Tag: Mike Campbell

Tom Petty – Mary Jane’s Last Dance

To tell you the truth…I always thought the title was Last Dance of Mary Jane. I thought the video to this song…lives up to Halloween. 

I like the rawness of the song, and the lyrics are fun. Tom was making his second solo album, Wildflowers, but the record company wanted a couple of tracks to go on the greatest hits album. Mary Jane’s Last Dance is one of  Tom’s most successful songs. This would be the last song Stan Lynch played drums on for the Heartbreakers. 

Petty himself once said he didn’t really know what the song was about when he wrote it, “maybe about leaving behind the past.” The Mary Jane double meaning, weed or woman, kept the mystery alive. Later on, he said that Mary Jane is the same character as the female in American Girl, with a few hard knocks.

Petty made some strange videos, and this was no exception. Tom played a mortician who takes home a corpse played by Kim Basinger. When he gets her home, he puts her in a wedding dress and dances with her. Then he puts her in a pickup truck and throws her into the ocean, and she opens her eyes as she sinks. It won Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The song was released as part of the band’s 1993 Greatest Hits compilation. The song peaked at #14 on the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #52 in the UK in 1994. It was like the end of one era and the beginning of another. Petty was saying goodbye to the jangle rock of his past and heading toward the inward-looking of Wildflowers.

I always liked the line “There’s pigeons down in Market Square
She’s standin’ in her underwear” because it sounds like it could have been off a mid-sixties Dylan album. 

Kim Bassinger: Now that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. It was classic, wasn’t it? He was a doll, and he was so sweet and asked me to do it, and both of us are extremely shy so we just said three words to each other the whole time. I’ll never forget how heavy that dress was! And I had to be dead the whole time. You know, it’s really one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, because I had to be completely weightless to be in his arms the way I was. It won all those awards, and the kids love it even today!

Mike Campbell: “That song took on a few shapes. It was written in my garage. I didn’t write it, but we were jamming in the garage and Tom was playing one of my guitars. It was called ‘Indiana Girl,’ the first chorus was ‘Hey, Indiana Girl, go out and find the world.’ We liked the song and Rick Rubin suggested we cut it. It had actually been around for a while, just the basic riff and that chorus. We cut the song and Tom was singing the chorus, and he decided he just couldn’t get behind singing about ‘Hey, Indiana Girl,’ so we went back and about a week later he came in and said ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ so he changed the chorus to ‘Last dance with Mary Jane.’ In the verse there is still the thing about an Indiana girl on an Indiana night, just when it gets to the chorus he had the presence of mind to give it a deeper meaning.”

Mike Campbell: “An interesting thing about that record, the same day we did the last overdubs, that guitar and a few little bits, we did a rough mix here at my house, just did it by hand. Then we went to 3 or 4 different studios over the next couple of weeks and tried to do a proper mix, and we could never beat that rough mix, so that was the mix we put out. It’s an interesting track, it’s very inaccurate, it’s kind of greasy and loose. That day we just gelled and every time we mixed it we could clean up the sound and make it more posh, but it just didn’t have the juice that one mix had.”

Mary Jane’s Last Dance

She grew up in an Indiana town
Had a good lookin’ momma who never was around
But she grew up tall and she grew up right
With them Indiana boys on an Indiana night

Well she moved down here at the age of eighteen
She blew the boys away, it was more than they’d seen
I was introduced and we both started groovin’
She said, “I dig you baby but I got to keep movin’…on, keep movin’ on”

Last dance with Mary Jane
One more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m
Tired of this town again

Well I don’t know what I’ve been told
You never slow down, you never grow old
I’m tired of screwing up, I’m tired of goin’ down
I’m tired of myself, I’m tired of this town
Oh my my, oh hell yes
Honey put on that party dress
Buy me a drink, sing me a song,
Take me as I come ’cause I can’t stay long

Last dance with Mary Jane
One more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m
Tired of this town again

There’s pigeons down in Market Square
She’s standin’ in her underwear
Lookin’ down from a hotel room
Nightfall will be comin’ soon
Oh my my, oh hell yes
You’ve got to put on that party dress
It was too cold to cry when I woke up alone
I hit the last number, I walked to the road

Last dance with Mary Jane
One more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m
Tired of this town again

Lone Justice – Ways to Be Wicked

First time I heard this song I loved it. It was by a group called Lone Justice with lead singer Maria McKee. The song was Ways to Be Wicked, written by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell. When I am asked my favorite female singer of the 1980s…Maria Mckee is my answer by a wide margin.

