Songful Style Link Party #32: “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty

About Songful Style

Songful Style is an ageless style challenge series hosted by Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, Marsha of Marsha in the Middle, and Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette (formerly The Grey Brunette).

Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. You are welcome to style your own song inspired outfit and add it to the link party or link anything that you want to share even if it has nothing to do with the song. 

Marsha chose this month’s inspiration song, Tom Petty‘s beloved 1994 folk tune, “Wildflowers”.

The Lyrics

You belong among the wildflowers
You belong in a boat out at sea
Sail away, kill off the hours
You belong somewhere you feel free

Run away, find you a lover
Go away somewhere all bright and new
I have seen no other
Who compares with you

You belong among the wildflowers
You belong in a boat out at sea
You belong with your love on your arm
You belong somewhere you feel free

Run away, go find a lover
Run away, let your heart be your guide
You deserve deepest of cover
You belong in that home by and by

You belong among the wildflowers
You belong somewhere close to me
Far away from your trouble and worry
You belong somewhere you feel free
You belong somewhere you feel free

About the Artist, the Song, and My Outfit

Tom Petty was a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and frontman for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Born on October 20, 1950, in Gainesville, Florida, Thomas Earl Petty was the eldest son of Kitty (Avery) Petty, who worked in a local tax office, and Earl Petty, a traveling salesman. Petty has one younger brother, Bruce, who is seven years his junior.

Petty grew up in the Northeast Gainesville Residential District, which is known to locals as Duckpond, and attended Howard Bishop Middle School where he played baseball and basketball. In 1968, Petty graduated from Gainesville High School.

His interest in rock and roll music began in 1961 when he was just 10 years old. Petty’s uncle, who was working on set for an Elvis Presley movie, brought young Tom to watch the filming. Petty has said that in that meeting “Elvis glowed” and he instantly became a lifelong fan.

Very shortly after developing an interest in music, Petty formed his first band, the Epics, which evolved into Mudcrutch. Mudcrutch consisted of several future members of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Mudcrutch released one single which failed to chart and ultimately ended in the band breaking up. But that’s okay. It is really okay. Because the breakup of Mudcrutch led to the first lineup of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. And Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers were probably my very first favorite musical group. “The Waiting” (1981) is my favorite Tom Petty song and definitely on my list of top 20 favorite songs of all time.

But Marsha chose “Wildflowers” for this challenge so let’s jump ahead through the 1980s and early 1990s when Tom Petty went solo and formed the Traveling Wilburys. In 1989, Tom Petty secretly signed a very lucrative deal with Warner Bros. Records while still under contract with MCA Records. In 1994, he released his first album on the Warner Bros. label, called Wildflowers.

Today’s song, “Wildflowers”, is the opening track on the album of the same name. It was never released as a single but has become one of the most beloved songs in Tom Petty’s catalog. Petty wrote the song himself, saying it was easy to write and compose.

“I just took a deep breath and it came out. The whole song. Stream of consciousness: words, music, chords. Finished it. I mean, I just played it into a tape recorder and I played the whole song and I never played it again. I actually only spent three and a half minutes on that whole song. So I’d come back for days playing that tape, thinking there must be something wrong here because this just came too easy. And then I realized that there’s probably nothing wrong at all.”

No, Tom, there definitely is nothing wrong at all with that song!

On a more personal note, Tom Petty was married twice and had two daughters with his first wife, Jane Benyo. Following his divorce from Benyo in 1996, Petty struggled with heroin addiction, eventually going to rehab in 1999 under the direction of his girlfriend Dana York. York and Petty were married in Las Vegas on June 3, 2001. On October 1, 2017, York found Petty in cardiac arrest in their home and he was rushed to the hospital where he passed away at 8:40 p.m. on October 2, 2017. He was 66 years old.

My outfit was inspired not only by the Wildflowers theme of the song, but Petty’s all blue denim outfit that he is wearing in the video. The double floral prints on my slip dress and ruana perfectly represent all the talk of the wildflowers. The blue and while color palette captures the essence of Tom’s double denim but also is very suitable for the lyric “You belong in a boat out at sea”. Blue and white always gives me nautical/boating vibes. I topped my head with a navy blue cowgirl hat instead of a baseball hat like Petty because it matched my aesthetic better. I kept my accessories rather simple with my favorite horn necklace, an old blue beaded necklace, a pair of flea market hoop earrings, and my white cowgirl boots.

But wait…I have a confession to make. This outfit was not inspired at all by the song because I put it together and photographed it weeks before Marsha announced her song choice. So I cheated for this round! But it works and you would have never known had I not confessed! But I am a big fan of truth telling, so there you have it.

How did I do with this round of Songful Style?

I do hope you will check out how my friends have styled their outfits inspired by Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers”. 

• Marsha of Marsha in the Middle
• Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette

Featured Favorite from Songful Style Link Party #31: “These Dreams” by Heart

Nancy’s Fashion Style

Be sure to stop back on November 25, 2024, to see how we style my next song choice…Pink by Aerosmith! The video is chock full of so much wonderful sartorial inspiration. I hope you enjoy the creativity as much as I do.

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee

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