Lyrics for singles by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Breakdown
American Girl
I Need to Know
Listen to Her Heart
Casa Dega
The Waiting
A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)
Don't Come Around Here No More
Rebels
Needles and Pins
So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star
I Won't Back Down
Running Down A Dream
Free Fallin'
I Won't Back Down



Breakdown

It's alright if you love me
It's alright if you don't
I'm not afraid of you runnin' away honey
Iv'e got this feeling you won't

Say there ain't no use in pretending
Your eyes give you away
Something inside you is feeling like I do
We've said all there is to say

Breakdown, go ahead and give it to me
Breakdown, take me through the night
Breakdown, go ahead give it to me
Breakdown, it's alright
It's alright, it's alright




American Girl

Well, she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn't help thinking that there was a little more to life
Somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
And if she had to die
Tryin', she
Had one little promise she was gonna keep

Oh yeah, alright
Take it easy, baby
Make it last all night
She was an American girl

Well, it was kind of cold that night
She stood alone on the balcony
Yeah, she could hear the cars roll by
Out on four forty one like
Waves crashing on the beach
And for one des'rate moment there
He crept back in her memory
God, it's so painful when something that's so close
Is still so far out of reach




I Need to Know





Listen to Her Heart





Casa Dega

Well the clouds rolled by
In the big blue sky
As the sun beats down on Casa Dega
And the moon pulls the tide
And the tide brings night
But night is more than just night in Casa Dega

Oh, baby and I
Think I'm starting to believe the things that I've heard
'Cause tonight in Casa Dega I hang on every word
She said...

...to me
As she holds my hand
And reads the lives of a stranger
Yeah and she knows my name
Yeah she knows my plans
In the past, in the present and for the future

Oh, honey...

Bridge:
Baby fools pay the price of a whisper in the night in Casa Dega
Time rolls by and night is only night, can I save ya?




The Waiting

Oh baby don't it feel like heaven right now
Don't it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I've never known nothing quite like this
Don't it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one could'a ever told me 'bout this
I said yeah yeah

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Well yeah i might have chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I'm feeling right now
Baby you're the only one that's ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now
I said yeah yeah

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Oh don't let it kill you baby, don't let it get to you
Don't let it kill you baby, don't let it get to you
I'll be your bleedin' heart, I'll be your cryin' fool
Don't let this go too far
Don't let it get to you




A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)

She laughed in my face, told me good-bye
Said "Don't think about it, you can go crazy
Anything can happen, anything can end
Don't try to fight it, don't try to save me"

She's a woman in love
And he's gonna break her heart to pieces
She don't wanna see
She's a woman in love, but it's not me

Well alright, do what you want
Don't try to talk, don't say nothing
She used to be the kind of woman
You have and you hold, she could understand the problem
She let the little things go

She's a woman in love
And he's gonna break her heart to pieces
But she don't wanna know
She's a woman in love, she can't let go

Time after time, night after night
She would look up at me
And say she was lonely
I don't understand the world today
I don't understand what she needed
I gave her everything she threw it all away on nothin'
She's a woman in love




Don't Come Around Here No More





Rebels

Honey don't walk out I'm too drunk to follow
You know you won't feel this way tomorrow
Well - maybe I'm a little rough around the edges
Inside a little hollow
I get faced with somethings sometimes
That are so hard to swallow - Hey!

I was born a rebel
Down in Dixie on a Sunday morning
Yeah - with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal
I was born a rebel

Well she picked me up in the morning
And she paid out my ticket
Yeah she screamed in the car
And threw me out in the thicket
Well - I never would've dreamed
That her heart was so wicked
Oh - but I keep coming back
'Cos it's so hard to kick it

(chorus)

Even before my father's fathers
They called us all rebels
Burned our cornfields
And left our cities level
I can still see the eyes
Of those blue bellied devils
When I'm walking round tonight
Through the concrete and metal




Needles and Pins





So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star





I Won't Back Down





Running Down A Dream

It was a beautiful day, sun beat down
I had the radio on, I was drivin'
Trees went by, Me and Del were singing
little Runaway, I was flyin'

Running down a dream
Never would come to me
Working on a mystery
Going wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream

I felt so good, like anything as possible
Hit the cruise control, rubbed my eyes
The last three days the rain was unstoppable
I was always cold, no sunshine

[chorus]

As I rolled on, the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down, to make some time
There's somethin' good, waiting down this road
I'm pickin' up whatever's mine




Free Fallin'

She's a good girl, loves her mama
loves Jesus, and America too
She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too

It's a long day livin' in  Reseda
there's a free-way 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

And I'm free, I'm free fallin'

All the vampires walkin' through the valley
move west down Ventura Boulevard
And all the bad boys are standing in the shadows
All the good girls are home with broken hearts

I wanna glide down over Mulholland
I wanna write her name in the sky
I wanna free fall out into nothin'
Gonna leave this world for awhile




I Won't Back Down

Well I won't back down
No I won't back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won't back down

Gonna stand my ground
Won't be turned around
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
Gonna stand my ground
And I won't back down

Hey baby, there ain't no easy way out
hey I will stand my ground
and I won't back down

Well I know what's right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin' me around
but I'll stand my ground
And I won't back down

[chorus]