Tom Petty’s Southern Accents

Southern Accents is not, by any legitimate evaluation, a "great" album. The record has moments of brilliance, and in "Don't Come Around Here No More" it contains a hit that will get classic rock airplay for as long as folks listen to music. But better than great, the album is a fascinating multidimensional failure that unexpectedly mired Tom Petty in debates about American culture and history. Moreover, Southern Accents became a pivot point in Petty's career: the music he's created in the subsequent three decades has been a reaction to the manifold failures of his Southern Accents misadventure.