She’s a good girl, crazy bout Elvis/
Loves horses and her boyfriend too.

The most lasting imagery from Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin” is the girl. She sounds like an “All-american” girl, but one of the descriptions of her always sounded funny. She “loves horses…and her boyfriend too.” It is an odd description, however, we can imagine this type of “good girl” that Petty is trying to describe.

Petty gets restless and decides to take off and break her heart. He does some driving around Southern California and begins thinking about her. The imagery is very Californian: everything there is endless streets and suburbs…and there is a lot of driving. That’s when he begins his free falling. It seems that he has second thoughts as at the end of the song (after driving around a bit) he wants to “write her name in the sky”.

“Free Fallin” resonates as a bad-boy-with-a-heart rock anthem. Petty’s voice is one of the most recognizable in rock and this is his best performance. The sound is very classic rock n roll, and is one of the most unlikely releases from the 1980s. It sounds more like a 60s tune. That is part of its allure. Perhaps there was some concern that rock was dying as disco was big in the 70s and the 80s had a lot of…well, 80s music. Hearing this song at the end of the eighties reminded everyone that rocknroll was alive and kicking.

Lyrics Free Fallin

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

It’s a long day, livin’ in Reseda
There’s a free way running through the yard
I’m a bad boy ’cause I don’t even miss her
I’m a bad boy for breaking her heart

And I’m free
Free fallin’, fallin’

And I’m free
Free fallin’, fallin’
All the vampires, walkin’ through the valley
They move west down Ventura Boulevard

And all the bad boys are standing in the shadows
And the good girls are home with broken hearts
And I’m free
Free fallin’, fallin’
Now I’m free
Free fallin’, fallin’

Free fallin’, now I’m
Free fallin’, now I’m
Free fallin’, now I’m
Free fallin’, now I’m
Free fallin’, now I’m
Free fallin’, now I’m
Free fallin’, now I’m
Free fallin’

I wanna glide down, over Mulholland
Wanna write her name in the sky
I wanna free fall out into nothin’
Oh, I’m gonna leave this, this world for a while
Now I’m free
Free fallin’, fallin’
Now I’m free
Free fallin’, fallin’
Then I’m free
Free fallin’, fallin’
Now I’m free
Free fallin’, fallin’
Free fallin’, fallin’
Free fallin’, fallin’
Free fallin’, fallin’

Songwriters: Petty Thomas Earl / Lynne Jeffrey