Don't Come Around Here No More

“Don’t Come Around Here No More” (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and David Stewart, 1985). Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a classic story about a journey into a strange world where animals play games with unfixed rules and ask riddles that have no solutions. From the Caterpillar to the Cheshire Cat, the Mock Turtle and the Queen of Hearts, Alice’s adventures sound a lot like a night spent with Stevie Nicks, the spark that inspired David Stewart’s suggestion to focus on Alice in the video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More.” The video begins in a hazy mushroom-filled landscape, where the Caterpillar (Stewart) offers Alice a snack that sends her tumbling into another wondrous, checkered landscape. There, she nearly drowns in the tea of the Mad Hatter (Petty) and is harassed and chased by the members of the Queen’s court. Alice is finally turned into a cake and eaten alive by the Hatter and his friends, a feeling Stewart was likely familiar with, for when he left Nicks’ house the morning after the party, Nicks, wearing Victorian-style clothing, said, “Don’t come around here no more.”