In previous columns, I’ve written a fair share about my growth as a music fan. It is my favorite Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers) album, the one with which I have compared each successive album. It may bear only Petty’s name, but the other Heartbreakers guested throughout the album. To this day, it is one of my favorite collections of songs (and it doesn’t hurt anything to know that “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” was recorded during the “Wildflowers” sessions). And as satisfying as the greatest hits record is (and it is an excellent career overview with more than a dozen hits), “Wildflowers” towers heads and tails above it to my eyes (and ears). And how about that Kim Basinger video? Creepy and cool at the same time, right? And the harmonica and boom-boom-thwack beat of “How It Feels” grab the ear so easily that you don’t even have to know the words to feel drawn in to the song. You almost feel like you’re there with MJ on that Indiana night. There was something itchy about “Mary Jane,” that guitar solo gets under the skin. But those songs didn’t fill me with a need to go out and buy the music ASAP. “American Girl” was on the radio regularly. Sure, I’d heard (and enjoyed) earlier hits. I don’t think I can emphasize that enough, or exaggerate it. What got me into Petty (and the Heartbreakers)? Two songs: “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” and “You Don’t Know How It Feels.” This one-two punch of songs knocked me out. I also owned a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers greatest hits compilation that I bought around the same time. In fact, “Wildflowers” was the first new Petty album I bought. I first became a Petty fan around the time of the “Wildflowers album,” in 1994.
Sung to an acoustic guitar, Tom Petty opened his solo album “Wildflowers” with those lyrics, which belong to the song of the same name.īuoyant, comforting and completely charming, the opening track sets the scene for an ambitious, sprawling masterwork that I believe to be Petty’s ultimate achievement. “You belong among the wildflowers, you belong in a boat out at sea / sail away, kill off the hours You belong somewhere you feel free.” It saw release as a B-side to “You Don’t Know How It Feels.” “Girl on LSD” was held from the album.Guest musicians on the album include Ringo Starr (the Beatles) and Carl Wilson (the Beach Boys).Drummer Steve Ferrone plays on ‘Wildflowers,’ and joined the band after the album.Everything was just right there, off the top of my head. “Then sat back and went, ‘Wow, what did I just do?’ And I listened to it. When the song came to its seemingly natural conclusion he reached over his guitar and clicked the stop button. In the next three minutes, Petty waxed poetic about love and freedom, heart and home while the reels on his recorder spun around in a steady rotation. “I swear to God it’s an absolute ad-lib from the word ‘go,’” he told author Paul Zollo for his book Conversations With Tom Petty. As the jaunty acoustic guitar in his hands filled the room with a capoed, sonorous chime, he opened his mouth and started to sing. So, he hit the big red record button on the tape machine, took a deep breath and began to strum. didn’t have any lyrics written down to guide him, just a simple three-chord progression and some vague visions of the Santa Barbara countryside in all its lush, colorful springtime splendor. The story of “Wildflowers” is documented in The Ringer as follows:
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