Two years after releasing his most obscure album, Tom Petty would return with his most popular. But first he took an interesting detour.
In 1998, Petty stumbled onto a recording session with Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison and Bob Dylan. Harrison had left a guitar at Petty’s house and Petty accompanied him back to Dylan’s home studio after handing it over. The four men were laying down a track for the B-side of Harrison’s next single. They invited Petty to join.
The result was ‘Handle With Care,’ a song so good the quintet decided to form a band and record a whole album together. And so The Traveling Wilburys were born, with their debut album (Vol. 1) recorded in just ten days in May and released by October.
In ’99, Petty was ready to go back to the studio, but this time with new collaborator Jeff Lynne. The batch of songs they wrote together didn’t feel to Petty like Heartbreakers material — it was more pop, less rock — so he decided to record his first solo album.
Members of The Heartbreakers weren’t thrilled with Petty’s decision, but almost all of them wound up performing on the album. Drummer Stan Lynch was the lone holdout (foreshadowing his eventual split from the band).
The album — Full Moon Fever — is nothing less than a modern American masterpiece. Every track is sharp and fun and addictive. Reaching back to his Byrds influences (he even covers ‘Feel a Whole Lot Better’), Petty composed a batch of songs you instantly know by heart.
The biggest hits on the album (‘I Won’t Back Down,’ ‘Free Fallin’,’ ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’) remain as fresh as the day they were released, but the miracle of Full Moon Fever is that the deeper you dig into the album, the better it gets. ‘Alright For Now’ and ‘A Mind With a Heart of Its Own,’ two tracks buried on side two, are album highlights, and today’s SOTD finishes off the album with a delicious jolt.
‘Zombie Zoo’ — last on the album, last alphabetically, but not last in our hearts. Petty paints a vivid portrait of a goth party girl trying way too hard to be noticed. He packs so much detail, swing and spirit into a 3-minute pop song.
With white lipstick and one thing on their mind
Hey little freak with the lunch pail purse
Underneath the paint you’re just a little girl
Dancin’ at the Zombie Zoo, dancin’ at the Zombie Zoo
Painted in a corner and all you wanna do
Is dance down at the Zombie Zoo
Cute little dropout, how come you pack a rod?
Is your mother in a clinic? Has your father got no job?
Sometimes you’re so impulsive,
You shaved off all your hair
You look like Boris Karloff and you don’t even care
You’re dancin’ at the Zombie Zoo
Dancin’ at the Zombie Zoo
Painted in a corner and all you wanna do
Is dance down at the Zombie Zoo
She disappears at sunrise, I wonder where she goes
Until the night comes fallin’ down again
She shows up with her friends half-alive
You can make a big impression
Or go through life unseen
You might wind up restricted and over seventeen
It’s so hard to be careful, so easy to be led
Somewhere beyond the pavement
You’ll find the living dead
Meet Me In Montauk 
Again, great background information as to the making of this wonderful album. And your observation is right on point that this album remains as fresh and fantastic as the first time I played it. I could see doing a theme week (or 2 weeks) on this album alone. It’s just that great.
This remains one of my all time favorite albums. I could dance to this music all night long!
So why aren’t you featuring a song off the great Traveling Wilburys album? I find that album just as fresh and addictive as Full Moon Fever.
The chorus of Zombie Zoo has never been my favorite, but I do love the verses… the line I can never get enough of? “You look like Boris Karloff and you don’t even care.” Sheer brilliance 🙂
I agree with Dana. One song isn’t enough for this album. I vote for a theme week devoted to it.