Even the greats sometimes have to turn to the creativity of others to help them get over the line. While David Bowie was the most explicit about utilising the strengths of peers to bring his complex artistic visions to life, many other artists, who have long been celebrated as authentic and resolutely original have also drawn upon the talent of friends.
In fact, when you scratch beneath the surface, this is something that most iconic musicians have done at least once, as after all, a career is a marathon, and not a sprint. Furthermore, you could argue that no one is truly original, and if they are, it’s a rare feat.
One icon, who is famed for helping his peers out with his songwriting prowess, but also drew on the talents of others on the odd occasion was Tom Petty. While we regularly venerate him for his distinctive, rousing take on Americana – and the fact that he gave classic tracks away to the likes of Stevie Nicks, Roger McGuinn and Jeff Lynne – Petty also drafted in help from time to time. It must be said though, these collaborations did not land as well as the numbers he gave away.
One instance of this was when he worked with Eurythmics mastermind, Dave Stewart on three tracks for 1985’s Southern Accents. While one of these, the lead single ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More’ was a fairly big hit in the US, Petty absolutely hated the other single that Stewart had his name attached to, ‘Make It Better (Forget About Me)’.
Petty was never one to mince his words. Although his name is also attached to the credits of the song, he always felt it was “trash”, and maintained that it sounded like a song written for the sake of writing one, at the behest of Stewart getting him to churn out material for the album. Furthermore, it also deviated from the loose concept that Petty had in mind when starting the process for Southern Accents.
READ MORE: The group that made Tom Petty “want to be in a band”
“I hate that song, it’s just trash,” Petty once told Paul Zollo. “It was Dave just trying to get me to knock a song out. Just write a song for the sake of writing one. And I think that’s what it sounds like to me. It’s one of the few that I just don’t like. I like a lot of our work. I’m pretty proud of most of it. That one was the result of some misguided people. We didn’t really know what we were doing.”
Editors’ Picks
- 1980s Rock
- Americana
- artist regrets
- classic rock history
- songwriting collaborations
- Southern Accents
- Tom Petty
