"Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty
Whatever you're looking for.
“She's a good girl, loves her mama / Loves Jesus and America, too / She's a good girl, who's crazy 'bout Elvis / Loves horses, and her boyfriend too”
Here’s another tune I just couldn’t hear for decades. When it came out in 1989 I was totally hypnotized by free jazz and couldn’t hear anything else. I was also trying hard (too hard) to get into music school, and my fascination with Brazilian music was starting to grow into a real preoccupation. My family was falling apart, and practically the only band I wanted to listen to in English was Living Colour.
Jesus, Elvis, America and boyfriends? I had my head too deep in the sand to be able to comprehend any of it. For me, Tom Petty began and ended with “Don’t Come Around Here No More”. Solid work, that one. But I was deaf to the rest.
“And it's a long day livin' in Reseda / There's a freeway runnin' through the yard / And I'm a bad boy, 'cause I don't even miss her / I'm a bad boy for breakin' her heart / Now I'm free, Free fallin'“
Fast forward 30 years to me living in fragile Topanga, doing all my shopping along the 101 freeway and Ventura Blvd. Reseda has the best Mexican food, and I felt very, very far from Free. LA has never felt like home to me.
I’d had a tortured relationship with New York as well, so I don’t count myself among the Eastern transplants who staked their hopes for a better career in the “other” entertainment capital. If I were really serious about being a professional musician I would have moved to Nashville in the first place. But I hadn’t.
I never became a proper city hick.
“Now all the vampires walkin' 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 / Now I'm free, Free fallin'“
LA has it all. Including a high concentration of dudes who fit the character in this song perfectly. If you imagine “manifest destiny” as a wave of colonial ambition moving west, LA is one of the white caps on that wave. There’s a lot of foam. The contradictions are glittering and kinetic. Surf at your own risk.
My Texan friend Bret passed along the following axiom: New Yorkers are not nice, but they’re friendly. Angelenos are not friendly, but they’re [grits teeth] “nice”.
California is not for amateurs. There’s a desperation to every coffee meeting. The fragile etiquette of personal relationships, the maze of favors earned and owed, the sheer number of Fuck Yous given and received in traffic, homeowners clinging to their scraps of Real Estate with every last ounce of their dignity, renters clinging to their dignity with every last ounce of their personal capital. LA will teach you nothing about itself, but it will teach you everything about yourself.
“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 awhile / Now I'm free / Free fallin'“
By the time I got to LA I was enough of a veteran to appreciate the good and ignore the irrelevant. The weather is good. The food is fresh. The beaches are nice. I don’t need to conquer, own or ever feel accepted by LA. I can love it from a distance. And in my own way I do.
THANKS for reading and listening. Do you like my stuff? Please help the audience grow by sharing this post with one friend:
Who am I? trevorexter.music
Like and subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@trevorexter
Hear my music: the “Trevor Exter Playlist” (Spotify)
Peruse my collection: https://bandcamp.com/xotrmusic
Hear 80 penetrating interviews with great musicians in the Play It Like It’s Music podcast archive.