Tom Petty - Wildflowers & All The Rest
Okay, so the year 2020 has been horrible, but this release made things a little tolerable. For those folks out there who do not know much about Tom Petty, Wildflowers and All the Rest is perfect for you. It is an investment indeed, but not an overwhelming one. For those folks who love Petty, this is a dream collection of Tom’s songs from this 1994 masterpiece.
This is the first time I’ve technically reviewed the same album twice, however this release warranted another review because Wildflowers and All the Rest is a deluxe 4 CD (7 LP) collection of Petty’s full 1994 LP release, Wildflowers, a disc/record devoted solely to the songs Tom wrote but did not release. I will get into this a little more in a moment. The compilation also includes a collection of live material recorded in concert between 1995 and 2017.
To read my review of the Wildflowers album, go here. To learn more about All the Rest, keep reading!
After listening to the remastered version of the original 1994 release, you are introduced to many songs Tom recorded in his home studio in the early 1990s that did not end up on the final cut including a mix of songs that were dubbed, All the Rest. Petty had so many songs that he and co producer, Rick Rubin had to make several song cuts to get the original release down to 15 tracks.
All the Rest starts off with Something Could Happen. As a Petty superfan, I felt like I had opened a treasure chest that had been buried in the backyard for 26 years. Listening to this song brought back memories of a simpler time, even though I had never heard the song before. Something Could Happen has a mellow, soft tempo and falls directly in line with the vibe of the original Wildflowers album. It picks up where things left off. It makes you wonder why he ever decided to cut these songs.
In a recent interview with Malcolm Gladwell, Rubin describes some of the reasons for cutting so many songs. Originally the thought was to release a double album, but after Tom and Rick brought it to the record company, Warner Bros, the record company suggested he cut it down to a single album. At the time, data showed the music market and industry would be less receptive to a double album.
“Wildflowers was a very specific body of work”, Rubin stated. Tom recorded about 50 songs while also preparing to release his band, The Heartbreakers’, Greatest Hits album during 1992, 1993 and 1994.
“Not a lot of bands can do that”, Rubin later commented. “You have to be really good to do that” (write 50 quality songs for one album).
Tom was deeply passionate about the purity of his music and how it was delivered to his fans. When the recording industry raised the price of a CD up $1, Petty refused to release his music. He went about 2 ½ years without releasing any music. “He cared very much for his audience and wanted to do very right by them”, Rubin said.
How did they decide which ones to drop and which ones to go forward with? Rubin explains, “Just experimentation. We would play them in a sequence and say, these 5 sound really good together. We were looking at the arc of the picture. The balance of it is what makes the journey. We would not do that today. Today we would put out 28 songs without thinking about it. There is no such thing as a double album anymore. The nature of the speed of digestion that people’s attention span is there for maybe 5-6 songs at a time. Maybe it is better to break it up into 4 projects and release every 4 or 5 months”.
Tom and Rick loved all the songs, but they concluded they had to cut it down a little. The band jokes even to this day about how much they labored over so many songs that never got released, until now!
Leave Virginia Alone the 2nd previously unreleased track, picks up the pace a bit, but still smells of Petty gold. The beat makes you tap your foot, and the chorus makes sing along to a song you have never heard before. Tom had a way of writing songs and piecing them together on his albums. They sounded like anthems. Within seconds you are singing along as if you have been doing so for 26 years.
Climb that Hill Blues brings the tempo down, and makes you feel as if you are listening to Tom on the riverbanks of the Mississippi. He breaks down this blues number with just his acoustic guitar and his raspy voice. Much like, Don’t Fade on Me from the original album release, Climb that Hill Blues makes you want to break open that old bottle of whiskey you have been saving for a special day. For me, listening to this buried treasure qualified as an incredibly special day to me.
Confusion Wheel continues the mellow vibe. I remember as a high school senior, visiting the college I would eventually attend. I was lucky enough to crash one evening with one of the students. I got to go to a few parties, see skits and meet several people. As the evening came to a close, I can remember getting ready for sleep on a futon the admissions rep student had set up for me. In those days, it was imperative that I had music to go to sleep to. As I flipped through Mike’s plastic sleeve CD book, I can remember page after page after page included CD’s that were not to my taste. I began to contemplate ending the day without any music.
On the last page, there it was. I remember like it was yesterday. A copy of Wildflowers. I remember breathing a sigh of relief as my host, Mike commented, “Oh yeah, I forgot that was in there.” By the time the album got to Time to Move On, I had made up my mind, I was leaving the comfort of New England and I was going to college in Virginia that fall. It was “time to move on”.
California is the perfect driving song. As I listen to this song, I am laughing. I laugh because each song sounds better than the next. This was the outcome after my first listen to the original release in 1994. Tom belts out, “California’s been good to me”, a theme he had been very vocal about his entire career. “I ain’t alive anywhere else”. This is the perfect song for dreamers. This is the perfect theme for those who take their old beat up car to L.A. and drive up or down the PCH looking at the ocean realizing they have made it to Paradise.
