Sometimes, a song can hit too close to home for an artist, even if they were the ones to write it. Tom Petty felt that way about “Room At The Top”, the opening track from the 1999 album Echo, which itself came during difficult circumstances for Petty.
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Nonetheless, the song stands out as a brilliant evocation of loneliness. That “Room At The Top” can be quite isolating, for good and bad.
Breathing “Room”
Tom Petty wrote the bulk of the songs from Echo while dealing with the end of his first marriage. In the aftermath of the record’s release, Petty struggled a bit to reconcile the personal nature of the songs. He even put some of the album’s tracks on mothballs when it came to his live performances.
“Room At The Top” was one of them, even though Petty was pleased with the song and its recording. Petty had been playing the melody on piano for many years, thinking that he was just noodling. Jeff Lynne encouraged him to take it further and develop it into a song.
When the band first laid the track down, they did so as a quiet acoustic song all the way through. Producer Rick Rubin suggested they break that format up with some heavier rock instrumentation in the middle section. That included Mike Campbell’s crunching guitar chords and Benmont Tench’s clavinet part.
Petty actually released “Room At The Top” as a single, but it didn’t make the charts. Maybe the intense nature of the lyrics did indeed keep some folks away. But discerning fans now know that the song captured Petty at his unfiltered best.
Exploring the Lyrics of “Room At The Top”
It all starts on a promising note, as Petty’s aerial abode initially looks like a boon. “I got a room at the top of the world tonight,” he sings. “I can see everything tonight.” But it soon gets a tad darker: “I got a room where everyone/Can have a drink and forget those things/That went wrong in their life.”
In the second verse, Petty boasts of simple pleasures redeeming him. “I got someone who loves me tonight,” he says. “I got over a thousand dollars in the bank/And I’m all right.” Even if he had the chance to join the rabble below, he intends to shun it. “And I ain’t comin’ down,” he claims.
“Look deep in the eyes of love,” Petty insists, his voice crackling with barely-contained emotion. “And find out what you were looking for.” It’s as it he’s giving advice that he wishes he had followed earlier in his life. “I wish I could feel you tonight, little one,” he moans. “You’re so far away.”
His final words yearn for some sort of happy ending. “I want to reach out and touch your heart,” he says. “Yeah like they do in those things on TV/I love you, please love me/I’m not so bad.” The level of vulnerability is painfully high.
Petty once claimed he couldn’t even remember writing some songs on Echo, so lost was he in personal anguish. “Room At The Top” might have been too painful for its author to revisit. But it sure is a marvel for us to hear.
Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images
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