In 1985 the song peaked at #29 in the Mainstream Rock Charts and #77 in the UK. This surprised me because I heard the song quite a bit and thought it charted higher. They had two more songs that come to mind. “I Found Love” and “Shelter“. They should have made it further than they did. Maria did have a number 1 in the UK with “Show Me Heaven” in 1990.

Lone Justice was formed in 1982 and played rockabilly and country music as part of the cowpunk scene. After signing with Geffen, the band recorded their debut album, and hit the road, opening for U2. The hype was in overdrive and the pressure was on.

In 2022 Lisa let me ramble and go on about my undying love for Maria McKee at her site.

Ways To Be Wicked

Honey, why you always smile
When you see me hurt so bad?
Tell me what I did to you, babe
That would make you act like that?

Well, I’ve been your fool before, honey
Yeah, and I probably will again
‘Cuz you ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Ooh, but you don’t know one little thing
About love

Well, I can take a little pain
Yeah, I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you’re walkin’ me through Hell

Well, I’ve been your fool before, honey
Yeah, and I probably will again
‘Cuz you ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don’t know one little thing
About love

Those cobra eyes
Lie with a smile
Baby you take pride
In the devil down inside, yeah

Well, I can take a little pain
Yeah, I can hold it pretty well
I can watch your little eyes light up
While you’re walkin’ me through Hell

Well, I’ve been your fool before
Yeah, and I probably will again
You ain’t afraid to let me have it
No, you ain’t afraid to stick it in

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Ooh, but you don’t know one little thing
About love

Well, you know so many
Ways to be wicked
Yeah, but you don’t know one little, one little thing
About love

Yeah you know so many
Ways to be wicked
But you don’t know one little, one little

Chris Hillman – She Don’t Care About Time

This song had the perfect producer…Tom Petty. In 2017 this album (Bidn’ My Time) by Chris Hillman was released. CB sent me a link to this song and I liked the jangle and the song. The next day I listened to it some more and it suddenly dawned on me…I’ve heard this song before.

After I looked at the title again I knew I’d heard it. It was a Byrd song written by Gene Clark. It was a B-side on the single with Turn, Turn, Turn. Clark was an excellent songwriter and his songs included Eight Miles High and I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better.

Chris Hillman joined the Byrds as the bass guitarist without ever having played the instrument. With his background in country and folk music, he picked up playing the bass with no problem. He brought country music to the Byrds. After David Crosby quit…Gram Parsons was recruited and Hillman found another member to share his love of country music with. They made the Sweetheart of the Rodeo album in 1968 which still serves as inspiration for musicians.

Parsons quit the Bryds after that album and Hillman brought in the great guitarist Clarence White to replace Gram. Soon after that Hillman quit and formed The Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons.

In the 1980s, Hillman formed The Desert Rose Band which had some success in the Country charts.

Hillman thought he was done making albums but Tom Petty and Desert Rose Band remember Herb Pedersen had other ideas. Pedersen convinced Hillman to make one more album and Tom Petty wanted to produce it. The album is very rootsy and also contains the Byrds sound. A couple of Byrds help with out with the album…David Crosby and Roger McGuinn. Petty brought Heartbreakers Benmont Tench, Steve Ferrone, and Mike Campbell.

I listened to this album and it’s a combination of jangle, bluegrass, country rock, and folk. It’s a nice melding of all of these styles.

I’m going to add this video which is a very short story about the album.

