This is classic laconic Tom from his Highway Companion album. The song was produced by Jeff Lynne of ELO and that’s Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers on guitar. It’s an uncluttered production and a simple enough song, but ,of course , “simple” is hard to do well. What makes it for me is the lyric.
The first line of each verse ends with the phrase “down south” and the next three lines rhyme with each other. It’s what Tom Petty does with those rhymes that makes the song stand out. For example:
Create myself down south
Impress all the women
Pretend I’m Samuel Clemens
Wear seersucker and white linens
Women, Clemens, linen…..that’s about as witty and clever as lyric writing gets. Or this:
Spanish moss down south
Spirits cross the dead fields
Mosquitoes hit the windshield
All document remain sealed
So take a listen and look out as well for Mike Campell’s tremolo guitar figure
Stopdraggingthepanda 
Could we call this form The Tom Petty? It works well.
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Now there’s an idea!
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Must hunt out my Tom petty albums …..haven’t listened to himfor a good while.
I am often struck by the poetic forms in song lyrics. The couplet that has ben going round and round my head since January is:
Said the condor to the preying mantis
we’re gonna lost this place
just like we did Atlantis
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Ha, I just looked up that lyric and went down a Neil Young rabbit hole!
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His new album ’Barn’ is excellent.
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Jeff Lynne definitely has an affinity to Tom Petty. Some lyrics have way of getting under your skin and not letting go. (K)
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Yep….I think Down South is one of Tom’s best.
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