← Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
How Tom Petty punched back at the music biz with “Refugee”
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Janda
97.1Fm the drive presents the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda the best songwriters have a way of writing about their own experiences that give us fans something we can relate to in their songs. When Tom Petty's back was up against the wall on the first of his many battles with the record labels, he, still in his 20s, wrote a song that punched back and we've been cranking it up ever since. No other rock song sounds exactly like it and he wrote the lyrics in about 10 minutes. This is the story of Refugee. If you like this episode, give it a like at the end. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button. When Jimmy Iovine heard Refugee and Here Comes My Girl, he as the band's co producer said to Tom pet, you don't need any more songs, something he says he had never said to any artist before or since. But of course Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers did have more songs end to end. Damn The Torpedoes, their third album, released in October of 1979, is so good that it continues to stand out as a high water mark of the album rock era. It was the first of a trilogy of albums produced by Iovine for the band and it came at a make or break time. So let's trace back through some murky music business Waters here. The previous two albums had been released on Shelter Records, a workshop type label owned by Denny Cordell, a British record producer, and Leon Russell, one of the artists Cordell had worked with. The label was distributed by ABC Records with the main office in Los Angeles. Russell, a Tulsa native, opened a satellite office and studio in his hometown and among other things, Shelter became a home for other great Oklahoma artists like DWIGHT Twilley and J.J. kale. That was a label environment that was artist friendly and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers could appreciate and find a kindred musical spirit with many of the bands that they were on the roster with. But after Leon Russell split From Cordell in 1976, Cordell became the sole owner of Shelter Records and eventually contract trouble followed. By the time Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were ready to record the follow up to youo're Gonna get it, it was announced to the band that their contract had been assigned to MCA Records. When ABC Records was sold to mca, Tom Petty was taken by surprise and maintained that their contract could not be sold without his permission and took a stance that the contract was then null and void, refusing to be, in his words, bought and sold like a piece of meat. Worse, he had naively signed over all his publishing rights as part of the original contract, and publishing is where songwriters make the lion's share of their money, so he was really in a bind. He proceeded to tell them that he would self release his new material at his own cost, and he quickly got into about a half a million dollars in personal debt with recording costs. MCA responded with a lawsuit suing Petty and the band for breach of contract, which prompted Tom Petty to cleverly file for bankruptcy and threatened to shelve his new album as a strategy to get out of the whole mess with mca. MCA then threatened to confiscate the band's session tapes, which they had no right to do, which prompted Petty to secretly have the tapes hidden each day by a studio assistant, with instructions to not disclose even to him, where the hiding place was. But it was the bankruptcy filing that did the trick. By doing so, it opened his contract to renegotiation and showed MCA that he wasn't about to back down. MCA caved, returned the publishing rights to Tom Petty, and found a solution with future recordings by starting a new imprint label, Backstreet Records. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were the first major signing to Backstreet in a boutique deal that gave to Tom Petty creative latitude and scored a rare victory for the artist when it comes to label shenanigans. It was a long way to go around the problem of Petty's issue with how MCA had treated them with the Shelter sale, but a compromise was reached to mutual satisfaction, and he and the band charged on, more determined than ever to make their third album a success. The album title, Damn the Torpedoes, comes from a phrase that dates back to the Civil War attributed to Rear Admiral David Farragut, who sailed for the union side and said damn the torpedoes full speed ahead when warned about floating mines in the water at the Battle of Mobile Bay in the gulf waters of Alabama. It's a phrase that's come to mean plowing ahead no matter what risks are involved. And it was the perfect choice for this album title, given the risks Tom Petty and the band were willing to take to make sure they weren't screwed over by the powers that be in the corner offices. It was the first of a trilogy of albums co produced by Iovine for the band after working out an introduction to Tom Petty via connections at Shelter. And he brought with him the work ethic that had led him from being a tape operator on John Lennon's solo work to becoming the engineer on Springsteen's Born to Run album. And then producing the Easter album by Patti Smith. He was eager to work with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and he came with a brass knuckle desire to turn the songs he was hearing into magic. And that's what happened. The Damn the Torpedoes album still sounds as amazing on your 300th listen as it did the first time. Every single sweated over note perfect. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were at an interesting crossroads in 1979. Besides their legal trouble with MCA, they weirdly fit in a cross section of musical styles. Blue collar bar band, Southern rock, power pop, new wave, British punk, rock. No one before or since can make the same claim that a band from Los Angeles by way of Gainesville, Florida, could appeal to such a wide variety of styles, all of which were relevant in 1979 because of their ability to appeal to just about anybody. From the skinny tie spiked hair set to the long hair dirty jeans set, they were pegged as the future of rock and roll. When Damn the Torpedoes was released, Tom Petty's answer to this was priceless. He said he didn't want to be the future of rock and roll, he wanted to be the present. Refugee is the lead track on the album, and as I mentioned before, Petty wrote the lyrics in about 10 minutes. The music was another story, however, as was typical of the band's process, guitarist Mike Campbell wrote music for a demo, recorded it on a four track, and then shared it with Petty. After which, depending on who's doing the recalling of the story, there were anywhere from 100 to 200 takes of the song recorded for the album. Iovine battled with drummer Stan lynch incessantly, and Campbell got so frustrated that he left the studio and just disappeared out of town for a couple of days. When he returned, they finally nailed it. Refugees lyrics go like we did something, we both know it we don't talk too much about it Ain't no real big secret all the same somehow we get around it Listen, it don't really matter to me baby, you believe what you want to believe you see you don't have to live like a refugee it goes on somewhere somehow somebody must have kicked you around some Tell me why you want to lay there revel in your abandon Honey, it don't make no difference to me Everybody's had to fight to be free you see you don't have to live like a refugee. And then we get to the bridge of the song, a fireworks display of emotion and a kind of do or die reckoning against whatever brings you down. He sings. No, baby, we ain't the first I'm sure a lot of other lovers been burned right now this seems real to you, but it's one of those things you've got to feel to be true. And the song ends as defiantly as it began. Somewhere, somehow somebody must have kicked you around some. Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped, tied up, taken away and held for ransom. It don't really matter to me baby Everybody's had to fight to be free you see you don't have to live like a refugee. It was the song American rock didn't know it needed until it came punching through the speakers. And there's something about the fight in Tom Petty's voice when he sings the word true that feels like more than a rally cry. Mission accomplished. With Refugee, it went to number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. And and when a no frills video of the band was shot with Tom Petty walking around backstage and singing these lyrics directly to the camera, it became a staple of early mtv. Damn the Torpedoes was a breakthrough for the band. It was their first top 10 album, peaking at number two on the Billboard chart and only kept from the top spot by Pink Floyd's the Wall. It was released the day before Tom Petty's 29th birthday and four months after he filed for bankruptcy to get MCA off his back. Petty told Rolling Stone magazine that he and the band didn't sit around and talk about making an album about that experience, but they knew that they were, he said. They get you pinned in a corner and the last thing you can do to keep your sanity is write songs. It was a groundbreaking album crafted from trouble. It was a change maker in the music industry, too. Tom Petty's stick to his guns attitude showed the industry that artists couldn't be treated like a commodity. And the truth of the matter is that without the artist, there isn't anything else. And by writing Refugee, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in turn gave fans a reminder that a little fight and a little bit of luck will go a long way, even if you feel like you're losing whatever battle you're in. I'm Janda and this has been behind the song. Special thanks as always to Christian Lane for the music you hear on these podcast episodes. Give us a like and subscribe and check us out on TikTok. You can find me on the air at wdrv.com in Chicago weekdays from 9 to 2 Central. On the way, much more classic rock and roll. It.