Tom Petty – Spike

Boys, we got a man with a dog collar on
Maybe we ought to throw old Spike a bone?

This song is not the best song that Petty ever recorded… but it’s fun and I like it. He has a little of a Booker T. and the MG’s vibe going on in the intro.

In the mid-eighties, we would cruise around in my Toyota Celica with a massive sound system and this is one of the songs we would play. The song was on Petty’s Southern Accents album. Tom Petty said it was about: “a really kind of ignorant redneck guy who is kind of shaken up when he sees a punk rocker.”

Southern Accents was his sixth studio album and it was released in 1985. He damaged his hand while making this album. He was frustrated with the song Rebels and listened to the song that the band and he were working on and realized…the demo he made was better. In a fit of frustration, Petty hit the wall a little too hard and severely damaged his bones and tendons. He said:  “all of a sudden, I got Mickey Mouse’s hand. I get to the hospital, and it’s so bad that other doctors are being called in like, ‘hey, get a load of this’. I had to be given electro-shock therapy. The electrodes would force my hand to shut because the hand didn’t want to close because it hurt so bad.”

The album was not easy to make. When guitarist Mike Campbell came and played him his progression for a song…Petty scrapped it for something else. Later on, he would regret that decision because the progression turned out to be Boys of Summer which would become a massive hit for Don Henley.

Petty had wanted to make an album about the South because he was from Florida. That went out the window when he got to the studio but still did incorporate some into the songs. The album didn’t end up like Petty intended but he became really proud of the album because of all the hardships involved in making it.

The album peaked at #7 in the Billboard Album Charts, #16 in Canada (from what I found), #23 in the UK, and #25 in New Zealand in 1985.

Spike

Look out, another one, just like the other ones
Another bad-ass, another troublemaker
I’m scared, ain’t you boys scared?
I wonder if he’s gonna show us what bad is?
Boys, we got a man with a dog collar on
Maybe we ought to throw old Spike a bone?

Make me say

Here’s another misfit, another Jimmy Dean
Bet he’s got a motorbike, what do y’all think?
Bet if we be good we get a ride on it
If he ain’t too mad about the future
Maybe we ought to help him see
The future ain’t what it used to be

Listen
Hey Spike, what do you like?
Hey Spike, what do you like?

Oh, I say

Hey Spike, what do you like?
Hey Spike, you’re scaring my wife
Hey Spike, tell us about life
Could you tell me about life?
I might need need a dog collar too, boy
He might make me say say
I might say, might say

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

17 thoughts on “Tom Petty – Spike”

  2. Don’t know this one but I just looked up ‘southern Accents’ and figure that the only song on it I have heard is ‘Don’t Come Round Here No More’. I didn’t know he had , basically, The Band doing one song for him and Robbie Robertson producing. With input from Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, it was obviously pretty eclectic!

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    1. It’s an album that was played here a lot….not just Don’t Come Round here No More…Rebels was played…my friend had the casette tape of it…we wore this one out. I got a chuckle out of it anyway.

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      1. Is this the album that didn’t do so well so he dropped the Heartbreakers for his next one (‘Full Moon Fever’?). I could look it up, but it does seem like this record didn’t get much attention compared to what he’d done before.

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      2. No no…this one was Platinum…it was huge…this was critically and commercially successful.
        no that was “Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)”
        …it had Jamin’ Me on it.

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  4. Great backstory as always Max. I have seen this album sitting in Spins Records but its a little pricey but if the price was to drop I would probably grab it. Petty is a guy whose music I have to start picking away at on vinyl….

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  5. I will have to pass on this one. I like Petty & his Heartbreakers (and I hear Tench going to it) but, not fond of this. This sounds album filler material instead of a masterpiece like Woman In Love or You Got Lucky or Breakdown or Refugee or Change of Heart.

    I’m a bit picky about Petty but, you already know that. Ha!

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  6. I didn’t recognize the song title, even though I own “Southern Accents” on CD, which was my first Tom Petty album. I haven’t listen to it in many years, but once I started playing the clip, I immediately recognized the song.

    “Rebels” is among my favorite Tom Petty songs. I had no idea about the rather gruesome background story. From that album I also dig “Don’t Come Around Here no More” and the title track in particular.

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      1. Well, Max, I had to listen to the clip you included to remember it! 🙂

        “Southern Accents” was my first Tom Petty album I got on CD. I also got “Into the Great Wide Open”, as well as “Pack Up the Plantation: Live!”, along with a 1993 “Greatest Hits” compilation. And stuff on music cassette.

        Somewhat shockingly, that’s pretty much it. Of course, with my streaming provider, most of everything else is only one click away.

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      2. I think my first Tom Petty album was Hard Promises with The Waiting…that song and American Girl are my top two Petty songs.

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