Liberal Arts Blog — Tom Petty (1950–2017) “American Girl” (1976), “Refugee” (1980), “Free Fallin” (1989)
Liberal Arts Blog — Thursday is the Joy of Music Day -
Today’s Topic: Tom Petty (1950–2017) “American Girl” (1976), “Refugee” (1980), “Free Fallin” (1989)
Today, I decided to take a closer look at three songs of Tom Petty. Are you a fan? Why? Why not? Between 1979 and 1981 Petty was part of the supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys — along with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison. (He’s the blond guy in the center in the photo below). What is your favorite “supergroup”?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
AMERICAN GIRL (1976) — rated his best song by Rolling Stone, although its success on the charts was limited — recorded on July 4, 1976. Last song he played in concert before his accidental death from a drug overdose in 2017.
1. “Well, she was an American girl, raised on promises, she couldn’t help thinking that there was more to life somewhere else, after all, it was a great big world with lots of places to run to and if she had to die trying, she had one little promise she was gonna keep.”
2. (chorus) “Oh yeah, all right, take it easy baby, make it last all night (Make it last all night) She was an American girl.”
3. “Well, it was kinda cold that night, she stood alone on her balcony (Ooh), Yeah, she could hear type cars roll by out on 441 like waves crashing on the beach and for one desperate moment there He crept back in her memory, God, it’s so painful when something that is to close is stil so far out of reach.”
NB: “It has been consistently rated as his best song, only surpassed by “Free Fallin” otherwise, and one of the best rock songs of all time, and has been called “more than a classic rock standard — it’s practically part of the American literary canon.” It has also been used in several movies and television shows, often during a scene in which a character, much like the protagonist in the song’s lyrics, is “longing for something bigger than their current existence.”
American Girl (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song) — Wikipedia
“FREE FALLIN” (1989) — his highest and longest charting song, the opening track of his first solo album “Full Moon River”
1. “She’s a good girl, lovers her mama, Loves Jesus and America too. She’s a good girl, crazy ‘bout Elvis, loves horses and her boyfriend too”
2. “It’s a long day living in Reseda, there’s a freeway runnin’ through the yard., and I’m a bad boy because I don’t even miss her, I’m a bad boy for breaking her heart”
3. (Chorus) And I’m free, free fallin’, Yeah, I’m free, free fallin”
NB: “All the vampires walking through the valley move west down Ventura Boulevard and all the bad boys are standing in the shadows, and the good girls are home with broken hearts.” (Bridge) “I wanna glide down over Mulholland, I wanna write her name in the sky, I’m gonna free fall out into nothin’ Gonna leave this world for a while”
“REFUGEE” (1980) — Mike Campbell wrote the music, Petty the lyrics. Rated #2 on Rolling Stone’s list of Top Fifty Tom Petty songs
1. “We did something we both knot it, We don’t talk about it. Ain’t no real big secret all the same Somehow we get around it, Listen it don’t really matter to me, baby, You believe what you want to believe, You see, You don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)
2. ‘Somewhere, somehow, somebody, must have kicked you around some, Tell me why want to lay there revel in your abandon, Honey, it don’t make a difference to me, baby, Everybody’s had to fight to be free, you see, you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)
3. “Baby, we ain’t the first I’m sure a lot of other lovers have been burned, Right now this seems real to you, But it’s one of those things you gotta feel to be true.”
NB: “Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have kicked you around some, who knows maybe you were kidnapped, tied up, taken away, and held for ransom, honey, it doesn’t really matter to me, baby, Everybody’s had to fight to be free. You see, you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee…)
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers — Refugee
Refugee (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song) — Wikipedia
BACKGROUND
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — Wikipedia
Mike Campbell (musician) — Wikipedia
Traveling Wilburys — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with. those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
Updating PDFs: 2023 — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
#3 Israel-Palestine HandoutYOUR TURN
Time to share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to music.
Or the coolest thing you learned in your life related to music. Say your favorite song or songs. Or your favorite tips for breathing, posture, or relaxation. Or some insight into the history of music….Or just something random about music… like a joke about drummers. jazz, rock….or share an episode or chapter in your musical autobiography.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day. And perhaps to cement in your memory something important you would otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that matters to you.
