#Tom petty free fallin full

It’s a question that you have to deal with pretty soon, too, as Lynne’s right there singing the counterpoint, ruining everything. And that was the thing I had to figure out: having never been that much of a fan of Electric Light Orchestra, could I deal with the multiple overdubbed Jeffs Lynne who were harmonizing with Tom instead of Howie Epstein and Stan Lynch?

#Tom petty free fallin full

But here’s the thing: compared to Southern Accents and even Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), most of Full Moon Fever is relatively straightforward.Įxcept, of course, for the backing vocals. Right? Even though I’d enjoyed the single he did with George Harrison and loved the Traveling Wilburys album - which I didn’t know at the time was more of a continuation of the partnership Petty & Lynne started on Full Moon Fever than a precursor - I still had trepidation about Jeff Lynne producing Tom Petty. I supposed I could talk about the production: the love for that verse might just be the extra vocal bump at “Ventura Boulevard,” courtesy of the evil Jeff Lynne. Never look down.Īll the vampires, walkin’ through the valleyĪnd all the bad boys are standing in the shadowsĪnd the good girls are home with broken hearts In between his declarations of freedom and his realization that he’s falling, all of time and space is suspended, and it’s that perfect moment, like right before Wile E. Neither the first nor last song transplanted Floridian Petty would write about his adopted city, “Free Fallin'” moves like a slow, lazy Saturday afternoon that has been shattered into pieces by a good round of daydrinking on the porch.Īnd of course, there’s this: on that chorus, which is etched into all of our brains, Tom Petty finds infinity. Or possibly this: Like all of Tom Petty’s greatest songs, “Free Fallin'” is simple as fuck, starting with just a couple of 12-sting guitars ringing like a phone call from heaven, and one of Petty’s most vivid opening verses. Hell, “Free Fallin'” was the third single from that album, and ended up being Petty’s only top ten single, despite the fact that it was already everywhere before it was released as a single.

So there’s this angle: the summer of 1989 was absolutely dominated by Full Moon Fever. Here’s the thing: I’m not even sure from which angle to come at “Free Fallin’,” a song that has been completely ubiquitous since it was released in 1989, and - along with “The Waiting,” and “Don’t Come Around Here No More” - is probably the man’s greatest song.Īt the very least, it’s the Tom Petty of Tom Petty’s songs. “Jeff Lynne and I were sitting around with the idea of writing a song and I was playing the keyboard and I just happened to hit on that main riff, the intro of the song, and I think Jeff said something like, ‘That’s a really good riff but there’s one chord too many,’ so I think I cut it back a chord and then, really just to amuse Jeff, honestly, I just sang that first verse,” Petty recalled.Who would have thought that “Free Fallin'” would be the Tom Petty song that gave me writer’s block? Several other rock legends were part of the group: Roy Orbison, George Harrison of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Electric Light Orchestra‘s Jeff Lynne.ĭuring an interview with Billboard, Petty said he co-wrote “Free Fallin'” to make another member of the Traveling Wilburys laugh. The Traveling Wilburys is one of the most famous supergroups of all time. In the late 1980s, Petty joined a band called the Traveling Wilburys. Tom Petty | Aaron Rapoport/Corbis via Getty Image Tom Petty wanted to make another rock star laugh with chords During an interview, Petty said he wrote the song to make another celebrity laugh.

Tom Petty‘s “Free Fallin'” is one of the most famous classic rock songs of the late 1980s.