November 2020

 

When asked about how he writes songs, Tom Petty said he didn’t really know. He described it as a very real magic that he has to wait for if he’s lucky enough for it to happen. True to his humor and semantic dexterity, he explained it by comparison.

 

“It’s kind of like an orgasm,” he said. “You don’t know how you did that.”

 

Not knowing how or why something happened is the core of magic. It tickles the inexplicable, but it’s no less real.