She Don’t Care About Time

Hallways and staircases everyday to climb
To go up to my white walled room out on the end of time
Where I can be with my love for she is all that is mine
And she’ll always be there, my love don’t care about time

I laugh with her, cry with her, hold her close she is mine
The way she tells me of her love and never is she trying
She don’t have to be assured of many good things to find
And she’ll always be there, my love don’t care about time

Her eyes are dark and deep with love, her hair hangs long and fine
She walks with ease and all she sees is never wrong or right
And with her arms around me tight I see her all in my mind
And she’ll always be there my love don’t care about time

Tom Petty – Spike

Boys, we got a man with a dog collar on
Maybe we ought to throw old Spike a bone?

This song is not the best song that Petty ever recorded… but it’s fun and I like it. He has a little of a Booker T. and the MG’s vibe going on in the intro.

In the mid-eighties, we would cruise around in my Toyota Celica with a massive sound system and this is one of the songs we would play. The song was on Petty’s Southern Accents album. Tom Petty said it was about: “a really kind of ignorant redneck guy who is kind of shaken up when he sees a punk rocker.”

Southern Accents was his sixth studio album and it was released in 1985. He damaged his hand while making this album. He was frustrated with the song Rebels and listened to the song that the band and he were working on and realized…the demo he made was better. In a fit of frustration, Petty hit the wall a little too hard and severely damaged his bones and tendons. He said:  “all of a sudden, I got Mickey Mouse’s hand. I get to the hospital, and it’s so bad that other doctors are being called in like, ‘hey, get a load of this’. I had to be given electro-shock therapy. The electrodes would force my hand to shut because the hand didn’t want to close because it hurt so bad.”

The album was not easy to make. When guitarist Mike Campbell came and played him his progression for a song…Petty scrapped it for something else. Later on, he would regret that decision because the progression turned out to be Boys of Summer which would become a massive hit for Don Henley.

Petty had wanted to make an album about the South because he was from Florida. That went out the window when he got to the studio but still did incorporate some into the songs. The album didn’t end up like Petty intended but he became really proud of the album because of all the hardships involved in making it.

The album peaked at #7 in the Billboard Album Charts, #16 in Canada (from what I found), #23 in the UK, and #25 in New Zealand in 1985.

Spike

Look out, another one, just like the other ones
Another bad-ass, another troublemaker
I’m scared, ain’t you boys scared?
I wonder if he’s gonna show us what bad is?
Boys, we got a man with a dog collar on
Maybe we ought to throw old Spike a bone?

Make me say

Here’s another misfit, another Jimmy Dean
Bet he’s got a motorbike, what do y’all think?
Bet if we be good we get a ride on it
If he ain’t too mad about the future
Maybe we ought to help him see
The future ain’t what it used to be

Listen
Hey Spike, what do you like?
Hey Spike, what do you like?

Oh, I say

Hey Spike, what do you like?
Hey Spike, you’re scaring my wife
Hey Spike, tell us about life
Could you tell me about life?
I might need need a dog collar too, boy
He might make me say say
I might say, might say

Tom Petty – Change Of Heart

This was the first Petty song that I learned on guitar. This song is not his best, but it hasn’t got the “Free Falling” treatment by being played every day. This song was on the album Long After Dark.

Long After Dark was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ fifth studio album released in 1982. The band used MTV to push the band further into stardom, but Petty wasn’t exactly happy with the album. It was the third album produced by Jimmy Iovine, who made executive decisions pushing the album more into upbeat rock, but Petty wanted to include a couple more acoustic, ballad-type songs.

I could hear the band change a little with the song You Got Lucky… A Change of Heart peaked at #21 on the Billboard 100 and #36 in Canada…it was the second single released from the album.

The bass player Ron Blair quit after the last album Hard Promises was released. This is the first album that featured Howie Epstein on bass.  In the last couple of years of his first stint with the band, Blair was considering leaving and was not always available, thus being occasionally replaced with other bassists, including Donald “Duck” Dunn, on his last two albums. In spite of his departure in 1982, he would continue to make occasional guest appearances on studio albums all the way up to Southern Accents.

