Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers | Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) | MCA
Review by Brian Jarvinen
The Michigan Daily - May 29, 1987
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers make the business of putting out hit singles look easy. Their new album continues the tend with six or seven cuts that are strong enough to enter the singles chart. The strength of the song rests on the playing and arranging of the Heartbreakers, who play songs that sound almost as dense as Peter Gabriel's hits, without using a lot of electronic studio effects.
Rock stars are now rolling out some serious messages
By Steve Morse
The Pittsburgh Press - May 30, 1987
Another songwriter adding depth to his music is Tom Petty. Ten years ago, the Florida native was consumed by romantic pop, witness his first hit, "American Girl." But his latest album, "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)," fnds his band, the Heartbreakers, delving into more topical issues. Their current radio hit, "Jammin' Me," is an angry anthem. Petty spits out such verses as "Take back Iranian torture ... Take back El Salvador/Take back that country club/They're tryin' to build outside my door."
Pure rock 'n' roll
By Marty Racine
Houston Chronicle - Monday, June 1, 1987
Petty and rest of 'caravan' get down to basics.
At last...
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, the Georgia Satellites and the Del Fuegos were a reminder Saturday night of The Summit's potential excellence in staging rock concerts.
Provocative, musically resplendent shows at the Big House on the Southwest Freeway have been difficult to come by in recent months, most of them saddled by too many decibels, inaudible vocals, cliche-ridden posturing and superfluous visual choreography - all the cartoonish excesses arena rock ultimately encourages.
But these three American bands, making their fourth stop on their lengthy "Rock 'n' Roll Caravan" summer tour, all did their part in restoring the purity of sound back into rock 'n' roll extravaganza.
"Jammin' Me," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
By Rick Shefchik
Youngstown Vindicator - June 1, 1987
I like the topical, free-association quality of the lyrics Tom Petty and Bob Dylan came up with for this song. As in more spontaneous days gone by, the song is a slice of 1987 that doesn't have one eye peeled for lawsuits, cover versions of potential interpretion by the "Solid Gold Dancers."
Platter Chatter: New Tunes From Petty
By Fred Freeman
Oswego Palladium - June 2, 1987
"Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" -- Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. MCA. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers consist of Petty, guitar and vocals, Mike Campbell, lead guitar, Benmont Tench, keyboards, Stan Lynch, drums, and Howie Epstein, bass guitar and vocals. The credits on this new album bear the following statement: "All instruments and voices by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers." The album may be no more than those words imply, but it's certainly no less. In fact, this is quite clearly the strongest work yet from what has been variously described as a "never-fail" band, a deceptively strong and cohesive unit with the hair-trigger sensitivity of a land mine. (Allana Nash in Stereo Review). Songs include "My Life Your World," "All Mixed Up," "Think About Me," and "The Damage You've Done."
Record Review: Veteran rockers Adams and Petty change direction despite criticism
By Jerry Spangler
The Deseret News - June 5, 1987
When a traditional Top-40 pop-rocker shifts gears and suddenly starts offering fans a little more than just a good time, there's bound to be some resentment.
A lot of people are unwilling to accept the change. They either deny the change has occurred or they criticize the change as a temporary abandonment of the good ol' music.
You hear a lot of those criticisms in connection with new albums by Bryan Adams and Tom Petty. But the bottom line with both albums is that these veteran rockers have opened the doors to the kind of professional greatness that comes through quality music, not the quantity of hits.
Petty Puts Focus On Social Ills
By Robert Hilburn
The Los Angeles Times - June 8, 1987
Tom Petty is a classic American rocker who used to supplement his own songs in concert with party-minded numbers by Chuck Berry and other early rock or R&B figures.
On Saturday night at the Pacific Amphitheatre, he instead spotlighted "For What It's Worth," the Buffalo Springfield's memorable 1967 reaction to repressive authority.
He and the Heartbreakers' version was darkly poignant, but in no way merely nostalgic. There was an anger and disconsolation in Petty's voice that seemed directed entirely at today's unsettled--and unsettling--social agenda.
Do you think he and the band--who open a four-night stand tonight at the Universal Amphitheatre--were trying to tell us something?
Absolutely.
Heartbreakers have universal appeal
By Marilyn Martinez
The Daily Sundial - Thursday, June 11, 1987
Petty opens at Amphitheatre
Even though it was a Monday and nearly midnight, after two hours of polished, inspired blues-tempered rock from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the audience still wanted more on the opening night of his four-night stint at the Universal Amphitheatre.
Petty, whose new album "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" signals a return to the straight-forward rock of his "Damn the Torpedoes" album (1980), played songs from most of his eight albums including the ever-popular older songs like "Breakdown" and "American Girl" as well as new songs "Runaway Train" and "Jammin' Me."
Although Petty may have returned to flesh and bones rock, it's rock that is less introspective and more socially conscious. "My Life, Your World" was written after Petty saw the mid-air collision of two planes over Cerritos and the surfing riots of Huntington Beach on television. He waned to let the audience in on his newfound voice.
"I feel a little crazy tonight," Petty said, dressed in Levi's, a black vest and blazer.
Petty begins tour
By Mary Campbell
The Daily Collegian - Tuesday, June 16, 1987
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' eagerly anticipated "Rock 'n' Roll Caravan '87" is rolling across America, and "Jammin' Me," one of the summertime singles from their new album, is climbing the chart.
The MCA album, "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)," was No. 16 with a bullet -- which means it was climbing -- on the June 6 best-selling chart. "Jammin' Me" was No. 33 with a bullet on the singles chart. They cut the album in Los Angeles during a month off from touring with Bob Dylan and did it quicker and in a more freewheeling way than they usually do.
There has been speculation that Dylan may have been responsible for the speed and the style. Petty offers a different reason. "I think the band just hit a moment," Petty said. "We did songs that didn't get on the album, too. We're smart enough to know if the songs are coming, don't leave. You don't hit a creative well every year. I'm real happy with this album. I think it sums us up really well.
"Bob (Dylan) came over to hear the record, and Mike Campbell and I wrote two songs with him, 'Jammin' Me' and 'I Got My Mind Made Up.' That wound up on his last album."