For Tom Petty fans, there are few things more exciting than hearing a song they've never heard before.
Now imagine that song was recorded nearly half a century ago.
That's the story behind “Parade of Loons,” one of the previously unreleased treasures included in the massive new Origins 1971–1978 collection, arriving November 6 as a 5-LP/4-CD/Blu-ray set celebrating the 50th anniversary of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
And “Parade of Loons” isn't simply another forgotten song.
It's a little piece of Heartbreakers history.
THE SONG THAT GOT LOST IN THE TAPE
“Parade of Loons” has been known to serious Tom Petty collectors for years, but it has lived in that strange world occupied by unreleased recordings, demos and bootleg-era discoveries.
One long-running Petty discography project identifies a circulating version as a 1977 demo, while also noting that a separate studio outtake from the You're Gonna Get It! period had apparently never circulated among collectors.
And here's the really cool part:
Tom Petty himself reportedly explained why the song never made it onto the record.
The recording was too distorted.
That detail has been preserved in fan research referencing Conversations with Tom Petty, where Petty reportedly discussed the song and its recording problems.
Think about that for a second.
This wasn't necessarily a song that Tom decided wasn't worth keeping.
The problem was the recording itself.
The song effectively got trapped in the vault because the tape didn't sound the way Petty wanted it to.
For decades, that's where it stayed.
AND THEN THINGS GET EVEN MORE INTERESTING...
“Parade of Loons” has had something of an identity crisis over the years.
Collector documentation indicates that the song has sometimes been misidentified as “Afraid To Lose.”
That's the kind of thing that happens when you're dealing with recordings that were never officially released, whose titles weren't always documented consistently and whose tapes have spent decades circulating among hardcore collectors.
There is also evidence that more than one version existed.
One known collection of early Petty/Mudcrutch outtakes lists “Parade Of Loons” among recordings dating from the 1970s and identifies the circulating version as a 1977 demo, while noting that a studio outtake from the You're Gonna Get It! era was known to exist but hadn't circulated.
Which raises a pretty exciting question:
What exactly are we about to hear?
THIS IS TOM PETTY BEFORE TOM PETTY BECAME TOM PETTY
That's what makes Origins 1971–1978 so fascinating.
When most people think of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, they think of the finished product:
“American Girl.”
“Breakdown.”
“Listen to Her Heart.”
“Refugee.”
“Don't Do Me Like That.”
But the story of the band doesn't begin with the finished records.
It begins with years of experimentation.
Petty was writing songs, making demos, working with Mudcrutch, recording in different environments and figuring out exactly what kind of band he wanted the Heartbreakers to become.
Some ideas became classics.
Some became album tracks.
Some were handed to other artists.
And some simply disappeared into the tape vault.
“Parade of Loons” belongs to that last category.
It's a musical snapshot of an artist and a band still developing.
THE MUDCRUTCH CONNECTION
Long before Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers became one of America's biggest rock bands, there was Mudcrutch.
Petty's Florida roots and the Mudcrutch years are a crucial part of the story because they were the laboratory where many of the ideas, friendships and musical relationships that eventually became the Heartbreakers were developed.
And the archival recordings from this period are fascinating because they show just how much music was being created before the world knew what Tom Petty was going to become.
Collectors have documented a whole collection of early recordings including titles such as “Another Lonely Night,” “Don't It Get Weird,” “You're Driving Me Crazy,” “She's A Screamer,” “Makin' Some Noise,” “You Don't Care,” “Save Me,” “Lost In Your Eyes,” “Long Way From Home” and “Once Upon A Time Somewhere.”
The recordings don't all come from exactly the same period, either.
Some are associated with Mudcrutch's early recordings, some with Petty's solo work and others with the early Heartbreakers sessions around You're Gonna Get It!.
That's important because it gives us something better than a collection of random leftovers.
It gives us a timeline.
WHY “PARADE OF LOONS” MATTERS
There are probably going to be bigger songs in the collection.
There may be songs that are more polished. There may be recordings that immediately make fans wonder how the hell they were left unreleased. But “Parade of Loons” has something special going for it.
It's a mystery.
For years, it existed largely as something hardcore Petty fans knew about.
It had a demo. It had a disputed title history. There were questions about the studio recording. And there was the story that Petty didn't release it because the tape itself was too distorted. Now that song is stepping out of the shadows. That's pretty damn cool.
HEARING THE HEARTBREAKERS BEFORE THEY WERE LEGENDS
There's something almost magical about archival rock recordings. You know the future. The musicians don't.
When you hear a 1970s Tom Petty recording today, you hear it with the benefit of hindsight.
You know that the guy singing into that microphone is eventually going to write “Free Fallin'.”
You know Mike Campbell is going to become one of the most respected guitarists in American rock.
You know Benmont Tench is going to become one of the most distinctive keyboard players in the business.
You know the Heartbreakers are going to spend decades building one of the great American rock catalogs.
But they didn't know any of that yet. They were just a band trying to make it. And that's what makes these recordings so compelling.
The vault is open.
— Big Rig