Conversations with Tom Petty by Paul Zollo

Author:Paul Zollo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Omnibus Press
Published: 2020-02-06T16:00:00+00:00

YOU’RE GONNA GET IT! 1978

Your second album was You’re Gonna Get It! (1978). You said that you felt it was done hastily, and that you were trying to do something different than the first album.

[You’re Gonna Get It!] is a quirky, weird, little record. It’s a very strange almost eccentric record. But I kind of like it now, because it’s so off the wall. It’s kind of an offbeat kind of record. It’s very short. It was done quickly. The first album was breaking almost a year after we had recorded it. And we were tired of playing that first album; we wanted to get some more product out there. So we really quickly did that record. Wrote it and recorded it really quickly. And it did pretty well for us. It had some good songs. It had “I Need To Know” and “Listen To Her Heart.” Which were both pretty popular songs at the time.

I understand you recorded “I Need To Know” very quickly. Two guitars live, recorded in just a few takes.

Probably, yeah. You know the inspiration for that song was Wilson Pickett’s “Land Of A Thousand Dances.” Listen to that song and you’ll hear that kind of rhythm. [Sings rhythm] And that’s where that came from, I’m sure.

You also mentioned “Listen To Her Heart,” which really holds up.

Yeah, it had that kind of Byrds or Searchers kind of riff. A 12-string riff. I think by then we’d gotten Vox Phantom 12-string guitars. And I’m sure that had a lot to do with that sound.

Your record company tried to get you to change the word “cocaine” to “champagne”?

Yeah, that record company, they’re always sticking their nose in there. Of course, we didn’t [make the change]. Because it would have made it a different song. I didn’t really see the character as caring about the price of a bottle of champagne. Cocaine was much more expensive.

My ex-wife had gone with Cordell to Ike Turner’s house. And Ike Turner had locked them in the house. [Laughs] And there was a lot of cocaine and drugs around. When they told me this story, I thought it was really funny. I think that had something to do with the cocaine line. The story was related to me, and I think it probably had something to do with that line. I thought it was a pretty funny story.

Such a beautiful, visceral melody.

It came out really good. I remember going to the rehearsal the first day I had it, and playing it with the band, and really being knocked out with it, because it was one that really suited me and Mike when we played that riff. And when the song kicked in, I thought, “Oh God, this is great.” It was really good. We were doing it in the show before the record was out. Actually, we played it at a show in Chicago at the Riviera Theater with Elvis Costello & The Attractions. This would have been ’77.

He opened for you?

I think he did, yeah.

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