Tom Petty didn’t understand the power of his Wildflowers album when he was making it, and he never really did achieve peace with what he and many others believe is his greatest body of work.
In the culmination of a project Petty was intimately involved in before his unexpected death in late 2017, Wildflowers has been given the box set treatment. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that it was restored to its original glory, because Petty intended to release Wildflowers as a double album in 1994, but he was overruled by his record company to whittle it down to a single, 15 track disc clocking in at over 63 minutes.
Petty curated ten Wildflowers era cast-offs to create Wildflowers & All The Rest, along with multi-disc deluxe editions that include Petty’s surprisingly complete home demo recordings, live versions, and alternate studio takes. It’s essential listening for any fan of the original Wildflowers album.
Many of the songs are intensely personal, driven by the circumstances Petty was working through in the early 1990s. His marriage was falling apart, finally ending in a 1996 divorce. Petty’s 1999 release Echoes (his first full album of new material since Wildflowers) is often referred to as his ‘divorce’ album, but the artist himself believes it was Wildflowers. That may be one reason why he released Wildflowers as a solo album rather than a project featuring his longtime band, The Heartbreakers.
Viewed through that prism, Petty’s pain is obvious, reflected in the lyrics of songs like “Time To Move On,” “A Higher Place,” “Hard On Me,” and “Only A Broken Heart.” The title track takes on a whole new meaning if you imagine Petty singing the lyric to himself instead of someone else.
Aside from his maturation as a songwriter, Wildflowers also marked a change in Petty’s overall sound. The highly compressed sound favored by producer Jeff Lynne on Petty’s last two albums (solo release Full Moon Fever and Into The Great Wide Open, a laborious production that was not well received by The Heartbreakers and ultimately resulted in drummer Stan Lynch splitting with the band) was replaced by a warm, lush soundscape. Wildflowers was produced by Rick Rubin, who found a sweet spot between Lynne’s intense overdubbing technique and The Heartbreakers’ desire to record full live band takes.
Another key to Petty’s refreshed sound was the recruitment of drummer Steve Ferrone, who imbued an energetic new groove into Petty’s songs. Auditioned and engaged for Wildflowers, Ferrone ended up playing drums for The Heartbreakers for 22 years. The other key musicians were Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench on keyboards. Petty and Campbell played most of the bass.
Most of the songs on All The Rest have been heard before in one form or another. Four appeared on She’s The One, a soundtrack for a Jennifer Anniston movie released as a Heartbreakers album in 1995: “Climb That Hill,” “California,” “Hope You Never,” and “Hung Up and Overdue,” the latter featuring Ringo Starr on drums. “Somewhere Under Heaven” was released as a single in 2015, following a missed attempt at releasing a 20th anniversary edition of Wildflowers.
Of the new tracks, “Confusion Wheel” is the star, seemingly mating several song snippets into a cohesive unit. “Harry Green” is a tender, Dylan-esque ode to a loner who saved Petty from a redneck ass-kicking in high school. “Leave Virginia Alone” was recorded years ago by Rod Stewart, and it’s interesting to finally hear Petty’s take on his own song.
Rather than create a 25-track SuperWildflowers, Petty himself made the decision to create All The Rest as an addendum to the original album. He believed that Wildflowers was meant to be listened to from start to finish as one, and that modifying the classic sequence to include the outtakes would detract from the familiarity of the original 15 songs.
For an additional $10, Petty fans can access two more discs worth of bonus material: Fifteen of Petty’s home studio demos, including eight of the original fifteen Wildflowers tunes, four from All The Rest, and three unreleased gems. Disc 4 is comprised of fourteen live tracks from theWallflowers era, including the obligatory “It’s Good To Be King.” That tune demonstrates the versatility of Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert, as they break down and jam out a 5-minute song into a 12-minute epic.
For those with deep pockets, the Super Deluxe edition contains 16 studio outtakes from the Wildflowers sessions on a fifth CD for $150. The 9-LP vinyl version of that set runs $250. Alas, the $500 Ultra Deluxe 9-LP edition containing a fabric bag modeled after Petty’s oft-photographed poncho and other memorabilia has already sold out.
I was only a casual Tom Petty fan until Wildflowers came out. I thought the early material through the early 1980s was solid power pop. I gained respect for Petty when he released Southern Accents and tried to shake up his formula, and who couldn’t resist the ear candy of Full Moon Fever?
Wildflowers was something altogether different, sounding almost like the work of a different artist. Maybe it was the more serious subject matter of the songs, maybe it was the change in musical direction to a more sophisticated sound, but Wildflowers instantly resonated on a musical and emotional level.
Petty’s relationship with record companies was often troubled; he squared off against MCA in the late 1970s over album prices (he wanted to keep them down), and MCA tried to reject Full Moon Fever, which was ultimately destined to be Petty’s most commercially successful release. Wildflowers was Petty’s first release for Warner Brothers, and also his last record company dispute. It’s success (debut at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100) guaranteed him the freedom to dictate his own terms for the rest of his career. Wildflowers & All The Rest went in at Number 1 on the Billboard Rock Album Chart.
Far from just a pop star, Tom Petty developed into one of the greatest American songwriters of the 20th Century. Wildflowers, especially when the bonus material from All The Rest is included, is enduring proof of his genius.