Stream of consciousness: words, music, chords. I just took a deep breath and it came out. And he said, “Go up! Go up! Go up an octave.” So I went up an octave, and there it was. He said, “Freefalling.” And I didn’t even know what that meant, but I just sang it. And then I got to the chorus and I didn’t know what to do. And he’s there with his tape-recorder recording it. And he said, “Whew, that’s good.” And I said, “Really?” And he said, “Yeah.” And then, almost to make Jeff laugh, I ad-libbed the verses. I was just playing on a keyboard and Jeff was listening to this song. Actually, I think “Freefalling” was his line. Jeff Lynne sat beside me as I wrote that song. To celebrate Petty’s birthday today, let’s take a look at the stories, in his own words, behind 15 of these deceptively “simple” songs he’s written. It’s so simple you can walk right by it.”

So how much are we going to worry about it? As long as it’s got some soul to it, it’s going to be fine. “It’s an alternative music, rock and roll.

“It’s not supposed to be that good,” he said smiling.

Relatively unburdened by the label of genius that has been more frequently attached to Dylan, Simon, Springsteen, and others, Petty has easily leapfrogged past his first hits into a realm of previously unimagined, unencumbered songwriting, writing new songs as joyously freefalling and uncontrived as the best that rock and roll can be. “I couldn’t help feel it was like being told you’re an archer,” he said, “and you know you don’t even own a bow.” His reluctance to consider himself a poet is probably one of the reasons he endures as such an extraordinary and prolific songwriter. Years ago when his friend Bob Dylan told him he was a poet, Petty was flustered.

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