Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers‘ fifth album, Long After Dark, was released 40 years ago today (November 2nd). Although he says he’s “allergic” to synthesizers, keyboardist Benmont Tench — with the help of a hired “synth wiz” — was able to copy the parts guitarist Mike Campbell laid down on his demo of the song, You Got Lucky. Benmont Tench explains why “You Got Lucky” stood out from the rest of the record, which was mostly recorded live in the studio.
“‘You Got Lucky’ is an anomaly on Long After Dark, because Mike had a demo and we were trying to copy the demo to the track that he had made. It was right to try to copy it. It was our first experience with real synthesizers. I’m allergic to ’em. I think people who can play them well, I admire. I don’t have any clue what to do with them, so we had a synth wiz come in and turn it on for us and basically say, ‘Here’s how you get a sound.’ And then I played it and pretty much copied what Mike had played.”
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