Tom Petty "Free Fallin'" - Classic or Dud?

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Tom Petty is awesome and this song is my favorite of the moment. It makes me happy like nothing else. The lyrics are just so very perfect. Superlative. Superlative. What do you think?

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Saturday, 22 February 2003 00:12 (twenty-three years ago)

DIE HIPPIE DIE!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Saturday, 22 February 2003 00:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Kings of Convenience do it better.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Saturday, 22 February 2003 00:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic. Very very classic. You're right about the lyrics.

You're wrong about Tom Petty being "awesome," though.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 22 February 2003 00:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic. I agree w/Kenan.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 22 February 2003 00:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I actually heard this for the first time in ages and I was surprised how much I liked it.

I never really noticed the line "I don't even miss her." I like it when Tom admits he's a bit of an asshole. I don't think a lot of people notice the song isn't exactly happy. Jerry Maguire didn't.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:01 (twenty-three years ago)

It may surprise some to know that I actually don't mind Tom Petty most of the time, and even though Jeff Lynne has ruined many with his production, this is actually kinda good. Not his best, but still nice.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Never thought much of the implicit 'ha ha make fun of the goths' take on both that album and that video, as if his approach was somehow automatically better. So nyah on him for that, but it's one of the few songs of his I don't mind (the only one I actively enjoy is "Don't Come Around Here No More")...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:10 (twenty-three years ago)

C'mon guys, "Refugee" !

and "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around".

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I vote for "Runaway Trains" off of "I've Had Enough" or whatever it's called as my Tom Petty Song Ned Wouldn't Mind That I Really Like. You heard this one, Ned?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I actually had a dream when I was younger where I saw Tom Petty at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. I told him "Runaway Trains" was my fave song of his and he said there were too many keyboards on it. Then I woke up.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:25 (twenty-three years ago)

No, but the problem with a song called "Runaway Trains" is that I immediately think of Soul Asylum, and that's not a good thing.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:25 (twenty-three years ago)

well, not to mention that any song sung by Tom Petty may make you think of Soul Asylum.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:29 (twenty-three years ago)

This is also undoubtedly true.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:32 (twenty-three years ago)

this was a big hit my freshman year of college and i dated a girl from "the valley"* (the geography of which figures prominently in the lyrics to "free fallin'") so i have lots of mixed feelings about this song, but i like it all right. i don't mind tom petty at all (nor soul asylum for that matter... ned, did you sort of miss out on the whole minneapolis rock underground?)

*The San Fernando Valley, a suburb of northwestern Los Angeles immortalized in the Frank Zappa song and Martha Coolidge/Nicholas Cage vehicle both named "Valley Girl".

― gygax!, Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:54 (twenty-three years ago)

ned, did you sort of miss out on the whole minneapolis rock underground?

Eh? There's plenty of Husker Du and the 'Mats lingering around in my collection. Soul Asylum never got my attention anywhere near as much, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 22 February 2003 01:58 (twenty-three years ago)

BLACKMAIL ALERT:

soul asylum was one of probably the top 25 bands i'd ever seen... circa 1990 at some bar in pacific beach, san diego.

― gygax!, Saturday, 22 February 2003 02:08 (twenty-three years ago)

(being underage and under the influence in a drinking establish may have attributed something to this claim)

― gygax!, Saturday, 22 February 2003 02:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Soul Asylum did not always suck. Rilly.

Also, methinks that Tom Petty's "American Girls" is about a million times better than the first Strokes single that i heard.

Hmm. Might've just killed the thread there...

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Saturday, 22 February 2003 04:53 (twenty-three years ago)

please don't mention Frank Zappa in the same breath as Tom Petty, gygax! thank you much ... ;-p

anyway:

Never thought much of the implicit 'ha ha make fun of the goths' take on both that album and that video, as if his approach was somehow automatically better.

what's wrong with making fun of goths (i say as i put on a Siouxsie CD and take out a Bauhaus CD)? yer actually TP sound much more interesting than he really is!

― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 22 February 2003 06:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I was singing this song to myself at work tonight.It's snide cuz petty wansta be dylan course but nothing wrong with that(he's a zimmsta).It makes me think of red house painters song "new jersey" for some reason.Mebbe that line "new jersey ain't the whole world.you're not as good as your mom,but you're as good as dead".T.P.could cover that one well. So could Zimmy come to think of it.

― Scott Seward, Saturday, 22 February 2003 06:42 (twenty-three years ago)

"Change of Heart" 0wnz all songs mentioned here

― Aaron A., Saturday, 22 February 2003 06:51 (twenty-three years ago)

please don't mention Frank Zappa in the same breath as Tom Petty, gygax! thank you much

Really -- I'd much rather hear Tom Petty. (With the exception of his earliest stuff, Zappa's one of those guys I'd rather read about it than listen to.)

