Customer Reviews

Into the Great Wide Open

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Arguably one of the best things which happened to Tom Petty was that he met Jeff Lynne. Petty purists and lovers of his early music may disagree, but during the mid eighties, Petty was enduring a rather cold winter of music which many music veterans suffer throughout their career. Jeff Lynne helped put Petty back on track with both Full Moon Fever and this great album, probably one of the best of his career.It also proved that the Lynne/Petty partnership brought about magically extraordinary results. Since this album Petty's music even though missing the wonderful production of Jeff Lynne has been irresistible, Wildflowers, She's The One, Echo and the The Last DJ are all superb beautifully crafted pieces of music.
Into The Great Wide Open is a wonderful full sounding rocking album with addictive, professional tunes which entice the listener in. It's got all the great hooks you expect from Lynne, along with the good natured cynicism you get from Petty when he's in form. Mixed with superb Lynne production and fabulous guitar work from the amazing Mike Campbell you've got a winning and unbeatable team.
This is a brilliant album, probably not as catchy as Full Moon Fever but there's no denying it's got rhythm, the right mood and lot's of style. I just dearly hope one day soon Jeff Lynne & Tom will see fit to make another album together and thrill us one more time.
Essential Listening

This cd, a bit unexpectedly, has become one of my all-time favorite Tom Petty albums. Of course, "Learning To Fly" and the title track are bonfide classics that still can be heard on the radio, but there are some real hidden gems here that I am still wondering why they didn't become hit singles. These include the inspiring "We Will Meet Again", the powerful "Two Gunslingers" and also "King's Highway." In fact, there is not a bad song on the whole album. This is one of those dics that after one or two listens, you'll have most of the songs memorized. I did! One of TP's most overlooked projects, but one every Petty fan should hear.

I simply can not believe some of the reviews that this album has gotten. I am a die-hard Petty fan, own and love all of his albums, and I have to say that this is one of my favorites. The songs on this album are reflective, and cover just about every mood and emotion. There is no better pleasure than listening to this album from beginning to end. Though his next album (excluding Greatist Hits) Wildflowers often gets the praise in Petty's newer works, I always felt that a few song were off on that one. On this album, they are all on target. My favorites are King's Highway, Two Gunslingers, You and I Will Meet Again, and All the Wrong Reasons (though it is a bit like Free Fallin', it is still great on its own). What a record!!

Full Moon Fever, produced and written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, is nothing short of a masterpiece. It must have been, because they teamed up again to create Into the Great Wide Open. Guess what, they did it again. While Into the Great Wide Open is a little bit different than Full Moon Fever, in my opinion they took the best parts of Full Moon Fever and turned it into Into the Great Wide Open, a album that is even BETTER.

Full Moon Fever had many fantastic songs, some of them far better than most here, but it had a bit too big difference between the fantastic, the good and the okay songs. The problem is almost non-existing on Into the Great Wide Open, where the album is far more consistent all over, a listening experience without stops, a journey through a musical soundscape perfected on the Full Moon Fever.

Once again, Petty and Lynne have written and produced it, but unlike Full Moon Fever, Petty has written some really great songs alone here too, but he really shines along with Lynne.

-Learning to Fly: This song really is beyond any explanation. It ranks just below I wont Back Down as personal favorite, and it can be seen as a sort of sequel to the song, in terms of sound and style. In any way, it is one of Petty`s best. As Always, Lynne made sure it would be as good as it became.
-King`s Highway: An Upbeat rocker by Petty, with a nice overall sound.
-Into the Great Wide Open: Legendary. Petty&Lynne created a smashing hit with this one, about a lucky guy who gets a shot at stardom in the music industry. The Chorus is fantastic.
-Two Gunslingers: Great upbeat song by Petty again, with a nice little story that is fun to listen to. In style with King`s Highway, which can only mean good things.
-The Dark of the Sun: A Beautiful song by Petty&Lynne, one of the best on the album. The Chorus and the build-up to it is great.
-All or Nothin`: Good Rocker with a chorus that have a bad habit of popping up in your head whenever you dont expect it.
-All the Wrong Reasons: A Nice song by Petty&Lynne, with a fun and sweet sing along Chorus.
-Out in the Cold: Ah, Best Rocker on the Album. Smashing Upbeat by Petty&Lynne, with roots back to both Petty`s and ELO`s older styles, while keeping a nice, clean sound with Petty`s unique vocal. One of the only songs with a real "solo", and it does one heck of a job with it too.
-You and I will Meet Again: I love this song. There is just something special about it, and it holds up well when compared to the co-written songs. Written by Petty.
-Built to Last: One of the best on the album. Petty&Lynne finishes their work on this fantastic album with this gem.

