On paper, it might not have seemed like the best fit at the time. Tom Petty made his reputation for gritty, authentic rock that he conjured with his longtime backing band, The Heartbreakers, while Jeff Lynne trafficked in a kind of orchestral pop with ELO that relied on ornate production.
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When Petty and Lynne came together on Petty’s 1989 album, Full Moon Fever, they sounded like long-lost musical partners finally united. “Yer So Bad”, one of Petty’s most beloved and enduring songs, helped kick off the partnership.
“Bad” Company
When he began his recording career, record company executives imagined Tom Petty as a solo act. But Petty changed their plans when he found his artistic footing with a group of instrumentalists who brought out the best in his work. The Heartbreakers recorded Petty’s first seven albums with him.
But Petty began to sense diminishing returns after 1987’s Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough). Band relations were also frayed at that point. While he hadn’t technically decided to break up the Heartbreakers, he knew that he needed some time apart.
Petty was out and about in Southern California one day around this time when he ran into Jeff Lynne. The two had met briefly before through their mutual buddy, George Harrison. On the spur of the moment, they decided that they’d try to do some work together, without any major plan about whether it would turn into anything more than just a song or two.
The first song that Tom Petty brought to Jeff Lynne was “Yer So Bad”. Petty had worked out most of the lyrics, but he was struggling with how to get from one part to another. Lynne suggested a few chords and came up with a turnaround. Everything came together.
With that, they were off and running. Petty brought in his Heartbreaker right-hand man Mike Campbell to add his inimitable guitar, while Phil Jones came to play drums. Out of this process, Petty’s first solo album, Full Moon Fever, emerged in 1989. It eventually earned a reputation as one of his finest.
Examining the Lyrics of “Yer So Bad”
Tom Petty displayed his incredible knack for boiling down a song to a few choice lyrics on “Yer So Bad”. He tells two stories in sharp, economical lines rife with cheeky humor. Wasting no time, he dives into the story: “My sister got lucky / Married a yuppie / Took him for all he was worth.”
In those three lines, we know that the sister won’t be trifled with and that the narrator prizes his sibling’s independence. When she moves on with an entertainer, he questions her judgment. “I can’t decide which is worse,” Petty quips. He also spares a thought for his sister’s ex, “dog-faced and hurt,” who ends up contemplating suicide.
In the refrain, the narrator takes stock of his situation and realizes how good he has it: “But not me, baby / I’ve got you to save me.”
His slangy praise sets his relationship apart from the disastrous one he already depicted: “In a world gone mad / Yer so bad.”
“Yer So Bad” didn’t stand out as one of the big hits from Full Moon Fever. But it quickly earned its place as one of those Tom Petty songs to which you can sing along while also marveling at the offhand songwriting brilliance. And it serves an important role in Tom Petty’s history as the song that spearheaded a fruitful collaboration with Jeff Lynne.
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