The Flower of Tom Petty

When I heard Tom Petty in 1989 I was struck by his everyman type lyrics.  It was on Full Moon Fever that made me really pay attention to him.  I went to see him live that same year and was in awe by how many songs that myself and the crowd could recite the lyrics to.  Every song seemed like a Rock anthem.  Every song was a classic, and every song was simple.  It was a person I could identify with and understand what he was trying to tell the audience. 

Five years later and three Tom Petty tours later I was ready for another great solo album.  MTV played his new single way too much, but in that way too much playing I investigated the album it's self.  Wildflowers was an album that was not a typical Petty album it was an awesome introspective album that every listen was an album that had deeper meaning to it.  Tom Petty's music was shining more then ever.  An album that rewards you and makes you feel you are there right with him making the album.  It's lyrics after a few listens make you memorize what he is saying and soon enough  you will be singing along too. 

Tom Petty's music never gets tired or overly done, but it identifies with so many people.  The only issue I have is the MTV heavy rotation.  For a few years MTV ruined a lot of music for me and Petty was no exception.  Wildflowers put me back into his groove again with the radio airplay not the MTV airplay.  I bought this album on cassette and played the shit out of it.  I also grabbed the CD so I don't do the same, but I did.  I turned my repeated listenings into my own Tom Petty MTV thing.  It was sad on my part, but I did not want to be that person.  I love the album now more then I did when it came out. 

After the untimely death of Tom Petty in 2017 I went back into his career. I picked songs that were popular and songs that were not as popular and gave them a deeper listen.  Tom's music is right to the point with his music and lyrics.  He can make any song he wants into an anthem and few of those songs can be anthems to a Classic Rock audience or even a singer/songwriter audience.  His career spanned over forty years and when you hear Wildflowers you can see the maturity of him and his music.  

I recently picked up American Treasure a posthumously issued box set of music.  The music on this set is not the hit's or the radio play tunes, but some really great vault items.  Mike Campbell and Petty's wife went through a ton of material.  There are a few on this set that were left off Wildflowers and those tunes were just as great if not better then when the album came out. If anything, Petty's Wildflowers is an album of many gems and that is why I like it.  The best of Petty's late career and with Rick Rubin's help he made of the best of his catalog.  If you own it, dig it out and if you don't buy it and play it and you can hear the confident of Tom and his guitar.  A classic for sure, but a keeper for a lifetime.