I am left speechless after a round with Into the Great Wide Open in my CD Player. It is for me, the absolute evidence of the magic between Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, something neither have managed to recreate alone, or with others. As soon as those two get together, something happens. They wrote several of Roy Orbinsons biggest hits too, including the ever-famous "You Got it" and "California Blue", and further evidencing what happens when two musicians have as much Chemistry as Flowers and Bees.

No one can ignore the importance of these two albums. While Lynne is in the background, and Petty is the face, they were equal parts that made up the sum that is one of the best Poprockers ever.

I'll admit I'm not a huge Tom Petty fan, however, this 1991 album is a very solid one that spotlights Petty at his best. The album is spiked with some big high points that rank among his best tunes ever. If you're looking for some good music to listen to while you're cruising down the highway, this album really hits the spot; Petty doesn't slow the tempos very much on here--even on ballad-ish tracks like "Two Gunslingers" & "You And I Will Meet Again", the tempos are surprisingly brisk. There are a bunch of breezy feel-good tunes like the simple-but-effective "Learning To Fly", the splendidly tuneful "The Dark of the Sun", the coming-of-age tale "Two Gunslingers", & the optimistic "Kings Highway". There are a couple of absolute gems with the arrestingly dreamy, fittingly-titled "Too Good To Be True", & the high-flying, irresistably riffy "Makin' Some Noise", with a fantastic grumbling guitar riff (presumably thanks to Mike Campbell who gets a co-write on the tune), & "Out In the Cold" is a solid uptempo rocker as well. With its abundance of fine material, & thoroughly energetic, spirited performances on track after track, Petty really shines on this album. As with the previous album, "Full Moon Fever", Jeff Lynne plays a strong role here--he co-wrote 8 of the 12 tracks; and he serves as the primary producer, giving the album a characteristically Lynne-esque sound that's quite similar to that of ELO's 1983 album "Secret Messages". Lynne and Petty, of course, had also worked together in the Traveling Wilburys, and it appears that the two worked very well together, with Lynne helping to bring out the very best in Petty. Between Lynne & the co-producers of Petty & Campbell, they really managed to give the album a highly appealing guitar-powered sound (very mild use of synths) that's bright, crisp, & punchy, which helps drive the material home--there are healthy doses of crisp, strummed acoustic & ringing electric, and the songs are never less than pleasant, even when they're somewhat dull (such as the "Free Fallin'"-esque "All the Wrong Reasons"). I've read how this is considered to be kind of a second-rate "Full Moon Fever"--I don't know, sometimes it seems to me like critics just roll the dice to determine which albums an artist puts out are good ones, as opposed to actually LISTENING worth a damn. This is a solid rock 'n' roll album, & it's worth picking up.

I think Tom Petty is one of the better artists when it comes to melodic and catchy pop-rock. His album "Into the great wide open" may not be as good as the masterpiece "Full moon fever", but it's most certainly a very strong record. Some songs from this album became hits back in 1991, like "Learning to fly" and "Into the great wide open". These tunes are indeed good but I think there's even better songs included as the faster "Out in the cold" and "Dark of the sun". Other tracks that's outstanding are "King's highway" and "Two gunslingers". If you're into pop/rock that's written and performed with heart and soul combined with honesty - this album is for you!

