Searching for open ears, bands release eclectic mix
By Cary Hoover
Johnson County Community College Campus Ledger - Thursday, September 29, 1994
You Got Lucky, A Tribute to Tom Petty | Various Artists
The purpose of a tribute album is to do just that, pay tribute to a noteworthy musician by rendering positive interpretations of the artist's work. You Got Lucky just about does that.
Get lucky with Tom Petty tribue: Newer artists reinvent old Petty tracks for new compilation
By David Latimer
The Paisano - October 18, 1994
After the entertaining but decidedly tongue-in-cheek Kiss tribute last spring and coinciding with the release of a Carpenters tribute album, Backyard Records has released "You Got Lucky," a homage to a songwriter that legitimately deserves it -- Tom Petty.
"You Got Lucky: A Tribute to Tom Petty" is a terrific idea. What better way to create a buzz for a brand-new label full of underground bands than to latch on to an artist as well known as Petty?
Just looking at the band roster and the songs represented is a good start, as it includes some of Petty's more underappreciated material (there's only a couple of Petty's bigger hit singles) covered by bands from some of the country's noted musical breeding grounds (Seattle, Chicago, San Diego, Minneapolis, Cincinnati and Washington).
Drummer Stan Lynch leaves Tom Petty's band
By Bill DeYoung
Ocala Star-Banner - October 22, 1994
GAINESVILLE - After 19 years in the drummer's chair, Stan Lynch has left Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers -- the platinum-selling rock band that had its origins in Gainesville -- to work as an independent writer and producer.
"It feels strange," said Lynch, 39, "but I think it'll be a real good change for everybody." His last concert appearance with Petty was Oct. 2 in San Francisco.
The split with his longtime mates was amicable, Lynch said, and had been brewing for some time.
"Over time, people have such different desires, musically, and mine are becoming more apparent to me," Lynch said. "I've moved away from them as a person as well as a musician. I've moved apart from them."
Tom Petty Tribute Album is One Tribute Worth Listening To
The Stony Brook Statesman - Monday, October 24, 1994
WASHINGTON (CPS) -- Finally, a tribute.
After the entertaining but decidedly tongue-in-cheek Kiss tribute last spring and coinciding with the release of a Carpenters tribute album, Backyard Records has released You Got Lucky, a homage to a songwriter that legitimately deserves it -- Tom Petty.
You Got Lucky: A Tribute To Tom Petty is a terrific idea. What better way to create a buzz for a brand-new label full of underground bands, than to latch on to an artist as well known as Petty.
Just looking at the band roster and the songs represented is a good start, as it includes some of Petty's more under-appreciated material (there's only a couple of Petty's bigger hit singles) covered by bands from some of the country's noted musical breeding grounds (Seattle, Chicago, San Diego, Minneapolis, Cincinnati and Washington).
On Record: Keeping some hard promises
Review by Bill DeYoung
Gainesville Sun - October 28, 1994
WILDFLOWERS | Tom Petty -- Warner Brothers
This extraordinary album -- due in stores Tuesday -- could only come at this point in Petty's long career, when the pressure's off him to rock like a wildman, and he can write thoughtful, introspective words with what seems like conviction.
As always, the songs are about relationships, and the ebb and flow of love and life -- the title song reads like a sweet eulogy, while the closer, "Wake Up Time," is a plea for re-birth.
It's not that pensiveness is new to Petty; just that he's never been this clear-headed about it. "What would I give to start all over again/To clean up my mistakes," he sings in "Only a Broken Heart," and later he resolves "I'm so tired of being tired/Sure as night will follow day/Most things I worry about/Never happen anyway" ("Crawling Back to You").
"Wildflowers" takes a lot of chances -- lyrically, sonically, and musically -- and most of them work confidently. Rick Rubin's spare production (remember, he did "Mary Jane's Last Dance") is light years from the Jeff Lynne wall of sound that characterized "Full Moon Fever" and just about ruined "Into the Great Wide Open."
Rubin can take a tune with the patented Petty three-chord riff ("You Wreck Me") and make it sing like a brand new whistle. Even the slow, acoustic songs -- "Wildflowers" and the bluesy "Don't Fade On Me" -- benefit from Rubin's less-is-more approach. The album took more than a year to complete; apparently, simplicity is harder than overproduction.
