
One wouldn't expect Tom Petty to be the one to bring back Southern rock. Although he is a Floridian, Petty has always been more associated with the Springsteen-Seger style than with the sound such 1970s bands as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers rode to fame.
But on his new album, Southern Accents, Petty seems determined to put Dixie back on the rock 'n' roll map. While he doesn't abandon the Springsteen-Seger line completely, from the title on down he makes it clear his roots are south of the Mason-Dixon line.
This is not insignificant either, because thus far the 1980s have not been kind to the roots-conscious, no-frills boogie sound of Southern rock. With the exception of that little old band from Texas, Z.Z. Top (which depended on MTV for its resurgence), the only Southern bands to hit it really big in the rock world this decade have gone the route of .38 Special and washed the South out of their sound.
Extra Notes: Petty leads mainstream rock revival
By Paul Speelman
The Age - Thursday, April 18, 1985
There are still those who place him among the New Wavers whole former 'Rolling Stone' editor Dave Marsh puts him up there alongside Springsteen and Bob Seger as one of the great American mainstream rockers.
Marsh is right, of course, but that diversity of opinions only goes to show what an extraordinary sponge for influences Tom Petty has been since he and his Heartbreakers made their record debut in 1976.
And if the classic 1979 Damn the Torpedoes or its 1981 follow-up Hard Promises has not convinced the cynics, let me tell you that Southern Accents (MCA 5486-1, through WEA), Petty and the Heartbreakers' sixth album and their first since 1982, will prove once and for all what a classy band this is.
What makes Accents such a fascinating album is that not only does Petty put the country back into his brand of country-rock with a vengeance, he also parades most of his influences for all to see and hear.
Petty Flaws
By Bruce Nixon
Sarasota Herald-Tribune - April 18, 1985
Of all the heavyweight arena rockers who emerged in the late '70s, Tom Petty has been the most consistently overpraised and overrated. His songs display craft rather than art, and with his whiny vocals and monochromatic performances, he generally falls short of expectations.
Though he is often placed in their company, Petty lacks the penetrating vision of a Bruce Springsteen, the grand personal style of a Bob Seger and even the passionate commitment of a John Cougar Mellencamp.
"Southern Accents," (MCA), touted as a kind of thematic effort dealing with Southern fulture -- Petty comes from Central Florida -- is a solid, respectable record that is pretty typical of much of Petty's work.
The Heartbreakers, one of the tightest, most coherent support units in mainstream rock these days, are one of the singer's greatest assets. As a songwriter, though, Petty sounds deliberate, thought-out and not especially insightful.
There are song good songs here, certainly, but it is wiser, perhaps, to take Petty's work at face value -- decent, well-crafted mainstream American rock that aspires to (and attains) little beyond the middle line.