Tom Petty wrote and recorded so many killer songs even members of his band felt some were underrated. Apparently, Heartbreakers’ keyboardist Benmont Tench would bug Petty often to insert “All the Wrong Reasons” into the band’s sets.
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It’s a track Petty fans who only know him from what’s played often on the radio might have missed. But we can understand Tench’s enthusiasm for it, as “All the Wrong Reasons” is a moving tale of a family uprooted by economic concerns.
“Reasons” Why
On the 1991 album Into the Great Wide Open, Tom Petty attempted to bring two distinct worlds together. For several years prior, Petty had worked steadily with producer Jeff Lynne, both on the solo album Full Moon Fever and with the Traveling Wilburys. Lynne’s favored method of making records was track by painstaking track, using overdubs to perfect the sound.
But the album also reunited him with the Heartbreakers for their first album together in five years. The band were used to hashing out a song by playing it in the studio together and having it come to life in that fashion. As a result, a clash of styles materialized, and you can hear evidence of that strain occasionally throughout the album.
It’s hard to find any fault with “All the Wrong Reasons,” however. A majestic track propelled by Mike Campbell’s bouzouki riff, the song depicts the sudden downfall of a family. As Petty explained to musician and journalist Paul Zollo, the story was partly based on a real-life incident.
“There was a family we knew through one of the kids. And they were a very wealthy family with all of the trimmings. The big cars and the big house. And then suddenly the economy started falling and all their money went. They had to pack up and go. And I think that was the germ of the idea. The big old house went up for sale / they were on their way be morning. ‘Cause they were gone overnight. Gone. From the top of the world to gone.”
Behind the Lyrics of “All the Wrong Reasons”
In “All the Wrong Reasons,” Petty depicts the economic downturn that claims the hopes and dreams of this clan as a malevolent force raging beyond all control: Trouble blew in on a cold dark wind / It came without no warning. With the line, They were on the road by morning, he hints at how quickly fortunes can change.
From there, Petty throws the spotlight on one member of the family (possibly the matriarch), and how her priorities were warped by her upbringing in the age of television. Her self-worth has become hopelessly confused with her wealth: And she made a vow to have it all / It became her new religion.
Petty starts the third verse off with a fascinating couplet that seems to give nature itself motives and agendas: Where the sky begins, the horizon ends / Despite the best intentions. It suggests some kind of limit to upward climbing, which hits home with this family crumbling from their previous heights: Down they go, for all the wrong reasons.
The title “All the Wrong Reasons” is a powerful one. It hints at the misguided motivations of the family. And it also seems to touch on the societal forces that could do such damage. In typical Tom Petty fashion, all of it is interwoven succinctly and powerfully on this wonder of a song that Benmont Tench was wise to place in such high regard.
Photo By Rick Diamond/Getty Images
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