“I dreamed you, I saw your face, caught my lifeline when drifting through space, I saw an angel, I saw my fate, I can only thank God it was not too late…” – Tom Petty, “Angel Dream (No. 2)”

I don’t think I ever explicitly tied Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s soundtrack of songs for the movie She’s The One to his prior record, the solo credited (i.e., Tom Petty vs Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) Wildflowers. 1994’s Wildflowers was such a momentously big record and tour by 1996 when it was announced Petty and the Heartbreakers (Mike Campbell, guitar; Ben Tench, keyboards; Howie Epstein, bass; they didn’t have an “official” replacement for departed drummer Stan Lynch) were releasing a soundtrack for a movie, I felt it was probably a stop-gap until the next “actual” album. However, recently the Petty estate decided to revisit the She’s The One soundtrack and remake it as more of an actual Petty LP vs the soundtrack we are all familiar with. They’ve been pitching this album named Angel Dream as the “last chapter” in the Wildflowers story. I questioned that at first but considering that a handful of tracks from the Wildflowers sessions ended up on the soundtrack, it sort of makes sense to me. I feared this might be something akin to the Finding Wildflowers fiasco but it appears not.

It’s always difficult for an artist to follow up a game changing album, especially one as huge as Wildflowers. Fleetwood Mac struggled after Rumours and switched creative directions and recorded the experimental Tusk. The Eagles struggled to follow up Hotel California so they labored and labored over The Long Run. Petty was probably facing a similar daunting task following up Wildflowers so doing a soundtrack ala Queen’s Highlander-centric A Kind of Magic was probably an escape route. Why they didn’t kick out a live album at that time is anyone’s guess? The story I remember about the She’s The One soundtrack was that director/star of the film Ed Burns approached Petty about writing a song for the soundtrack and Petty & his Heartbreakers (with Curt Bisquera playing drums on most the tracks, future Heartbreaker drummer Steve Ferrone only appears on 3 of them) got together with producer Rick Rubin and started jamming. The story went they were having so much fun they ended up with an album’s worth of material. I had no idea at the time that the soundtrack had tunes that originated in the Wildflowers sessions: “Climb That Hill,” “California,” “Hope You Never,” and “Hung Up And Overdue.” If Petty had this much strong material coming into the project, it hardly sounds like the jam I’d been led to believe it was. Petty had always wanted to make Wildflowers a double LP, but the record company talked him out of it. I guess he wanted some of those leftovers to see the light of day so they ended up on She’s The One.

I bought She’s The One almost as soon as it came out. The career momentum of Wildflowers was such that I would have purchased an album of Petty singing Appalachian folk songs accompanied by a banjo at the time… oh and I hate the banjo. I will admit the first single “Walls (Circus)” didn’t exactly grab me. I remember asking a friend of mine if he’d heard it and he said, “That song wouldn’t have even been considered for Wildflowers it’s so awful.” Harsh, indeed. The song is not my favorite, but I still ran to the record store. The song actually didn’t do very well on the charts either despite the fabulous Beach Boys-style backup vocal by Lindsey Buckingham (seriously, listen to that song on headphones and focus on Buckingham’s voice). That was probably a disappointment to the Petty camp at the time, but I figured the soundtrack was just a method to take some of the pressure off Petty having to come up with “Wildflowers 2.0.” I considered it then and still do, more of a minor addition to the Petty catalog.

She’s The One seemed slightly slap-dash, like most soundtracks. There were a couple of instrumentals, “Hope On Board” and “Airport,” likely used as background in the flick. I saw the movie but only remember a little of it. There were two versions each of “Walls” and “Angel Dream” which was unusual. What was also different about this album was it had not one but two covers songs, a rarity for a Petty album. The band did Lucinda Williams’ “Change The Locks,” and I must ask, is there a more perfect paring than Southern boy Tom Petty doing Southern woman Lucinda’s track? Petty also did a cover of Beck’s acoustic track “Asshole.” I loved that Petty was covering an artist who at the time was a relative new comer. And lets face it, “Asshole” is a great song. Petty treats it lovingly.

