Music Notes

I Won't Back Down

My fifth track is a classic by the late great Tom Petty, I Won't Back Down, released in 1989. A song about standing up for what you believe in, it's the kind I can easily like. I especially like the lines "in a world that keeps on pushing me around, I'll stand my ground."

Mom used to play this as I was growing up, along with a couple of other Petty songs. The lyrics of this one were simple enough for me to understand, and I appreciated his position. I had a countercultural upbringing, protected from the potentially undesirable influences of pop culture and open internet access, and I understood the desire to be one's own self, unshaped by outside pressure.

Tom Petty died in October 2017, right when I was beginning to explore music for myself, stepping out of my protective cultural shell. Imagine Dragons began covering I Won't Back Down at their shows to honor him. I still have a video on my phone, downloaded from their Twitter page, where they did an impromptu backstage jam session with this song while Dan was holding his young daughter Arrow. It helped me bond with ID as a band at a time when I wasn't quite sure about them, and I also had the opportunity to learn more about Tom Petty.

Over the years I've found he seemed to be a decent and respectable person, and I admire the carefully layered guitar work on the many songs from him which I've encountered. I learned to spot his voice in a crowd. I Won't Back Down became a favorite of mine and eventually earned a spot on my personal offline playlist.

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