New Album Shows Petty Deserves More Credit Than He’s Given

It’s finally here: This week marks the release of a bunch of never-before-heard songs from one of the greatest songwriting teams in rock music, along with a full career retrospective.

No, not that team. You’ve got Beatles on the brain.

Besides, Lennon/ McCartney sets a standard that probably can never be matched. But at times, Tom Petty and Mike Campbell have come close.

“Playback: 1973-1994” comes out this week, and it’s everything you could hope for in a box set - from Petty’s early demos to scads of unreleased songs, as well as all the big hits, overlooked album tracks and hard-to-find B-sides.

Petty fans will find it loaded with treasures; casual fans could pick it up and find out what they’ve been missing. The whole story is here.

Petty’s hometown of Gainesville, Fla., was probably one of the unhippest places to be growing up in the ‘60s, but appearances can be deceiving; there was a quiet revolution going on.

“No wonder all these guys came out so good from Gainesville. The local kids hanging around the high school dances were the Allmans, the Eagles, Steve Stills, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,” said journalist Bill Flanagan, who wrote the liner notes for the box set. “It was the Liverpool of America, and we never knew it.”

While Petty has always gotten acclaim and hits, he’s not given the genius status that Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young or Bob Dylan are.

“It’s because he always has hits. If he’s there all the time, if you never go through your ‘Trans’ period, they’re never going to appreciate you,” Flanagan said, only half-joking.

Flanagan said this set, bringing together some of Petty’s best work, might change that.

“If your view of Tom Petty is based on ‘Jammin’ Me’ and ‘Love is a Long Road,’ it’s easy to say he’s good, but he’s not on top of the mountain,” Flanagan said. “This box set is kind of like (Neil Young’s) ‘Decade’ in that it really makes a case for this guy being on top of the mountain.

“They have influenced tons of people, but it wouldn’t be immediately apparent,” Flanagan continued.

Other musicians “find it much hipper to say ‘I got this from Gram Parsons, I got it from Dylan.’ Let’s put it this way: If the Heartbreakers went down in a plane crash tomorrow, everybody would be talking about how deeply influenced they are by them.”

Emphasized in the box, with both released tracks and outtakes, is the brilliant 1986 album, “Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough).”

“There’s a real strong feeling that ‘Let Me Up’ is the great lost Tom Petty album. For the members of the band and certainly for Tom, that’s a real high point in the band’s career,” Flanagan said. Despite the hit single “Jammin’ Me,” the record sold less than any other Petty disc.

Flanagan’s notes also point out how much each member of the band contributes.

“If the band were called just ‘The Heartbreakers,’ then I think that people long ago would have started seeing Mike Campbell as a musician comparable to Keith Richards or the Edge,” Flanagan said.

“Benmont Tench is the only studio keyboard player I know of who played with U2,” Flanagan said.

Tench has worked with everyone from Alanis Morissette to Elvis Costello to the Replacements.

Stan Lynch and Campbell have both written with Don Henley and numerous other musicians. Howie Epstein has produced critically acclaimed albums by John Prine and Epstein’s girlfriend, Carlene Carter.

“That band is just incredibly well-respected by musicians,” Flanagan said, “and they’ve all written hit songs with other artists. One of the few times (Campbell) stepped out of the group was with ‘Boys of Summer’ - one of the best singles of the last 10 years. And the only reason he did it was Tom didn’t want it.”

Petty has done only one album for his new label, Warner Bros., but he already has a full second album’s worth of extra “Wildflowers” songs floating around.

“It’s really a rare case of somebody who’s in the middle of a career and is still completely on top of his game,” Flanagan said. “Plus there’s a whole side of his career with the Traveling Wilburys and backing Bob Dylan that’s also not here. There’s tons of other Tom Petty stuff that’s uncollected.”