"Long After Dark" Emerges From the "Damn the Torpedoes" Shadows

the "in-betweener" gets a revised look

In old school animation—the way Disney and Warner Brothers did it way back when— rough drawings of the action were sketched on paper by the animators, who then flipped through the pages to see what they've drawn come to rough life. Once these roughs met with their approval they handed them off to secondary animators usually referred to as "in-betweeners" who produced the drawings that go in between what the animators hand them, thus producing the fluidity and graceful movement seen in the best classic animation. Obviously the creative artistry was with the animators, while the "in-betweeners" were more skilled mechanics than artists. Some "in-betweeners" graduated to become animators, but most did not (in the original process, once the drawings were cleaned up, pen and ink experts would draw the images on clear plastic cells, one frame at a time, and later other artists would paint in the colors, one color at a time in each cell).

In the new notes for this double LP set, original co-producer Jimmy Iovine describes 1982's Long After Dark as "an in-between album". Annotator David Fricke describes it as "the essential bridge in a long game...". Cameron Crowe, who directed the 1983 documentary "Heartbreakers Beach Party" centered on Long After Dark recalls in the notes that Petty was "...a little scared about the future"—the rise of MTV..." among his concerns. Iovine cites the "Fifties-roots and Sixties-garage classicism (giving way) to synthesizers in "You Got Luck" ad period-reverb production on "We Stand a Chance.

With the death of rock fears back then pretty much panning out as true today, never mind Tom Petty's premature passing, this album returns with far superior sound than the original, here mastered by Chris Bellman cut using the original analog master tape. The press release didn't make that clear, but as I wrote referring to the album in a recent review of the Audio Technica AT-ART1000x cartridge, "Mastered by Chris Bellman from I don't know what and don't care. This sounds far better than my original pressing, particularly on bottom. The original was weak on bottom and somewhat spitty and crispy on top. The reissue gets it all correctly—well focused, pleasingly bright but not harsh and with no 'treble overhang'."

The mastering source mystery was solved a few weeks ago when I ran into reissue producer Ryan Ulyate at The L.A.& Orange County Audio Society's GALA who I'd not previously met though we communicated when I proofed the T.P.s of the Wildflowers Deluxe box set. Ulyate confirmed that Bellman cut from tape and that no compression or bass attenuation was involved in the cut. Clearly the original cut by Stephen Marcussen sounded like both were applied to the original.

Great rock songs are here, sounding better than ever, including "Straight Into Darkness", "You Got Lucky" and "Change Of Heart" among them. But the influence of "New Wave" and synth based "post rock" is also evident and while it "modernizes" the sound ala The Cars, it also diluted the Petty sound as he and the band worked through a "change of art" if not heart, which brings me to my Tom Petty parody that I produced when this record came out. I promised Ryan I'd send it to him once I dug it out of my not well organized archives. My track was called "Change of Art" as in "there's been a chay-ange, ...there's been a change of art", hair's just a little too long...."etc.

Me as TP speculates about the need to cut my hair, wear spandex etc. I can't remember the exact lyrics but I had no idea then that's I'd tapped into a real TP MTV-concern! I did the keyboards on one of those tiny Casio-things and played my Stratocaster. It came out pretty good as I remember it including my Tom impression.

The "bonus tracks" album is more than a bonus. It might be more fun than the original album and precious since there'll be no more new. There are live in the studio tracks produced for a French television show, a track held back and given to Lone Justice ("Don't Make Me Walk the Line"), "Heartbreakers Beach Party" (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers do the B-52's) a "Stories We Could Tell" (for French TV) that delivers the Buddy Holly roots and the closer, the boys having a blast covering "Wild Thing". Ryan's mix of these tracks "in the box" to digital is outstanding and kind of sounds better than the original record. He told me Tom was smart, only delivering to the record company the tracks to be released per his contract. He kept the rest so there will be more of this hopefully on future Tom Petty reissues.

So yes, this album is, as Iovine suggests, an 'in betweener" but with much better sound, a worthwhile second album and forty plus years perspective, it's a worthy shelf addition under P or if you do it the other way, under T.