Michael Washburn

Tom Petty's Southern Accents (33 1/3 Series) by Michael Washburn offers both a rough track by track accounting as well as contextualizing the album both within Petty's career and society as a whole.

I love this series specifically because it is more than simply a track by track analysis. Some books include one but the series concentrates on bigger issues, whether a personal attachment, societal importance, or the place of the album in the artist's career. Washburn handles all of these elements quite well.

The main thesis is that this album (and technically coupled with Let Me Up) serves as a major pivot point in Petty's career. I think I always believed that but I hadn't thought closely about why, I leaned toward some basic explanation that he had simply matured. While that no doubt plays a part, the experience of making it as well as its reception made him mature a whole lot faster.

The majority of the book weaves the two elements of making the album and what the "concept" represented (knowingly or not). I can remember seeing him on this tour and thinking I might never buy another album of his. And I really like them. Many of my contemporaries in the US bought Damn the Torpedoes as their first Petty album and then bought backwards. I was introduced to the first album while in England so I actually bought the albums as they came out. That is to say I was not someone who just heard the hits and claimed to really like them. But the Southern Accents tour was offensive. I did not buy Let Me Up until much later (still not sure why), though after Full Moon Fever I came back to them.

The discussion Washburn offers about the rationale for the war as well as the shiny veneer concocted to dress the pig up is as good a basic explanation as I have seen is a popular nonfiction book, especially one not a history book about the war. Just know that those claiming to know better and tell you to "read your history" are the ones who don't know, or won't acknowledge, the actual history.

While this book does spend a lot of ink (or pixels) on the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, and current white supremacist terrorism, it is all tied directly to what the songs, the album, and the tour promoted and the segment of the population it encouraged.

In addition, the musical analysis is very interesting and points out some subtle differences that might often be missed.

I recommend this to music fans, Petty fans, and readers interested in the dynamics between popular culture and societal issues. I believe that Petty would have appreciated the even-handed approach that both discussed the problems with the album as well as Petty's attempts (successful, I believe) to make amends for his gross misstep.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (more)