Epstein was fired in 2002 and then died in 2003 of a drug overdose. Ron Blair came back to his old position in 2002 and remained with the band until Petty passed away in 2017.

Ron Blair about quitting: “Some days I’ll think, ‘Couldn’t I have put up with it? At the time, it was really a gut decision. That’s kind of what I regret, that it wasn’t a real thought-out decision. I physically and verbally tuned out on an emotional level, rather than really thinking it out. Purely and simply it just ceased to be fun. 

Change Of Heart

Well I fought for youI fought too hardTo do it all again babe,It’s gone too far

You never needed meYou only wanted me aroundIt gets me down

There’s been a change,Yeah there’s been a change of heartSaid there’s been a changeYou push just a little too farYou make it just a little to hardThere’s been a change of heart

I’ll get over youIt won’t take longI’ve stood in yer gallerySeen what’s hangin’ from the wall

You were the moon and sun,Yer just a loaded gun nowIt gets me down

There’s been a change,Yeah there’s been a change of heartSaid there’s been a changeYou push just a little too farYou make it just a little to hardThere’s been a change of heart

Whoa yeah, oh boyLooks like we finally found the turning pointOh me, oh myLooks like it’s time for me to kiss it goodbye, yeah kiss it goodbye

There’s been a change,Yeah there’s been a change of heartSaid there’s been a changeYou push just a little too farYou make it just a little to hardThere’s been a change of heart

Otis Gibbs

I came across Otis’s youtube channel and I think some of you would be interested. He is a singer songwriter but on his channel he has conversations musicians who have played or worked with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Waylon Jennings, just to name a few, and  his own stories about different musicians. For you music fans it’s worth your time. The guy doesn’t interview people…he lets people talk and tell their stories.  He is also a good story teller. I’m hooked on his channel.

He has stories about Jerry Reed, The Replacements, Dan Baird, Merle Haggard, Ry Cooder, Towns Van Zant, Bill Monroe, George Jones, Johnny Paycheck, John Prine, Mike Campbell and more.

He lives in Indiana but interviews many Nashville connected musicians. Check this guy out…His music is VERY good as well. I’m just checking that out more as I go… his music is classified as alt-country.

I just picked a few random youtube videos from his page below.

This is his youtube page:

https://www.youtube.com/user/otisgibbs

Chuck Mead – 90s Alternative Country band BR5-49…talking about when he toured with Bob Dylan

Kenny Vaughn – Lucinda Williams  guitar player at the time talks about touring with Tom Petty

Chuck Mead again with Keith Richards

Dan Baird on the Replacements

Otis Gibbs Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Gibbs

Tom Petty – Love Is A Long Road … Full Moon Fever Week

This wraps up Full Moon Fever for the week. I hope you enjoyed it. I didn’t cover every song but we did get to quite a few. The other posts on this album are at the bottom.

This song I don’t hear much more…Love Is A Long Road is a song that I had forgotten about which got some airplay back in 1989.

This is one of the many songs that charted from Full Moon Fever. This song peaked at #7 in the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks in 1989. Tom Petty and Mike Campbell wrote this song. This was the 5th single released from the album. Dave from “Have A Sound Day”  has a good post about this album.

How did Jeff Lynne meet Tom Petty about producing Full Moon Fever? Jeff said he was on Sunset Boulevard and saw Tom… Here is what Jeff said: “He beeped his horn and I kept thinking, ‘Who’s that?’”  “And it was Tom. ‘Hi, Tom!’ He said, ‘Pull over – I wanna have a word with you.’ He’d just been listening to George [Harrison’s album, Cloud Nine, which I’d just worked on, co-produced it, and he really liked it. He said, ‘Do you fancy writing some songs together?’ I said, ‘I sure do.’”