This is one of those "classic" albums that really get overlooked. It's probably Petty and Co most consistantly good album. There's the "hits" of course that you know like Learning to Fly and Into the Great Wide Open (which featured Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway in the video) but there are other equally great songs that never hit the airwaves like the upbeat emotions of King's Highway and You and I Will Meet Again, the "rockin" Makin' some Noise, Out in the Cold and Dark of the Sun and Tom's version of a love song, Built to Last. Even the seeming "throw away" songs like Two Gunslingers is lyrically interesting and fun. It's a CD that no "Petty" fan should be without.

This is a really good album, I have no idea why people hate it. This has some of Petty's best song writing, especially in the title track and Two Gunslingers, two of my favorite songs on this album. Learning to Fly is vintage Petty, a radio hit for years to come. Jeff Lynne's production is as good as it was on Full Moon Fever. So what if this album didnt have as many hits as FMF, you didnt buy just to listen to the hits, this album I listen to all the way through. favorites include Learning To Fly, Into The Great Wide Open, Two Gunslingers, The Dark Of The Sun, All The Wrong Reasons, Out In The Cold, and You and I Will Meet Again. Highly Recommended.

This CD is the accessible yet misunderstood peak of Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne's work together. Great Wide Open is good enough that it doesn't need to lick the boots of Petty's other albums, especially Full Moon Fever (which has several very weak tracks to my ears). This CD is always described as Full Moon Fever's lesser cousin, but I think it's significantly better than FMF, so there.

I have nearly all of Petty's albums, and this CD, together with Hard Promises and (parts of) Wildflowers, is unsurpassed in my opinion. The sound mix is absolutely shimmering, smooth and gorgeous, sounding better than any subsequent Petty release (to me). It's like they had analog recording perfected on this album, then they went and got a harsher sound with Wildflowers.

Did I mention this is one of the greatest driving albums of all time? It has this inexorable drive through the tracks that some mistake for bland monotony. Petty's just trying to make a stylistic point -- a dead end, but a fully realized one. I love every song on this CD. Petty's singing is great, Stan Lynch's drumming is uncommonly versatile (check out the last track), Mike Campbell's guitar lines are just timeless perfection, and it's all so well recorded. The songs are generally underappreciated jewels.

If Petty had more MTV play or more sales from this album, it would have been hailed a masterpiece. For my part -- not to disparage different things he's done over the years -- I think this is his best work.

...and under them skies of blue. Who hasn't heard the title song from this popular album?

Tom Petty had just been at his peak with Full Moon Fever, an expiramental side project that proved to be the most successful work Tom has ever laid down in history. Tom once again rejoined with the Heartbreakers, and with some effort and collaboration, wrote "Into The Great Wide Open".

"Great Wide Open" was surprisingly and shockingly good, considering that it followed "Full Moon Fever", an album that defined a legacy of TPATH, and sold more copies than any album in Heartbreaker history. FMF was a tough album to top - many artists wouldn't have been able to pull off an album like that, let alone follow up to it. So how was Tom going to keep his career in line, and follow up with something that didn't sound like another FMF, but wasn't too far from the shoreline? I know I certainly couldn't have done it. Only musical geniuses like Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne could make it happen one more time.

Though not a chart-topping album, I.T.G.W.O. was, and still remains a classic to this day. The unforgettable "Learning To Fly", the fast-paced "King's Highway", the cooly "Two Gunslingers", the heartfelt "Out In The Cold", the catchy "All The Wrong Reasons"... there's plenty of Heartbreaker genius to be offered on this album.

Jeff Lynne has once again proved himself to be a genius musically, and a genius behind the console. I can't even begin to explain how open, airy, and wide this record sounds.

Don't be fooled into thinking this record is subtle Tom Petty material. I.T.G.W.O. features some of Tom's best work, IMO, and should not be left out of any collection.

God Bless!