Life of the Record is a documentary podcast about how iconic albums are made. Featuring the voices of the creators, each episode delves into the writing, recording, and touring of a record that became a classic. Produced by Dan Nordheim.
In celebration of the new Deluxe Edtion of Long After Dark, the fifth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, we take a detailed look at how it was made. After Tom Petty connected with Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench to form Mudcrutch in Gainesville, Florida in 1970, they ended up relocating to Los Angeles. There they were able to sign a deal with Shelter Records, but Mudcrutch broke up soon after, leaving Petty under contract as a solo artist. Campbell and Tench began playing in a band with fellow Floridians, Ron Blair and Stan Lynch and they reconnected with Petty to form Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1976 with You’re Gonna Get It following in 1978, and they built up a following in the UK especially. For their third album, they teamed up with producer Jimmy Iovine and spent many months recording what became Damn the Torpedoes. The album ended up being a breakthrough for the band, giving them mainstream success for the first time. They continued working with Iovine for their fourth album, Hard Promises. At this point, Ron Blair left the band so they brought in Howie Epstein on bass. They began working on their fifth album, which was produced by Iovine again. Long After Dark was eventually released in 1982.
In this episode, drummer Stan Lynch describes where the band was at in this period when they had achieved their dream of success and were trying to figure out where to go next musically. Lead guitarist Mike Campbell explains his collaboration process with Petty for several songs where he would present a fleshed out demo for Petty to write lyrics to. Adria Petty describes being 8 years old when this record came out and shares her memories of this time when her father was writing from darker and more personal place than before. Producer and archivist Ryan Ulyate talks about the country leaning outtakes from these sessions and how Petty left high quality material off the record as he focused on structuring a cohesive album. With Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition), we get a chance to hear an alternative direction for the album that presages the more acoustic songs that Petty would embrace in his later career. From a dark and edgy sound to the record to Petty viewing songwriting as a job to experimenting musically with drum loops and synthesizers to engineer Shelly Yakus being an unsung hero to the band coming to the end of their work with Jimmy Iovine to welcoming the new format of MTV with the “You Got Lucky” video, we’ll hear the stories of how the record came together.
