Tom Petty and the album ‘Highway Companion’

Tom Petty‘s solo album, Highway Companion, was released on Tuesday, July 25th, 2006. The style offers a wide-ranging set of music that proves a solid album that makes for nice companionship during an extended drive. Let not the somewhat darker tone, by the standards of Tom Petty music, dissuade you from a good, hard listen.

(The album cover for Highway Companion by Tom Petty features an apparent astronaut beside what I take to be a rhesus monkey, which in fact was the first primate launched into space by the United States).

Saving Grace opens Highway Companion with a hard-hitting approach on a run for finding peace of mind. The notion of being alone and trying to decide who you are girds the message of the lyrics. The southern rock influence on this song is strong.

(Saving Grace was released as the first radio single from the Tom Petty solo album, Highway Companion. The song was released on iTunes in the United States and physically in the United Kingdom).

Square One takes a slower, controlled pace to confronting a feeling of turmoil that needed dealt with. The feeling I get is there was relationship reflection that needed resolving, though the pain that needed conscience clearing need not be in the world of love to make this song meaningful of its own accord and in the heartland rock genre.

Flirting with Time keeps with the theme of travel metaphorically can guide you to your relationship feelings of continued romantic tidings or moving on. The resolution for Petty is that the lady he can love needs to commit to the effort to keep her suitor, Petty, from moving on.

(Tom Petty of Gainesville, Florida, shown here in 2006, would most certainly have been playing music in support of Highway Companion).

If the notion of a country song met a western and a song for the road, Down South lays this out precisely and deliberately. The organ accompaniment I here within this song giving way to exquisite guitar play brings me sincere happiness.

Jack uplifts the listener again, transitioning in sound between determined and deliberate. Lyrically, this song is about a guy whose girlfriend has moved on from him, yet he is determined to get her back in the face of people telling him that the notion is futile.

(Mike Campbell of Panama City, Florida played on Highway Companion as well as with music made as part of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers).

Turn This Car Around offers insight into an impossible wrong situation for Tom Petty in the world of love. A need, a desperation, or something in-between sees the singer put his shame in his hat to apologize and make the next romantic play for the girl of his fancy.

Big Weekend was the B-side to the Saving Grace single that opened the Highway Companion album. The song leans as strongly country music in sounds as any on the album, lyrically getting into the hitting the bars with friends for a weekend.

Night Driver delves deeply into new instrumentation, showing some of what I take to be Jeff Lynne‘s production influence. Lyrically, the notion of physical intimacy is rejected for lack of emotional intimacy. The message I hear feels like the mirror image of Turn This Car Around, which invokes a clear history that really drew Tom Petty and those listening in.

(Jeff Lynn of Birmingham, England, United Kingdom played on Highway Companion. In addition to playing with Petty in The Traveling Wilburys, Lynn played a leading role as a member of Electric Light Orchestra).

Damaged by Love is a clear statement of a woman hurt in love that has grown numb to the risks and rewards of the gentler emotion. There’s a downcast feeling to the lyrics and the sound, ultimately lending itself to a short solo to express disappointment and sorrow.

The travel companionship of Highway Companion returns with Ankle Deep, pointing to a truly shallow, hollowed out feeling that passes for love. The song extends the sense of damage in love of Damaged by Love, this time offering the ghastly feeling of wading through a collective disappointment and sorrow.

The Golden Rose closes with both the most interesting and the most downtrodden opening of any song on Highway Companion. The song offers a sadness outside love, and despair over lacking a once-known love as well. The song evokes personal blues as outside the many directions I’ve heard blues take. The song is classic Tom Petty meets a personal darkness.

Matt – Monday, July 25, 2022