Tom Petty's Southern Accents

Michael Washburn

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781501333477
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Mezzi di comunicazione e arti performative
• Subtopic: Musica rock

By 1985 Tom Petty had already obtained legendary status. He had fame. He had money. But he was restless, hoping to stretch his artistry beyond the confining format of songs like "The Waiting" and "Refugee." Petty's response to his restlessness was Southern Accents. Initially conceived as a concept album about the American South, Southern Accents 's marathon recording sessions were marred by aesthetic and narcotic excess. The result is a hodgepodge of classic rock songs mixed with nearly unlistenable 80s music. Then, while touring for the album, Petty made extensive use of the iconography of the American Confederacy, something he soon came to regret. Despite its artistic failure and public controversy, Southern Accents was a pivot point for Petty. Reeling from the defeat, Petty reimagined himself as deeply, almost mythically, Californian, obtaining his biggest success with Full Moon Fever. Michael Washburn explores the history of Southern Accents and how it sparked Petty's reinvention. Washburn also examines how the record both grew out of and reinforced enduring but flawed assumptions about Southern culture and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.

Notes

Introduction

1 George Brown Tindall, The Ethnic Southerners (Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1976), 21.

Down South

1 Tom Petty Interview with Terry Gross. “Tom Petty: The Fresh Air Interview: NPR.” Fresh Air from WHYY. National Public Radio, October 3, 2017. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=555302003

2 Warren Zanes, Petty: The Biography (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2016), 33.

3 Paul Zollo, Conversations with Tom Petty (New York: Omnibus Press, 2005), 34.

4 Gary Graff, “Tom Petty’s New Tales of the Old South.” Creem, October 1985.

5 David Hinckley, “Tom Petty Doesn’t Forget Southern Roots.” Ocala Star-Banner, July 19, 1987. Accessed via The Petty Archives, March 15, 2018. https://www.thepettyarchives.com/archives/newspapers/1980s/1987-07-19-ocalastarbanner

6 6 Graff, “Tom Petty’s New Tales.”

7 7 Robert Hilburn, “Tom Petty Breaks Down 10 of His Songs, Including Big Hits and Obsure Gems.” Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2002. Accessed September 1, 2018. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-tom-petty-songs-archive-20020315-story.html

8 8 Zanes, Petty, 181.

9 9 Jonathan Taylor, “Tom Petty: Good Ol’ Boy Making Music.” Chicago Tribune, June 22, 1985. Accessed via the Petty Archives, March 15, 2018. https://www.thepettyarchives.com/archives/newspapers/1980s/1985-06-22-chicagotribune

10 Graff, “Tom Petty’s New Tales.”

11 Howard Zinn, The Southern Mystique (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967).

12 Zollo, Conversations, 87.

13 Zanes, Petty, 188.

14 Graff, “Tom Petty’s New Tales.”

Who Did You Expect to Meet?

1 1 Zanes, Petty, 181.

2 2 Robert Hilburn, “Tom Petty Shakes Doldrums, Rocks On.” Pittsburgh Press, June 20, 1987, F1.

3 3 American Treasure prerelease liner notes provided to the author by Larry Jenkins.

4 4 Ibid.

5 5 Ibid.

6 6 Zanes, Petty, 185.

7 Hilburn, “Tom Petty Shakes Doldrums.”

8 Zollo, Conversations, 226.

9 Hilburn, “Tom Petty Shakes Doldrums.”

Southern Accents

1 Bud Scoppa, “Tom Petty: The Agony and the Ecstasy of an Obsessive Rock Artist.” Red Bank Daily Register (NJ), August 18, 1985, 5.

2 Nick Thomas, Tom Petty: An American Rock and Roll Story (Green, OH: Guardian Express Media, 2014), 123.

3 Michael Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture (New York: Vintage, 1991), 618.

4 W. Fitzhugh Brundage, The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2005), 2.

5 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Southern Accents, directed by Richard Shenkman (1985; MTV Networks, Inc). Retrieved from YouTube, November 20, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y23quIelnzw

Rebels

1 Christopher R. Weingartetn et al., “Tom Petty’s 50 Greatest Songs.” Rolling Stone, October 2, 2017. Accessed April 5, 2018. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/tom-pettys-50-greatest-songs-197807/free-fallin-197915/

2 Graff, “Tom Petty’s New Tales.”

3 Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night (New York: Dell, 1961), v.

4 Greil Marcus, Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music (New York: Plume, 2015), 98.

5 Marty Racine, “Petty, Cool Cus...