Free Fallin’

I Won’t Back Down

Runnin’ Down A Dream

Yer So Bad

The Apartment Song

Love Is A Long Road

There was a girl I knew
She said she cared about me
She tried to make my world
The way she thought it should be
Yeah we were desperate then
To have each other to hold
But love is a long, long road

There were so many times
I would wake up at noon
With my head spinning ’round
I would wait for the moon
And give her one more chance
To try and save my soul
But love is a long, long road

Yeah it was hard to give up
Some things are hard to let go
Some things are never enough
I guess I only can hope
For maybe one more chance
To try and save my soul
But love is a long, long road

Tom Petty – Yer So Bad … Full Moon Fever Week

My sister got lucky, married a yuppie
Took him for all he was worth

As soon as I heard those two lines I knew I was going to like the song.

Tom Petty had gotten to know Lynne through George Harrison, who brought the Electric Light Orchestra leader to produce Harrison’s 1987 comeback LP Cloud Nine. That led to the three artists taking part in the Traveling Wilburys supergroup. One day, Petty played “Yer So Bad”; he had all the words down but was stuck on the music for the chorus.

“Jeff showed me this little part,” Petty recalled. “E minor to C, and said, ‘You could do this.’ And I said, ‘That’s great!’ And I was so elated, because I had been working on the song for days, and I couldn’t get from the verse to the chorus somehow. And he showed me this little bit, and I said, ‘Great! Will you produce this?'”

Petty wanted Howie Epstein (bass player for the Heartbreakers) to help on the harmonies but Howie said he didn’t like the song so Petty told him he didn’t need him then. That is when he knew it was going to be a solo album.

This was the last fifth single released from the album. Yer So Bad peaked at #5 in the Billboard Album Rock Tracks and #44 in Canada in 1990.

Yer So Bad

My sister got lucky, married a yuppie
Took him for all he was worth
Now she’s a swinger dating a singer
I can’t decide which is worse[Chorus:]
But not me baby, I’ve got you to save me
Oh yer so bad, best thing I ever had
In a world gone mad, yer so badMy sister’s ex-husband can’t get no lovin’
Walks around dog-faced and hurt
Now he’s got nothin’, head in the oven
I can’t decide which is worse

[Chorus]

Tom Petty – Running Down a Dream … Full Moon Fever Week

When I bought Full Moon Fever in 1989 I was happy with my first pass through the album. The album doesn’t have seven hits like Born In The USA but it doesn’t have a bad track on it.

Tom Petty started running down his dream of being a rocker in 1961 when he met Elvis Presley. Petty, 11 years old, came to the Ocala, Florida set where Elvis was working on the film Follow That Dream – a title Tom took to heart. In a brief encounter, Petty saw how Elvis captivated onlookers and made the girls go crazy. Petty became fascinated with Elvis and set out to follow his path.

This song peaked at #23 in the Billboard 100, #23 in Canada, and #55 in the UK in 1989.

Those noises were made by Shannon and Jeff Lynne; Petty used them as an interlude to mark the middle of the album because you don’t have to flip over a CD. This section was included only on CD versions of Full Moon Fever but survived the transition when the album was released digitally….I have this at the bottom

From Songfacts

In this song, Petty sings about driving into the great wide open, with nothing but glorious possibility in his path.

The animated video was inspired by a comic strip called Little Nemo In Slumberland by Winsor McKay. Each strip told the story of one of Nemo’s dreams, and at the end, he always woke up.

Full Moon Fever was listed as a Tom Petty solo album even though members of The Heartbreakers played on it. Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne also played on it.

Heartbreakers’ guitarist Mike Campbell wrote this with Petty and Jeff Lynne. The three of them worked on the album at Campbell’s house. Petty and Campbell were very impressed with Lynne’s production techniques, and learned a lot from the experience. Campbell gave us an example of Lynne’s style: “We’d put the mics up on the drums, and he’d walk out and take the microphone over the drum and he’d turn it away from the drum facing the corner, and he’d go ‘OK, record it like that.’ Sure enough, 99% of the time he’d be right. We’d go, ‘Yes sir, Mr. Lynne.’ We learned so much from him about arrangements and countermelodies and all kinds of stuff.” (Check out our interview with Mike Campbell.)