Recordings: Petty's romantic 'Wildflowers' highlights growth
By Steve Morse
Ocala Star-Banner -- Friday, October 28, 1994
Tom Petty always borrowed from great influences -- the Byrds, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Solomon Burke, Del Shannon, the Rolling Stones. Sadly, Petty went off course in recent years, sinking into a lifestyle of Los Angeles lite, while making records that had an indulgent, hobbyist feel, rather than possessing any deep connection to rock 'n' roll.
Yet that process has been radically reversed, or amended, if you will, with "Wildflowers." It's a probing new album (due out Nov. 1) that represents a heartfelt recovery and displays his keenest songwriting in years. It should revive a critical respect that has been flagging.
Petty's main influences are again front and center -- Dylan, the Byrds and John Lennon, in particular -- but the main different lies in his willingness to take chances, to expand his emotional reach and explore a more raw, undoctored sound. His last two records with producer Jeff Lynne were safe, sugary and sanitized, but "Wildflowers" exudes real sweat and blood. It's the work of an artist confronting adulthood with eyes wide open, with no attempt to play games.
Petty has never before offered so broad a spectrum of sound. There are 15 songs bridging psychedelic guitar rock, jingly jangly pop, acoustic-bluegrassy folk and reflective, Lennon-like ballads. It's his first record with producer Rick Rubin -- and one hopes there will be more. Rubin has been on a roll, having produced the Stones' "Voodoo Lounge" and Mick Jagger's underrated solo disc, "Wandering Spirit." He gets to the soul of his clients -- and Petty is no exception.
Petty says he's happy with his first love
Ocala Star-Banner - Saturday, October 29, 1994
Tom Petty is one rocker who hasn't had much trouble staying true to his first love. "Jane and I had a brief separation at one point," the rocker notes. "But not counting on that, we're coming on 20 years... She's great, and she's still my friend and still pretty as I can find out there."
Recordings
By Rick Mitchell
Houston Chronicle - Sunday, October 30, 1994
Wildflowers | Tom Petty | Warner Bros. | ★★★★
Wildflowers is Tom Petty's second solo album, although the distinction between his solo projects and group albums is merely a matter of degree.
Due out Tuesday, Wildflowers was produced by Rick Rubin with Petty and guitarist/co-producer Mike Campbell. Keyboardist Benmont Tench and bassist Howie Epstein from Petty's Heartbreakers also appear on the album, along with drummer Steve Ferrone and percussionist Lenny Castro.
Of course, Petty has always written and sung all the material for the Heartbreakers. But he seems to take more stylistic chances working under his own name. Wildflowers is the most ambitious album of his career, eclipsing his first solo album, 1989's Full Moon Fever.
RECORD RACK: TOM PETTY | "Wildflowers" | Warner Bros. | ★★★
By Chris Willman
The Los Angeles Times - October 30, 1994
A bit of a wildflower himself, Petty has rerooted himself away from the 12-string roots-rock he staked his career on. This marks his third straight album in a more stark and somber--yet occasionally more mirthful--mode (although Rick Rubin replaces Jeff Lynne as co-producer). Petty's adventuresome recent feel is less Byrds, more whippoorwill.
"Wildflowers" is inconsistent, and doesn't offer any new songs that rank with Petty's greatest. Yet the mixture he's going for here has such an interesting, subtle kind of resonance you may not bemoan the lack of instant anthems. His trademark lately seems an odd combo of cool whimsy and sadness--so that while the kids sing along with the "Let's roll another joint" chorus of "You Don't Know How It Feels," it's the "I've got a little space to fill" throwaway line that seems more the point. And while "It's Good to Be King" may have been suggested by Mel Brooks, those doleful Michael Kamen strings that end it tell us it's tough to be king or just a regal wanna-be.
The 15 tracks are heavy on soothingly lamentful ballads, though enough of Petty's usual band turns up on this "solo" album to make "You Wreck Me" a typically propulsive Heartbreakers rocker and "Honey Bee" buzz like Beatlesque metal.