The Tom Petty estate has released a new, storybook-style music video for “Something Could Happen”, a track from the recent Wildflowers reissue, Wildflowers & All The Rest, starring actress Lauren Cohan of The Walking Dead fame.
The new “Something Could Happen” visuals premiered on Tuesday as a part of a special livestream event honoring Petty’s various, iconic music videos from throughout his career. The livestream, hosted by noted rock journalist David Fricke, brought together a mix of artists and directors who have collaborated with Tom including director Julien Temple (“Free Fallin’”, “Into the Great Wide Open”, “Yer So Bad”, “Learning To Fly”), director Jeff Stein (“Don’t Come Around Here No More”), filmmaker/producer Anne-Marie Mackay, and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics (who co-wrote/producer “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and is featured in the video).
In addition, the stream featured never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes footage of 1994’s “You Don’t Know How It Feels” with commentary from director Phil Joanou and Tom Petty himself, as well as a discussion with Warren Fu and Cohan about the new “Something Could Happen” video.
The video itself, which unfurls over the reflective rock ballad in the style of a children’s story or silent movie, follows Cohan’s heroine through the trials and tribulations of love lost. “Her heart was broken beyond repair,” stylized titles explain at the start of the clip. “She packed her belongings and moved to a faraway land, vowing to never love again. Days turned to months, months turned to years.”
As the song begins, viewers see Cohan reach a milestone in her heartbreak recovery. She declutters her house, throwing away a slew of symbolic items—out with the old, in with the new. “She was finally ready to try her hand at love once more,” the titles continue as we see Cohan’s character get back out there on dating apps. However, while the star of the story tries, unsuccessfully, to find someone new, the old belongings she cast away slowly join together and attempt to make their way back into her house, back into her life.
She declutters her house, throws away an old music box, a heart-shaped gem. The clock robot comes to life as she reorganizes and redecorates. Gets on the apps to start dating again. The clock robot keeps trying to get back inside the house. Finally, this symbolic amalgam of memories picks up enough mass to come ring the doorbell and woo the woman who tossed its parts aside with comforting nostalgia. While the memory composite falls apart when it eventually leaves her side, it leaves behind a heart-shaped gem—a reminder to cherish even the memories that time moves you to push aside.
As the video’s director, Warren Fu, explained of the project in a press statement, “It is an honor to create visuals for this previously unreleased gem. The fact that it was one of Tom’s favorite songs from All The Rest makes it even more special. In looking back on Tom’s old music videos, it was obvious that he had a lot of fun with them and was not afraid to get a bit weird. I wanted to create another modern fairytale in the spirit of Tom’s music video for ‘Into The Great Wide Open.’”
Fu continued, “Every fairytale has some sort of theme or message. In our story, we have a character that is an incarnation of memories reassembled into a living creature, trying to make its way back home. I think the message I was trying to convey is that all our experiences, the good the bad, the beautiful and the painful make us who we are, and we should embrace them. Tom never compromised his artistic integrity and always stayed true to who he was, so I feel like our message in this video is in line with his spirit. Hints of his presence are also felt throughout the video in easter eggs: The skywriting heart from ‘Free Fallin’,’ a crown for ‘It’s Good To Be King,’ a dog collar with an ‘R’ in a nod to Tom’s dog Ryder, the slow dance dip from ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance,’ the Alice and the Mad Hatter hat from ‘Don’t Come Around Here No More,’ and the storybook motif from ‘Into The Great Wide Open.’ When Tom’s fans watch this video, I hope they feel the same way I felt hearing the song for the first time: Something new, yet something nostalgic and familiar.”
Check out the new music video for “Something Could Happen” by Tom Petty below and scroll down to revisit the full livestream dedicated to Petty’s music videos.
Tom Petty – “Something Could Happen” (Official Video)
[Video: Tom Petty]
“Something Could Happen” Premiere Livestream w/ Host David Fricke
[Video: Tom Petty]
You can order your copy of the posthumous Tom Petty collection, Wildflowers & All The Rest, here.
The post Tom Petty Estate Premieres Storybook Music Video For Newly Released “Something Could Happen” [Watch] appeared first on L4LM.