The line, “Me and Del were singin,’ little ‘Runaway'” is a reference to the 1961 Del Shannon hit “Runaway.” Shannon is credited on the album for “barnyard noises,” which can be heard just after this song ends on the album. Under the animal noises, Petty says, “Hello CD listeners. We have come to the point in this album where those listening on cassettes or records will have to stand – up or sit down – and turn over the record or tape. In fairness to those listeners, we will now take a few seconds before we begin Side 2. Thank you, and here is Side 2.”

In 2007, the documentary Runnin’ Down A Dream was released. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, the film chronicles the career of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. >>

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played this at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2008. Rather than the usual medley of hits, the band played four full songs, the others being “American Girl,” “I Won’t Back Down” and “Free Fallin’.”

Hello CD Listeners

Runnin’ Down A Dream

It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down
I had the radio on, I was drivin’
Trees flew by, me and Del were singin’ little Runaway
I was flyin’

Yeah runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream

I felt so good like anything was possible
I hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes
The last three days the rain was unstoppable
It was always cold, no sunshine

Yeah runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream

I rolled on as the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down to make some time
There’s something good waitin’ down this road
I’m pickin’ up whatever’s mine

Yeah runnin’ down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin’ on a mystery, goin’ wherever it leads
Runnin’ down a dream

Tom Petty – Free Fallin’ … Full Moon Fever Week

I’m including at least one song off of Tom’s album Full Moon Fever every day this week…So if you don’t know the album stay tuned, if like the album stay tuned,and if you don’t like the album…sorry. It was a great album released in 1989 that was arguably the peak of Tom’s career.

Full Moon Fever

Tom was not happy with the last Heartbreakers album (Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) released in 1987 and wanted a change. Mike Campbell (Heartbreakers guitar player): “Tom called me up and said, ‘We’re done. I think we’re done.” He called back later and said that at least temporarily he wasn’t going to work with the Heartbreakers.

He ended up using Belmont Tench and Howie Epstein from the Heartbreakers for a few songs but it was Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Mike Campbell and Phil Jones on drums who made the album. They did have some help from George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Del Shannon among others.

Released in 1989, Full Moon Fever would become Petty’s greatest commercial success. During its creation Jeff Lynne helped inspire him to create some of his best and most popular songs. But along the way he also risked further alienating several members of the Heartbreakers.

Free Fallin’

Free Fallin’ may be the song he is most remembered. Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne wrote and recorded “Free Fallin'” in just two days, the first song completed for Full Moon Fever. “We had a multitude of acoustic guitars,” Petty told Rolling Stone of the song’s Byrds-y feel. “So it made this incredibly dreamy sound.”

The song peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, #4 in New Zealand, and #59 in the UK in 1989.

Tom Petty: “There’s not a day that goes by that someone doesn’t hum ‘Free Fallin” to me or I don’t hear it somewhere,”  “But it was really only 30 minutes of my life.”

From Songfacts

Mike Campbell is The Heartbreakers’ guitarist. He has also produced and written the music for many of their songs, as well as “The Boys of Summer” and “The Heart Of The Matter” for Don Henley. Mike told us about working with Jeff Lynne: “When we did that first record with Jeff Lynne, Full Moon Fever, that was an amazing time for me because it was mostly just the three of us – me and Tom and Jeff – working at my house. Jeff Lynne is an amazing record-maker. It was so exciting for a lot of reasons. First of all, our band energy in the studio had gotten into kind of a rut, we were having some issues with our drummer and just kind of at the end of our rope in terms of inspiration – having a lot of trouble cutting tracks in the studio.

