We don’t often think of Tom Petty as an autobiographical songwriter. He did as good a job as any of masking any personal experiences that might have inspired his songs, so they stayed as relevant as possible to anyone else who might be listening and wouldn’t know the specific reference.
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On his gorgeous 1985 track “Southern Accents,” Petty managed to slip in a bit of his own life experience into the story of a guy who finds his identity in his locality. His mother makes an appearance in one of the song’s most touching moments.
The Centerpiece of the Concept Album That Wasn’t
Southern Accents was supposed to be an album-long assessment of Tom Petty’s roots, specifically his time as a youngster growing up in Florida. But somewhere along the line, the plot drifted from him as commercial concerns started to muscle their way into his thought process.
Petty’s original idea became a bit diluted when he started collaborating with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. Stewart helped Petty put together “Don’t Come Around Here Anymore,” which only tangentially touched on the theme but was obviously a killer single that couldn’t be shelved.
As Stewart continued to work with Petty, many of the songs that were intended to buoy the conceptual ideas fell by the wayside, replaced by more pop-oriented material. In the end, Southern Accents became muddled by the competing desires.
But Petty wasn’t about to jettison the title track, knowing he had something special. For most of the song, the writer seems to be inhabiting a character with which he doesn’t have too much in common. That all changes when, toward song’s end, the character dreams lovingly about his mother. Petty’s own mother had passed away a few years before the song was written, and he admitted afterward she was the inspiration for that portion of “Southern Accents.”
Examining the Lyrics to “Southern Accents”
“Southern Accents” represented a deviation from Petty’s usual musical formula. To that point, he’d focused on guitar-oriented rockers. But here was a ballad, driven by piano and a subtly deployed string section. This approach was fitting, considering the profound emotional content of the song.
Petty’s narrator speaks with intense pride about his heritage, defending his way of speaking against naysayers: There’s a Southern accent where I come from / The young’uns call it country, the Yankees call it dumb. That kind of resentment for outsiders also comes into play on the album’s first song (“Rebels”), giving hints of the concept album that never quite came to fruition.
The details Petty includes lend a great deal of authenticity to his take. His protagonist struggles now and again: Now that drunk tank in Atlanta’s / Just a motel room to me. But he also knows how to dust himself off and find a way to survive: Think I might go work Orlando / If them orange groves don’t freeze.
The song hits its emotional peak in the bridge, as Petty hints at someone who’s left his life: For just a minute, it was all so real / For just a minute, she was standing there with me. In the final verse, we find out the identity of this person: There’s a dream I keep havin’ where my Mama comes to me / And kneels down over by the window, and says a prayer for me.
On top of all the other brilliant aspects of the song, Tom Petty delivers one of his most moving vocal performances on “Southern Accents.” Maybe that’s because it hit so close to home. By that, we mean both his regional home in the South, and his family home, with a mom watching over him even from another realm.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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