There are a lot of things to like on the She’s The One soundtrack. I do like both versions of “Angel Dream,” but especially “Angel Dream (No. 2),” quoted above… which could have been written by me about the Rock Chick a few years later. I love the song “California,” which is so catchy it should be on that state’s tourism commercials. I almost picked it for my “Virtual Vacation, 50 Songs/50 States” playlist last summer and I regret not doing so… “Supernatural Radio” is one of those lost, epic gems of a song that everyone should hear. “Zero From Outer Space” is the sound of the Heartbreakers having a really good time playing a surf-style rocker. Interestingly enough, Campbell and Tench would later record an entire LP of surf songs in disguise as the Blue Stingrays, (Friday Night Music Exploration With the Rock Chick: Blue Stones, Blue Stingrays).  “Hope You Never” is another “baby you done me wrong” track which always reminds me of the awful woman I was dating in ’96. While it wasn’t the momentous follow up people were looking for, it was to me an interesting record. Not great but good and Petty’s good stuff is better than most other artist’s great stuff.

The Petty estate decided as part of the Wildflowers story to repackage and re-release this music. Renamed Angel Dream after the strongest track on the original album, they also put some new artwork on the cover. I don’t usually talk about cover art but the choice on this one was… poor. It looks like a greeting card. What has changed on Angel Dream vs She’s The One? They omitted the two original instrumentals, “Hope On Board,” and “Airport.” They paired the two songs that had two versions each down to one version. “Walls (No. 3)” and “Angel Dream (No. 2)” were included and the other versions left off. I will say, in each case, they chose the right version of the song to include and which one to omit. They left off three of the Wildflowers outtakes, “Hope You Never,” “California” and “Hung Up And Overdue” which were included in the Wildflowers All The Rest box. They completely changed the running order of the original tracks. They lead off with “Angel Dream (No 2)” which as a ballad is different. They have included four unreleased songs that supposedly came out of those She’s The One sessions but weren’t included, which I assume is the hook to get us to buy this version: “One of Life’s Little Mysteries,” “105 Degrees,” the J.J. Cale cover “Thirteen Days,” and an instrumental “French Connection.” “French Connection” is just an instrumental version of “Angel Dream (No. 2),” which plays back into the multiple versions theme of the original.

If you don’t own the She’s The One soundtrack, the new running order probably won’t bother you. If I’m being honest, it’s probably a more satisfying listening experience in this new incarnation. It certainly didn’t change my opinion of this album as a minor entry in Petty’s catalog. The new tracks, as a whole, are weaker than the Wildflowers outtakes that were taken off the original for Angel Dream. “One of Life’s Little Mysteries” is an almost old-timey sounding track. It reminded me a little of “The Man Who Loved Women” from The Last DJ. It has that McCartney “Martha My Dear” feel to it. I’m a huge fan of stuff in the vaults but I’d just call “Life’s Little Mysteries” an OK track. It’s a curiosity. The J.J. Cale cover, “Thirteen Days” is the pick of the litter of the new songs. It tells the story of a band barely maintaining their sanity on the road. It’s got a fabulous slide guitar from Mike Campbell. “We’re smoking cigarettes and reefer, drinking coffee and booze.” Sounds kinda fun. “105 Degrees” is a barrel house rocker in the vein of the Animals with a big organ and sawing guitars. “What do you want, perfection?”

If you already have the She’s The One soundtrack, I’d merely suggest checking out the new, unreleased stuff, especially “105 Degrees” and “Thirteen Days.” If you don’t, this is a wholly satisfying listen in it’s own right. In my estimation it’s still a minor episode in the continuing story of Tom Petty but it’s definitely worth a listen… until the next box set of suddenly found material pops up from the Petty camp.

Cheers!