You’re Gonna Get It!
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Joe (Hot Fun In The Summertime) Fernbacher, Creem, 8/78
Tom Petty’s marble-like outward appearance somehow belies the fact that his voice is a sonorous collection of textures which sometimes strain but often hit right to the heart of rock’n’roll darkness. Rather far removed from the punk/new wave category he’s so often clumped into, Petty claims allegiance to nothing save the rhythm of the backbeat period; like the song goes, it’s narrow, and hard to master. And so is this album, originally to be called Terminal Romance, which is certainly more descriptive of what goes on inside than the title finally tacked on the front cover.
Petty’s preoccupation with the pangs of love sometimes results in outright pop pabulum, but there are moments when he creates the brooding mood of love’s labor with such style that you’d think that underneath all that rock exterior works the sound of a potential killer. The first album had these moments, like “Breakdown” and “Stangered In The Night.” On You’re Gonna Get It!, Petty leaves most of the heartbreaking to his band, and they pick up right where he leaves off, playing in a loose, sensual style that’s arresting and easy to get caught up in.
The reaction to this album will probably be mixed, because for those Petty-philes whose bodies have been saturated with the first LP and all the ensuing live bootlegs, tapes, etc., nothing could ever hope to match the initial excitement of discovery so many of them went through. Many fear that he’s going to be too L.A.-ized and therefore stripped of his rock’n’roll edge, soon to hit the skids in a monumental display of complacency; they would have preferred that he remain in Florida, where his music came into being. Others, however, the ones a bit less prone to fanaticism, find the second album better than the first because this one has sparse, yet emotionally provoking production values coupled with flaws that turn into huge pluses.
The second side of this record, except for some unnecessary rambling on “Restless,” is just plain good. The sparseness of the album shows a set of exposed nerves that run clear back to the early sixties eclecticism of the Byrds. Both “I Need To Know” and “Listen To Her Heart” harken back to the days when harmony and tight musicianship were the mainstays of the entire musical arena. “Listen To Her Heart” is a natural choice for a single, what with its neat and precise use of hooks; verbally with the lines “So you think you’re gonna steal her away/With your money and your cocaine”—cocaine being a solid hook in any song these days, and musically with simple, arresting guitar passages.
The last song on the album is also a good candidate for the top forty races—“Baby’s A Rock’n’Roller” is just goofy enough to make MOR beaconheads take notice. The hot spots on side one are “Magnolia” and “Too Much Ain’t Enough.” As a whole, this is a refreshing album, coming at just the right time—the beginning of the summer—and who knows, with this LP stirring up the emotions of those who hear it, it could be the summer of love again. Or at least the summer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. You’re Gonna Get It! is not a masterpiece, because the era of masterpieces seems gone forever. But it is, nevertheless, a good album.
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