Records: 'Southern Accents' translates into winner for Tom Petty
By Pete Bishop
The Pittsburgh Press - Sunday, May 12, 1985
The inspiration for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Southern Accents" (MCA-5486) was their last tour, which included a lot of dates below the Mason-Dixon Line.
"I started feeling real Southern again," said Florida native Petty, "so I started thinking about using various Southern musics and building the album around a Southern theme."
But "Southern Accents" is not, strictly speaking, a theme or concept album like The Who's "Tommy," Kiss's "Music from 'The Elder'," or Pink Floyd's "The Wall" because it has no story line.
There are indeed some Southern references in the lyrics, such as "Even before my father's father they called us all rebels while they burned our cornfields and left our cities level. I can still feel the eyes of those blue-bellied devils" and "Now that drunk tank in Atlanta's just a motel room to me. Think I might go work Orlando if them orange groves don't freeze."
And there is a protagonist who pops up in most songs. He's a clod, a loser who wallows in his woes and never fights back -- on "Rebels," all he needs is a "Kick Me" sign on his back -- but no geographical area has a monopoly on sad sacks, and Petty's not known for writing happy songs to begin with.
Petty pleasures
By Kannan Chandran
The Straits Times - May 12, 1985
Southern Accents | Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (MCA)
Petty's lazy drawl is played off against strong melody lines to offer the listener a totally balanced sound on this album. It's laid-back comfort versus high-energy zip.
Petty, who suffered a broken hand while doing this album, is in fine form. The music is full, yet not overrun by instruments. Bass, guitar, drums and horns combine to give a rich, wholesome rock sound that remains fresh after repeated listenings.
The familiar twanging guitar still sets the tone, while subtle shifts in tempo and feel leave room for creativity within the songs.
Don't Come Around Here No More, for example, displays Petty's willingness to innovate -- he even has a sitar and cello on this time.
Apparently Petty was so overcome by the music during the recording session that he slammed his hand against the wall. He broke several small bones and it is doubtful whether he'll play the guitar again.
Editor's Note: It's not every writer who can manage to misspell three out of five of the Heartbreakers' names!
Tom Petty hot, heavy "Long After Dark"
By Scott Johnson
East Los Angeles College Campus News - May 15, 1985
Tom Petty's latest and sixth album "Southern Accents" clearly shows Petty and the Heartbreakers to be still in top form with an album that contains the same excellent lyrics but also shows Petty creativity with three songs co-produced by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, which added a new dimension to Petty's sound.
In a recent interview with L.A. Times music critic Robert Hilburn (March 31, 1985), Petty said that after completing the "Long after Dark" tour in 1983 felt burned out and needed some time off before recording the next album.
While the rest of the Heartbreakers worked on other projects, Petty returned to his boyhood home of Gainesville, Florida. When it came time to search for writing ideas for "Southern Accents," he was drawn back to his boyhood ideas and traditions of the southern part of the United States which he was exposed to when growing up.
Read more: East Los Angeles College Campus News - May 15, 1985
Petty still stuck in wrong gear
By Patrick Ercolano
The Telegraph-Herald - May 17, 1985
Something about Tom Petty's music suggests a car traveling 30 miles per hour in second year. It's going forward all right, and yet it's straining to shift up and really get moving. Listening to Petty can be such a frustrating and, finally, annoying experience that it almost makes you want to change the turntable speed to 45 RPM, anything to help the guy go as fast as he should.
Petty and his four-man back-up, the Heartbreakers, have enjoyed the respect of both the public and critics for nearly a decade. And why not, since the boys specialize in a respectable kind of rock? It's difficult to knock such tunes as "American Girl," "Don't Do Me Like That," "Refugee" and "The Waiting." Then again, they lack the sort of spit and fire that would earn them admittance to the pantheon of all-time rock classics.
"Southern Accents" (MCA, MCA-5486), the new album by Petty and company, deserves credit for the way Petty tries some new ideas (new for him, anyway), partly breaking from the formula he established with the popular "Damn the Torpedoes!" LP of 1979. He tries, but doesn't always succeed.
Live and on Record: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Southern Cross-Up
By M. Howell
The Boston Phoenix - May 21, 1985
Hard times have taken their toll on Tom Petty's hard promises. His first record label went south on him, and even "Breakdown" couldn't break him out. His new Southern Accents (MCA) suffered a long delay after Petty threw a punch, in frustration, at a rough mix of the album and shattered his right hand. The Heartbreakers' debut swaggered, and their middle LPs (particularly Damn the Torpedoes) were defiant; Southern Accents is steeped in the sadness of lost opportunities.
Off the Record: Lone Justice masterfully blends country and rock on debut album
By Jon Marlowe
The Miami News - Thursday, May 23, 1985
The running tonsorial joke on Tom Petty from Day 1 has been this: The Gainesville boy's biggest desire in life is to look like he stepped off the Byrds' 1966 "Turn, Turn, Turn" album cover -- long, straight, baby-fine hair; sideburns; lots of fringe, beads, vests, jeans and suede books. Cowboy meets Indian meets rock 'n' roll -- and which one wins depends strictly on your point of fashion.
As the years went by, hair, shirts, studs, leather and headbands came into shattered, tattered, shredded vogue. Yet there was good ol' T.P., still standing up there on stage thinking that mousse was some kind of wild animal.
Yet, if you hold onto something long enough, what goes around comes around, and all of a sudden there are 1,001 young mans trying to look and sound exactly like T.P. and/or his country-rock heroes: the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Poco and Gram Parsons.
The Waiting Is Over For Petty's Album
By Jay Fry
The Phillipian - June 2, 1985
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | Southern Accents
It's been a long while since Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers last hit the music scene with 1982's Long After Dark, but the wait is over. Southern Accents, strengthened by MTV favorite "Don't Come Around Here No More," is surging steadily up the charts. Some long-time fans were more than a little distressed when "Don't Come Around Here No More" hit the radio. Petty's collaboration with Eurythmic Dave Stewart, the moody twanging of the sitar which opens the song, the bizarre and rather stupid video that accompanied it, all seemed far removed from the days of "Breakdown," "Listen To Her Heart" and "Refugee."
Petty, band, play rock on hotel's roof
By Merle Ginsberg
Youngstown Vindicator - June 14, 1985
The folks in St. Petersburg, Fla., got lucky when Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers started getting down up on the roof of the Don Ce Sar hotel one sunny afternoon.
It seems Petty and the band, on a little pre-tour break, decided to have a little fun and re-create that famous scene from the Beatles film "Let It Be." Tom hadn't played with the band since he smashed his hand last fall, so a little rehearsing was in order. They lugged their equipment to the roof and played a half-hour of neo-psychedelic Southern rock, Petty style. An Orlando TV station managed to capture some footage via helicopter, and the crowd from a nearby beach gave the rooftop rebels a standing ovation.
The impromptu performance ended abruptly, however, when the local police politely asked them not to come around there any more (at least not without a permit). The band has since adopted a more down-to-earth approach. They hit the road for their Southern Accents tour, which will continue all summer long.
Petty, Heartbreakers 'Fresh' for SPAC show
By Michael Hochanadel
Schenectady Gazette - Saturday, June 15, 1985
"The drummer is the heartbeat," said Stan Lynch is a recent phone interview talking of his role as drummer in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
"We've got a singer (Petty) who writes great songs and has this star quality about him. I make a common denominator of rhythm, the beat. I set up the audience, I make sure they get it."
The SPAC audience has a chance to "get it" Sunday, when Petty and the Heartbreakers return for their first visit since 1981.
These days, "it" is music from Petty's "Southern Accents" album (MCA), songs about the band's Florida homeland.