An American guy

Tom Petty elevated the everyday to poetry

They say a real artist makes it look easy. Tom Petty, who died Monday at the age of 66, was such a clever lyricist and melodist that listeners felt as if his songs were songs any of them could write. That’s wrong, of course. But that’s how natural the songs were.

In “Learning to Fly” (from the album “Into the Great Wide Open”), Mr. Petty wrote:

“Well some say life will beat you down. / Break your heart, steal your crown. / So I’ve started out for God knows where. / I guess I’ll know when I get there. / I’m learning to fly, around the clouds. / But what goes up must come down.”

The lyrics mesh perfectly with the song. They are smart. Tom Petty’s lyrics referenced characters from Samuel Clemens to Sonny Liston; you never knew who might appear in a Petty song. But it would always be a brief and modest cameo because Mr. Petty kept his erudition in his hip pocket. This was Tom Petty’s second bit of magic. He was a sophisticated thinker and wordsmith playing rock and pop music — a sly ironist who sold 80 million records; the poet as Everyman.

He called himself “poor white Florida trash.” (He wrote a great song called “Southern Accents” that Johnny Cash sang even better than Mr. Petty did.) But Tom Petty was a master craftsman and a cold-eyed observer.

He also specialized in songs that were impressionistic mini-novellas about American life, much of it hardscrabble, like “Free Fallin’” and “American Girl.” He was both a typical and an iconic American. Fame brought him riches, and friendship with George Harrison, but also depression and addiction. He smoked too many cigarettes, drove a Corvette and died way too soon.

And for all the grit in the man and his music, both could be romantic and wistful. Tom Petty’s music spoke directly from the heart to the heart, and will endure.