Favourites - Tom Petty - Wildflowers

I have been listening to Tom Waits since I bought his first album from a sale bin in a record store in New Brighton in 1979.  I caught him live at the Majestic Theatre in Wellington in 1980 and also saw the infamoouly poor Athletic Park gig with Dylan. 

I will admit it took me a while to get into Wildflowers.  However itt is now firmly my favourite and its scope is really pretty amazing.  It was also Petty’s own favourite album.  So much so that while he was alive he kept promising a definitive version with tracks left off the original double album and remixes of tracks he included on the soundtrack to She's the One (his least favourite album).    

The Petty Estate eventually made good on his promise with a number of releases that capture the full scope and achievements of the Rick Rubin produced sessions along with live material from the time.  There are now multiple places you can get songs from those sessions, and I have ended up with five on vinyl (that I can happily spread between my various listening systems and homes) as I would listen to something from the album every two or three weeks.

·       Two versions of Wildflowers and All The Rest – I have both the expanded three lp version and the sprawling box set with 7 albumsincluding live versions

·       Finding Wildflowers – with alternative unreleased takes and, unbelievably a few extra songs

·       Angel Dream – a reimagining of what She’s the One could or should have been, and

·       An original of She’s the One

I can happily listen any of them all the way through and each time marvel at the consistency of the songwriting and excellence of the playing (generally The Heartbreakers and 
the occasional guest like Ringo). 

So what of the songs.  While there are no major hits, there are just too many to choose from the title song Wildflowers, rockers like You Wreck Me and  Dylan's favourite Honey Bee, the reflective Harry Green, his cover of Lucinda Williams Change the Locks and You Don't Know how it Feels. 

I have often described my musical collecting journey as the ongoing search for the perfect album.  This is possibly as close as I have got.