1. The awesome, creative lyrics, as you described. Even better is the line about the "Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac." He later described that as the moment he suddenly became disenchanted with everything the 60s stood for ... when he saw some rich dude driving a Cadillac in Beverly Hills with a Grateful Dead bumper sticker on it. The image of it spoke of a former hippie who had sold out and adopted the bourgeois lifestyle they always hated.
2. I don't even like music videos, but that one has some great elements: the black & white theme, the beach scenes, the kid playing the drums (it's supposed to be him as a kid), and the segments filmed with him standing in the back of the car.
3. The song has a great history. A version of it was originally written for Tom Petty to include on his "Southern Accents" album, but Petty decided it didn't fit with the rest of the songs they had lined up, so he let the writer use it for something else.
4. Awesome, awesome short little guitar riffs -- or even single notes -- throughout.
Very believable that it was written for Tom Petty. It’s easy to imagine his voice in the chorus and Mike Campbell doing the guitar parts.