![]() ![]() “Free Fallin” is one of those elegiac tracks that Petty would occasionally drop amidst all the peppy rockers to prove just how versatile his songwriting gifts could be. In fact, Jeff’s specific instructions were, ‘No, don’t do it like that. People want to put little rolls and fills in there when they cover that song. “Some guys play it as a march, but it’s not really a march.” Jones says of his shining moment on the song. ![]() “Free Fallin” could have been a straightforward slow song, but Lynne kept adding intriguing little touches, including the breakdown in the final verse that featured cascading backing vocals and Jones’ steady drumming patter around Petty’s wistful ruminations. It was just awesome, the track sound and everything.” And that was ‘Free Fallin.’ That was the first thing we did actually. I actually played it before I heard the vocal. They played the track to a drum machine at first with acoustic guitars. They knew and heard what Mike and I were doing so they decided let’s just record it over at Mike’s. Jones takes the story from there: “Tom and Jeff had this song that they wanted to demo or work on. But they immediately found themselves to be on the same page, especially on a stately ballad with lyrics that began as Petty’s attempt to make Lynne laugh. They might have seemed like an odd pairing: Petty, the heartland American rocker, and Lynne, the orchestral pop auteur. “I’d go over to his house and we would just play, he and I, in his studio.”Īs for Petty, he had recently struck up a friendship and songwriting partnership with Jeff Lynne, the mastermind behind the hitmaking British group ELO. “Mike Campbell and I would get together once or twice a month during the mid and late-80’s,” Jones says. His working relationship with Heartbreaker lead guitarist and frequent Mike Campbell landed him a place in Petty’s search for new musical direction. Phil Jones had served as a kind of extended member of the Heartbreakers, playing on tours and studio albums with Petty and the band as a percussionist in support of drummer Stan Lynch. Petty was also dealing with tensions within the Heartbreakers, the band that had accompanied him on his meteoric rise to stardom and elevated his material with their chemistry and soulful playing. ![]() The 1987 album Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) was the rare Petty album that felt like it had no reason to exist other than it was next up in the recording cycle. Yet even Petty started to hit some bumps in the road as the decade progressed. ![]()
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