This project came along and really we were just doing it for fun at the beginning, but Jeff would come in and every day he would blow my mind. It was so exciting to have him and Tom come over and go, ‘OK, here’s this song,’ and then Jeff would just go. I’d never seen this done before, he’d say, ‘OK, here’s what we’re going to do: Put a drum machine down. Now put up a mic, we’re going to do some acoustic guitars. Put up another mic, were going to do a keyboard. OK, here’s an idea for the bass. Mike, let’s try some guitar on this. I’ve got an idea for a background part here…’

Sure enough, within five or six hours, the record would be done, and we’d just sit back and go, ‘How the f-ck did you do that?’ We were used to being in the studio and like ‘OK, here’s how the song goes’ and everybody would set up to play and just laboriously run the song into the ground, and it usually got worse and worse from trying to get the groove and the spirit and trying to get a performance out of five guys at once. This guy walked in and he knew exactly how to put the pieces together, and he always had little tricks, like with the background vocals how he would slide them in and layer them, and little melodies here and there. Tom and I were soaking it up. Pretty amazing, a very exciting time, like going to musical college or something.” (Read more in our interview with Mike Campbell.)

In a 2006 interview with Esquire magazine, Petty said: “‘Free Fallin” is a very good song. Maybe it would be one of my favorites if it hadn’t become this huge anthem. But I’m grateful that people like it.”

The lyrics deal with Los Angeles culture, mentioning actual places in the area: Reseda, Mulholland and Ventura Boulevard. It implies that the people of LA will casually use others for personal gain, as the singer has just dumped a girl and doesn’t even miss her. Petty was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida and moved to LA with The Heartbreakers in 1974. His outsider perspective came in handy in this song.

Directed by Julien Temple, the music video was ahead of its time in that it featured skateboarding before the X Games existed and action sports went mainstream. Legendary skater Mark “Gator” Rogowski appears in the video.

Petty considers this song a ballad; it’s one of his few hits without a guitar solo. There are plenty of ballads on his albums, but his record companies rarely released them as singles.

Petty and the Heartbreakers played this to close out their set at the halftime show of the Super Bowl in 2008. The song turned out to be appropriate for the New England Patriots, who were undefeated going into the game and led at halftime, only to lose at the end to the New York Giants. In 2002, when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, the featured song at halftime was “Beautiful Day” by U2.

A live version by John Mayer returned this song to the US Hot 100 in July 2008, going to #51.

Petty performed this song, along with “Runnin’ Down A Dream,” with The Heartbreakers on Saturday Night Live when they were the musical guests on May 20, 1989. Their record company, MCA, wanted them to play “I Won’t Back Down,” which was out as a single and climbing the charts, but Petty defied them.

Petty often tells a story about performing this song at a pivotal night in his career. His label, MCA, rejected the Full Moon Fever album when he submitted it in 1988, claiming they didn’t hear a hit. Crestfallen, he went to a dinner party with George Harrison and Jeff Lynne at the home of Mo Ostin, head of Warner Bros. Records. Harrison had them break out the guitars and play “Free Fallin’,” which everyone thought was great. When Petty explained that it wasn’t good enough for his label, Ostin offered to sign him and put it out. They did the deal, but kept it secret until Petty fulfilled his commitment to MCA. Ostin didn’t have to put it out though: In 1989, management changed at MCA; the new regime liked Full Moon Fever and released it.

While MCA kept him in limbo, Petty teamed up with Lynne, Harrison, Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan to form the Traveling Wilburys, a fruitful and highly acclaimed collaboration that sold over 3 million copies of their first album.

The song achieved its highest position on the UK singles chart in May 2012 after being covered by contestant Max Milner on the music talent show The Voice. It previously peaked at #64 in 1989.

Here’s what Tom Petty said about this song on his VH1 Storytellers appearance:

“‘I used to ride down Mulholland Drive and make up songs. Some of the songs were good, and some of the songs just wouldn’t swing. I had this one: [sings] ‘Mulholland Drive’ and I never could get anywhere with that song. So, I sat down one day with my friend Jeff Lynne and we were playing around on the keyboard. I hit this lick and he said, ‘That’s a good lick you got there,’ and I played it again. So, just to make him laugh I started to make up words:

She’s a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She’s a good girl, crazy about Elvis…

And he goes, ‘Good.’

