The music business is a cut throat industry with many clandestine goings on and many musicians hate it because of the greed of the record label, executives and managers/agents alike. Many a court case has ensued due to some underhanded deal to make someone rich quick, none more famous than the Sony vs George Michael case of 1992 when George took Sony to court claiming he had little control over his work, with the company treating him as “no more than a piece of software.” Unfortunately, George lost the case and then revealed in a documentary that he regretted taking them to court because it halted his career, thankfully, only briefly, but George, as always, bounced back. Tom Petty was another who was fully aware of what the ‘industry’ got up to and refused to be a pawn in their game. He had a court battle with MCA records and often stood up to greedy CEOs who tried it on. He also hated radio conglomerations, as do I, because radio has lost its individuality and sense of purpose. Petty’s song The Last DJ made his feelings known about radio and it followed in the footsteps of Mark Germino’s song Rex Bob Lowenstein. His song Into The Great Wide Open demonstrates his disregard for the music industry as a whole.
Six week ago, I wrote the story behind Scenes From An Italian Restaurant and the heart-warming story of Brenda and Eddie meeting, growing together and loving life, now I’ve been asked for the story behind Into the Great Wide Open with the opening verse sounding like it tells the same story, and a lead character with the same name, Eddie. In reality, it’s a very different story.
The song could be perceived as autobiographical because in the opening verse, it tells the story of Eddie who goes to Los Angeles, gets a tattoo, meets a girl in the tattoo place, she also has a tattoo, they moved in together and to earn money, he gets a job as a doorman in a nightclub and she teaches him guitar. He seems to learn quickly and soon gets to showcase his work in the club. The critics give him favourable reviews and he decides to get himself an agent and a roadie, records a song and hits the big time as it goes into the chart and the sky was the limit.
Then, along comes the record label executive or A&R men as they were called then, A&R standing for artist and repertoire, and seizes an opportunity to make money and thus says to Eddie, ‘I don’t hear a single’ meaning, I want something radio friendly and commercial that we can market in order to make money. After all, that’s what’s behind every big corporation despite that fact that they tell you their priorities lie elsewhere.
Tom Petty formed the Heartbreakers in 1976 and originally comprised keyboard player Benmont Tench, lead guitarist Mike Campbell, bass player Ron Blair and drummer Stan Lynch. Blair was replaced by Howie Epstein in 1982. Campbell’s guitar is at its most anthemic in the song’s chorus especially when Petty refers to Eddie being, ‘Out in the great wide open A rebel without a clue’.
One thing I personally hate when I’m watching a movie, is when it doesn’t have an ending. If I know that before I refuse to watch it. Finish the story, give us a proper ending. That’s very much the same with Into the Great Wide Open – we don’t learn what happens when the record company dump him because he hasn’t given them a hit single and we also don’t know how Eddie and his tattooed lady get on. Instead, the song ends on a repeated chorus.
The song’s video played a big part as it featured Johnny Depp as Eddie, the great Faye Dunaway as Eddie’s manager and Gabrielle Anwar as Eddie’s girlfriend, there was also appearances by Terence Trent D’Arby, Matt LeBlanc and Chynna Phillips. Tom, not only sings, he plays the part of a reporter, the tattooist and the road manager named Bart. He later said of it, “That was one of the first ones I wrote for the album. I really liked the video to that, one of the only times I’ve ever felt fulfilled by a video. The song was such a narrative that the video was a piece of cake to make. I even had people coming to me wanting to make it into a movie. I said, ‘It’s been done.’ I really think an entire movie would be more than is required. But it was a lot of fun. Very funny song and a very true song.” He managed to secure Depp during a break in the filming of Arizona Dream in which he starred with Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway. It was Depp who got Dunaway on board, he explained, “I got asked to do the video for Into The Great Wide Open and I called Faye and I said, ‘I’m going to do this video for Tom Petty, maybe you should come play the fairy godmother. And she became a teenage girl, squealing, you know, ‘Oh, Tom Petty!’ She was really into it.” The six and a half minute video closes with Depp revisiting the same tattoo parlour he had visited on his arrival in Hollywood and seeing himself as the tattooist, that being his own destiny and proving that the great wide open will close at some time.
Apart from also appearing in pop videos for Johnny Cash and The Lemonheads, Depp is also an accomplished guitarist and has played on songs by Patti Smith and Paul McCartney. He also played slide guitar on Fade In-Out, a track on Oasis’ album Be Here Now which was recorded whilst Depp and Noel Gallagher where both on holiday on the Caribbean island of Mustique.