I like "Free Fallin'" -- best song on a mediocre album. I remember when I gave notice at an early and particularly unpleasant reporting job at a weekly suburban newspaper. I walked out of my boss's office, went out and got in my Toyota Tercel, started the engine, and "Free Fallin'" was on the radio. Made me happy.

"American Girl" and "Change of Heart" are both better. And "Straight Into Darkness." And "Dogs on the Run." And "Even the Losers." And...oh, never mind.

― Jesse Fox, Saturday, 22 February 2003 07:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom Petty is the reason they invented greatest hits albums. (His is pretty good, too. But I never want to hear a damn other thing of his.)

― M Matos (M Matos), Saturday, 22 February 2003 08:26 (twenty-three years ago)

I remember reading a story about the Replacements opening for Tom Petty, and the first night they joined the tour, they all came backstage to tell Tom how much they loved him and his great new song "Running Down the Drain." Petty thought it was hilarious. Which nicely illustrates why I love both Petty and the 'Mats.

― Jesse Fox, Saturday, 22 February 2003 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

don't have any record (or even a single song, possibly) of Petty's in my house, and never have had
it's very seldom i hear his music anywhere (just don't listen to that kind of stations), and it's even more seldom i'm reminded he still exists & makes music
"Free Fallin'", nevertheless, remains a song i admire - no, make that 'absolutely adore' - and am greatly grateful for; for a variety of reasons, some of them musical (i guess)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom Petty is the reason they invented greatest hits albums. (His is pretty good, too. But I never want to hear a damn other thing of his.)

I tend to remember things as better than they are, and am a sucker for live cuts, but I think I'd also want to hear King's Highway and his So You Want to be a Rock 'n Roll Star cover and maybe You Don't Know How it Feels.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Dud, because the love on this thread is annoying me, not because I ever think about this song.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Surely in Jerry Maguire the scene was just after he'd lost his job and as far as I remember he was on the verge of tears. It's a crap film but I don't think that scene was happy.

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 22 February 2003 17:45 (twenty-three years ago)

The suspended chords in this song are classic. Maybe most fully realized use of suspended chords ever.

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:24 (twenty-three years ago)

It's worth mentioning the first two Tom Petty albums (like the first two Cheap Trick records) *deserve* love. It's easy to forget, as he trundles on making innocuous, space-hogging records a full twenty-five years after the fact, but he was way good at the time, not just for 'American Girl.'

And 'Free-Fallin'?' Hardly a dud, but I'm quite sick of it.

― M Specktor (M Specktor), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:28 (twenty-three years ago)

actually, Ronan, I believe it was right BEFORE he lost his job and everyone was patting his back, or sometime after. I distinctly remember he was looking for a song that was happy (he first tries to sing along to "Angel In The Morning."). A fine scene, and I don't mind that he doesn't realize what the song's about, because it reaffirms other people don't either...not that that's bad! Weddings are a lot more fun if they play the stalkerific "Every Breath You Take."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:29 (twenty-three years ago)

" Surely in Jerry Maguire the scene was just after he'd lost his job and as far as I remember he was on the verge of tears. It's a crap film but I don't think that scene was happy "

-- and the song's not on the sountrack cd!...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh maybe, I didn't think so, but I have only seen it once so you could be right

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 22 February 2003 18:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I've just heard a drunken lout singing it at the top of his voice whilst walking home from the pub. Probably dud then, but at least it wasn't "Hey baby, I wanna know . . .". Students screaming said song keep me up til 4 in the morning at least twice a week.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Saturday, 22 February 2003 23:43 (twenty-three years ago)

hear hear, the Petty GH is indeed a great one.

― Al (sitcom), Sunday, 23 February 2003 00:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Any song that encourages frat boys to play acoustic guitar in public can't be a good thing.

― juice (juice), Monday, 24 February 2003 08:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic, excellent harmonies and low guitar solo.

― matt riedl (veal), Monday, 24 February 2003 22:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually Matos I made a pretty good mix tape for an ex gf of Tom Petty songs that didn't feature on his GH.

Also I think the goth reference here is affectionate, albeit condescendingly (ha! that's a sight better than my attitude toward goths).

His vocal on this song is not equal to his lyrics/arrangement, though.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 24 February 2003 22:25 (twenty-three years ago)

good. but not as good as "learning to fly" and "into the great wide open".

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 24 February 2003 22:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I lurve this song, and "I Won't Back Down" from the same LP is fab too.. One of Jeff Lynne's less suffocating production jobs.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 24 February 2003 22:48 (twenty-three years ago)

seventeen years pass...

It’s a long day, livin’ in… Encino??:

https://www.dirt.com/entertainers/musicians/selena-gomez-house-encino-1203317531/

― morrisp, Thursday, 9 April 2020 22:50 (six years ago)

There's a spa tub
That overlooks the yard

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 10 April 2020 00:21 (six years ago)

feel like this would be in Joe Biden's top 10

― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Friday, 10 April 2020 00:23 (six years ago)

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