Cultivating just the right environment for the studio is not always an easy task, considering all the external distractions, sicknesses, and general mindlessness that can cause a recording session to turn sour. Fortunately for Tom Petty, George Harrison was on hand while the Florida rocker was tracking what would become one of his most iconic and inspiring hits, “I Won’t Back Down.”
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The context in which Petty wrote the song already added a significant layer of emotional distraction. The Full Moon Fever single was Petty’s direct response to a harrowing attack he and his family endured at their California home, which made revisiting the song as cathartic as it was uncomfortable. Moreover, Petty was incredibly sick the day that they were going to lay down the vocal track.
Enter George with the ginger.
How George Harrison Saved One Of Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits
Save any obvious exceptions, like major trauma and injury, one of the worst things that can happen to a singer on the day of a recording session is to get a head cold. Singers’ instruments are their bodies: the lungs, diaphragm, larynx, sinuses. If mucus or inflammation affects any of these elements of the vocal passageway too strongly, it won’t just ruin a take. It can make it to where the singer can’t phonate anything at all besides a whispery rasp. When you’re at the level Tom Petty was at when he was recording Full Moon Fever, suddenly, all those head colds become expensive wastes of studio time.
Luckily for Petty, George Harrison was in the studio hanging out that day. “I had a terrible cold,” Petty recalled in a 2010 interview with Mojo. “George sent to the store and bought a ginger root, boiled it, and had me stick my head in the pot to get the ginger steam to open my sinuses, and then I ran in and did the take. I put my heart and soul into those records. I remember things about making them pretty vividly. It’s a great job to have. The best thing to do with your life, I always tell young people, is to try and figure out what you like and make it your work. I’m incredibly fortunate in that respect.”
Harrison’s quick thinking helped reduce the inflammation in Petty’s airways, helping him phonate enough to get through his vocal takes. But that wasn’t the only way the former Beatle helped Petty create the final version of “I Won’t Back Down.”
The Former Beatle Pointed Out A Particularly Cringey Lyric
As any songwriter can attest, not every line you write will be a zinger. Sometimes, words don’t come out quite like you want them to, or you can’t come up with a creative way to express an idea without using a cliché. That’s where Tom Petty found himself when he was co-writing “I Won’t Back Down” with Jeff Lynne. They had almost the entire song, which was Petty’s musical response to an arsonist who attempted to burn his house down while he and his family were inside. But they were missing one line: There ain’t no easy way out.
Instead, Petty was singing, “I’m standing on the edge of the world.” In Paul Zollo’s 2005 book, Conversations with Tom Petty, the “Runnin’ Down a Dream” singer recalled, “When we were recording it, George [Harrison] said, ‘What the hell is that—I’m standing on the edge of the world. Surely, there’s got to be something better than that.’ Then, I came up with there ain’t no easy way out, which seemed so obvious. But that was George going, ‘That line’s dumb.’”
“I’m really glad that I got all the dumb lines out,” Petty continued, “because it’s a song that apparently a lot of people have been inspired by. I get a lot of people telling me, either through the mail or in person, how that song has played a role in helping them in some way in their life. How it’s given them conviction to get over a certain obstacle in their life. It’s really gratifying.”
Photo by SGranitz/WireImage
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