Harry Green is by far my favorite track on All the Rest. I was shocked Petty kept this off the original release. Its beauty bleeds out of both ear canals from my headphones and into my soul. Tom’s solo acoustic guitar easily brings a tear to the eye. The song seems to be written by Tom about a passer-by friend of Tom’s in school. “Harry” is stuck up for Tom one day as he was about to get beat up in high school. Tom never forgot about that. So much so that he decided to write a song about Harry many years later. I cannot help but fight back the tears when Tom sings, “Sometimes I wish I was still a boy, with life ahead of me. One day I go back and say a few words over Harry Green”. As easy as these words are to put together, it is poetry, nonetheless. This is truly a beautiful song.
Hope You Never adds to the treasure. Offering yet another track that fits right into Tom’s formula of folky songs that are easy to adjust to and mold so well together.
Somewhere Under Heaven has got to be my second favorite track. This song was introduced to me by accident (perhaps) as I was listening to a shuffle recently on a cold night in front of my fire pit outside. I knew immediately it was a Petty song (despite never hearing it before). The opening riff was so recognizable, so anthemic, so addictive and yet so perfectly pieced together. This song is another piece of gold mixed into a collection of gems that cannot be explained.
Climb That Hill and Hung Up and Overdue finish off the All the Rest portion of this bonus-ridden album. Climb That Hill is more fast paced, different from Climb That Hill Blues. Hung Up and Overdue gives you the medicine needed to fulfill the everyday Petty fan, with its catchy verse and chorus. Perhaps the introduction of a seemingly off tune bridge could be the reason this song was left off the original cut back in 1994. It is hard not to notice. However, the chorus makes up for it in the end. The song ends in a fantastic array of piano and guitar leading into what should be the chorus of the year 2020, “We’re overdue for a dream come true”.
The compilation album continues with another disc that includes fifteen “home recordings”.
Producer Rick Rubin explained Tom would write all the songs by himself with an acoustic guitar, then he would make a home-made demo, recording all the instruments himself and later bring to the band to record.
Tom’s longtime bandmate and friend, guitarist Mike Campbell would bring some guitar ideas to the studio, but most of the songs were pre prepared by Tom.
The entire Wildflowers took about 2 years to record, but the band was not in the studio every day. Tom would take time off to write new songs.
During his interview with Malcom Gladwell, Rubin goes on to describe the years ’92 - ‘94 as a very fertile period for Tom and his life as a songwriter. Jeff Lynne, from ELO and Petty’s partner while in the Traveling Wilburys, was extremely strict about a song being perfect. Lynne also joined Tom when he recorded 1989’s Full Moon Fever. “Everything was very controlled”, Rubin describes, “Meticulous and perfect. It was more organic, alive and more human, warts and all”.
Tom took the strict sense of piecing together a song he had learned from Jeff on Full Moon Fever and brought that to the recording of Wildflowers and All the Rest.
Legend has it, there is still an entire disc of music out there that has not been released yet.
The Home Recordings disc gives you some stripped down, very raw versions of You Don’t Know How it Feels, California (introduced to us in this package but from the previous disc), Crawling Back to You, To Find a Friend and even Wake Up Time. There are also an additional ten tracks on this disc! Yes, Christmas and Hanukkah came early this year my friends! Damn well better have, we need some sunlight amidst all this darkness in 2020. What sets itself apart from the other discs in this collection, is the fact that many of the songs Tom recorded here have different lyrics in parts of the verses. Listening to Crawling Back to You and You Don’t Know How it Feels, you get a glimpse into the early workings of what would later be Petty solo masterpieces. In many ways, I could see why Tom and Rick changed parts of these songs for the final cut. But to hear a collection of classics stripped down and completely raw is a special treat.
The next record/disc in the package set is a compilation of fourteen live songs recorded between 1995 and 2017. This part includes classics played live in front of screaming fans such as Walls, Cabin Down Below, It’s Good to Be King, Time to Move On and the original album opener, the title track, Wildflowers. This record/disc also introduces us to previously unreleased tracks such as Girl on LSD. The box set just continues to offer gifts to the listener.
For those folks who were able to buy the 5 CD/9 LP version of this album, that package offers an additional sixteen tracks called Finding Wildfowers. This disc unfortunately was not in my collection. I must go out and get my hands on it though.
I think it is easy to conclude Wildflowers and All the Rest is a wonderful gift to Tom Petty fans across the globe. It is also undoubtedly a must pick up for mild Petty fans. You will not be disappointed. There are hours and hours of music here. I remember seeing Tom and his Heartbreakers at a show in 1991 on their Into the Great Wide Open tour. During Don’t Come Around Here No More, Petty reaches into a lit treasure chest on stage and pulls out the famous top hat the video on MTV. As he places it on his head, the band breaks into “HEY” and the song riff begins, injecting goosebumps into every guest in the crowd that night. This album makes me think that maybe he could have pulled out these wonderful, never before released songs from that treasure chest that night, and injected goosebumps into every person on the planet!
*All quotes from Rick Rubin taken from interview with Rick Rubin and Malcom. To listen to the entire, fascinating interview you can go here.
Pick up a copy on Vinyl or CD of Wildflowers and All the Rest and go back and read my review again!! I promise it will be an even greater experience!