I said, ‘What? What was good?’

‘It’s all good, just sing that.'”

The girl in the music video is Devon Kidd (born Devon Renee Jenkin). She also had roles in Enemy Of The State, Slammer Girls and Slumber Party Massacre III.

She was a gymnast and model when she got the call to audition for “Free Fallin’.”

“I don’t know if you want to do it,” her agent said. “It’s a small job.”

She knew Tom Petty and “Free Fallin'” and jumped at the opportunity. Today, it’s probably the role she’s best known for.

Free Fallin’

She’s a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She’s a good girl, crazy ’bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too

It’s a long day living in Reseda
There’s a freeway runnin’ through the yard
And I’m a bad boy ’cause I don’t even miss her
I’m a bad boy for breakin’ her heart

And I’m free, free fallin’
Yeah I’m free, free fallin’

All the vampires walkin’ through the valley
Move west down Ventura boulevard
And all the bad boys are standing in the shadows
All the good girls are home with broken hearts

And I’m free, free fallin’
Yeah I’m free, free fallin’
Free fallin’, now I’m free fallin’, now I’m
Free fallin’, now I’m free fallin’, now I’m

I want to glide down over Mulholland
I want to write her name in the sky
Gonna free fall out into nothin’
Gonna leave this world for a while

And I’m free, free fallin’
Yeah I’m free, free fallin’

Tom Petty – Jammin’ Me

I remember I had the album this was on…Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) and I was disappointed. I always liked this song though. The album did not live up to Southern Accents the previous album.

Although this is a 1980s song…Steve Jobs, Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, and Vanessa Redgrave are singled out…as well as events in the world…the idea behind it is more relevant today than 1987.

I’ve always thought this song was about information overload on our senses…being overwhelmed in the disinformation age…and this was 1987! How about now?

Mike Campbell, the guitarist for The Heartbreakers, wrote the music for this and gave Petty the demo. Tom held it for a while and didn’t do anything with it until one day when he was working with Bob Dylan. They came up with some lyrics by picking words out of a newspaper and off the television. Tom pulled out Mike’s demo, and they inserted those words over the track. The song is about the deluge of information and marketing messages that can prove overwhelming.

This song peaked at #18 in the Billboard 100, #41 in Canada, and #38 in New Zealand in 1987. It was written by Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and Mike Campbell.

From Songfacts

Many of Petty’s songs start as demos written by Campbell. Mike also wrote the tracks for Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” and “The Heart Of The Matter,” and helped Petty produce this album. 

In 1986, the band toured with Bob Dylan in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, which led to Dylan’s contribution on this song. In 1988, Petty and Dylan played together in The Traveling Wilburys, a band whose other members were Jeff Lynne, George Harrison and Roy Orbison.

In the lyrics, Petty mentions various places and events that were in the news and getting constant media exposure. Actors Vanessa Redgrave, Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy also show up.

Jammin’ Me

You got me in a corner
You got me against the wall
I got nowhere to go
I got nowhere to fall

Take back your insurance
Baby nothin’s guaranteed
Take back your acid rain
Baby let your T.V. bleed

You’re jammin’ me, you’re jammin’ me,
Quit jammin’ me
Baby you can keep me painted in a corner
You can look away, but it’s not over

Take back your angry slander
Take back your pension plan
Take back your ups and downs of your life
In raisin-land

Take back Vanessa Redgrave
Take back Joe Piscopo
Take back Eddie Murphy
Give ’em all some place to go

You’re jammin’ me, you’re jammin’ me
Quit jammin’ me
Baby you can keep me painted in a corner
You can walk away but it’s not over

Take back your Iranian torture
And the apple in young Steve’s eye
Yeah take back your losing streak
Check your front wheel drive

Take back Pasadena
Take back El Salvador
Take back that country club
They’re tr yin’ to build outside my door