Perhaps no artist has ever been as candid about the ups and downs of their catalog as Tom Petty. On the surface, Long After Dark, the 1982 album by Petty and the Heartbreakers, continued a hot streak of hit albums and singles by the band. But Petty later expressed dissatisfaction with the finished product, pondering what it might have been had he included several songs that remained on the cutting-room floor.
How much you enjoy the album might depend on how you like your Petty: straightforward and rocking, or diverse and rootsy. Here’s the story of why Long After Dark pleased a lot of fans but bothered its main creator.
Dark Shadows
Following the one-two punch of Damn the Torpedoes and Hard Promises, the Heartbreakers’ third and fourth albums, Tom Petty seemed like he could do no wrong. He had managed to alchemize his myriad influences into an invigorating sound all his own, adorned with his tough and tender lyrics and backed by a wonderful band.
More of the same on Long After Dark seemed like a wise move at the time. At least that’s what producer Jimmy Iovine believed. Iovine, who had helped the band reach such dizzying heights on the previous two records, joined Petty to sort through the songs the artist had written for Long After Dark, the band’s followup to those two big hit LPs.
Petty had written several songs for the project that would have expanded the band’s repertoire somewhat. These tracks had more of a folky, rootsy feel to them, and conceivably would have balanced out the album’s harder songs with more of an acoustic touch.
But Iovine fought against their inclusion. The Brooklyn, New York-raised producer’s musical influences didn’t go back as far those of the Heartbreakers’ members, and he tended to lean toward what would help the band commercially. Years later in an interview with Paul Zollo for his book Conversations with Tom Petty, Petty lamented the final direction that Long After Dark took:
“Jimmy and I were really butting heads at that point. Jimmy didn’t really like the contrast mix of those songs. He thought they were country songs. I didn’t see them as country songs. I saw them as something a little more organic, more acoustic-based than we had done. I think I would have really liked to go in that direction. He didn’t like the idea of it. So I think I finally gave in to his way of thinking. But I think it would have helped that record to have those songs on it.”
Revisiting Long After Dark
Let’s put this into context: A lesser Tom Petty album is still pretty monumental stuff. There are several songs on the record that can stand with his very best stuff. Start with “You Got Lucky,” the album’s hit single that showed off Petty’s ability to say a lot with a little and found Benmont Tench adding the same kind of moody touch on synths (even though he fought against doing it at the time) as he did on organ.
There’s also “Straight into Darkness,” a stunner of a rocker with riveting quiet-to-loud dynamics and some of Petty’s most devastating lyrics about the void left behind heartbreak. Rockers like “Deliver Me,” “One Story Town,” and “Change of Heart” all soar.
But by the time Side Two rolls around, there’s a lot of stuff that sounds like the Heartbreakers on autopilot (except for “Straight into Darkness”). It’s certainly an area where a little variety could have helped matters, and you can see Petty’s point.
It was just announced that a deluxe edition of Long After Dark will be released in October. The songs that were left behind will be included. That will finally give fans a chance to find out if Petty’s reservations about the original were well-founded. In any case, it will shine a spotlight on an album that, as befits its title, has been lingering too long in the darkness.
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