Full Moon Fever--Tom Petty Has a Few Friends Over to Play

Over the years, Tom Petty has earned his bones by pumping out album after album of solid pop music, based on catchy melodies, disarming hooks, and a musical texture supplied by those jingly-jangly electric guitars. If you've listened to a lot of his work, which was variously with the Heartbreakers, The Traveling Wilburys, and of course, solo, you can recognize his influences quite easily. Petty loved the music of the fifties masters, and the British invasion had a big impact on him, as evidenced by the traces of The Beatles, The Seekers, and The Hollies that you hear in his music. American groups like The Byrds and their pure folk predecessors (Bob Dylan, Pete Seegar, Woody Guthrie), also contributed to the recipe that ultimately became Tom Petty.

Not only does Petty's style reveal his influences, his choice of guitars is very telling. On much of his music, he plays Rickenbacker six-string and twelve-string electric guitars--any musical historian can tell you that the Rickenbacker six-string was one of the basic elements of the sixties British sound, while the Rickenbacker twelve-string was responsible for the lush textures created by Roger McGuinn of The Byrds. Much of Petty's acoustic guitar work features that dry, brittle sound that the folk singers of the sixties sought, and his frequent use of other traditional instruments like the harmonica and mandolin gives the listener another hint about where Petty's ear was in his early years.

Another clue is Petty's vocal style--his nasal, sloppy delivery is a great emulation of the vocalist who undoubtedly inspired him the most--Bob Dylan. And it might not be that much of a coincidence that Petty bears more than striking resemblance to Dylan--if you don't believe me, check out the back of the booklet that accompanies the CD.

So what do you do when you want to acknowledge the people who inspired you the most in your formative years? Why, you go into the studio and produce Full Moon Fever, of course.

Full Moon Fever is Petty's tip of the hat to some of the musicians that he admired most. To begin with, he signed up Electric Light Orchestra triggerman Jeff Lynne to help him produce the album, and Lynne also collaborated with Petty in writing seven of the tunes in this collection--Lynne also plays bass, guitar, keyboards and sings background vocals throughout the album. He also recruited fifties legends Del Shannon and Roy Orbison to make vocal contributions, and British invasion participant George Harrison to play a little guitar. Finally, he assembled a pretty fair group of respected studio musicians, most notably Jim Keltner, to perform on many of the songs. The only people noticeably missing (in person) are Dylan and McGuinn, but Petty did the Wilbury thing with Dylan, and it seems to me that he collaborated with McGuinn on a project some time later.

Highlights Of The Album

I Won't Back Down is typical Tom Petty, and George Harrison contributes acoustic guitar and background vocals to the mix. Love Is A Long Road features Jim Keltner on drums and percussion, with Howie Epstein helping out on background vocals, while Runnin' Down A Dream has the overt Del Shannon reference--"me and Del were singin' little Runaway"--even though Shannon only actually makes an appearance doing barnyard sounds on Attention CD Listeners. I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better is Petty's tribute to the twelve-string mastery of The Byrds, and Roy Orbison chimes in with background vocals on Zombie Zoo.

A Face In The Crowd and Yer So Bad are given fine acoustic treatments by the musicians that Petty's assembled, while Depending On You and The Apartment Song are just fine examples of Tom Petty being Tom Petty. Alright For Now is really a nice piece that Petty offers up as a modern folk song.

There are twelve tracks on this album, and the common thread running throughout is the aural revelation of just who influenced Tom Petty. What really makes the album a unique listening experience is that some of these people actually perform on some of the tunes, and to me, that's just priceless.

Thanks for reading.