Songfacts®:

• Here, David Crosby recalls a love interest who told her he isn't the one for her. Instead, she took off with a charismatic outlaw called Rodriguez, leaving him wishing he "could only be Rodriguez for just one night."
• Crosby's son James Raymond wrote the music, and David helped with the melody.
• Steely Dan frontman Donald Fagen penned the lyrics. Crosby is a longtime Steely Dan superfan who had long sought a collaboration with Fagen. His wish finally came to fruition during the conception of For Free. "[Fagan] just sent the words and stood back to see what would happen," he told Uncut magazine. "He knew what our taste was and he knew what we would probably try to do. He's an extremely intelligent guy and I think he knew what would happen. We know his playbook pretty well, so we deliberately went there - complex chords, complex melodies. We Steely Damned him right into the middle of this as far as we could! And fortunately Donald liked it, so I couldn't be more grateful."
• James Raymond played Fender Rhodes, synthesizers, percussion, and synth guitar. The other musicians are:
  
  Bass: Andrew Ford
  Guitar: Dean Parks
  Drums: Gary Novak
  Tenor saxophone: Steve Tavaglione
  Fluegelhorn and trumpet: Walt Fowler
  Background vocals: Michelle Willis and Becca Stevens