“Oh, he's a crooner, but the man parties like a rock star.” »read more
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Heartbreaker's guitarist Mike Campbell: "You Got Lucky was written to a drum loop. I had made a drum loop in my studio and put the music together. We went into the studio and actually recreated another drum loop. The drummer would go out and play, then we'd cut the tape and tape the loop together. We ran it around the room over some mic stands and through the tape heads, and then printed that for 3 or 4 minutes and then recorded the song over that drum loop."
Petty added the lyrics and came up with the idea for the guitar solo. He suggested they do sort of a surf guitar with a tremolo arm, like in the Clint Eastwood movie The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. (Thanks to Mike Campbell for speaking with us about this song. Read his full interview in the Songfacts Interviews. Learn more at tompetty.com.)
More songs by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Comments:
Vintage Petty, and yes, that whammy bar guitar, put together with that distinctive drum loop, really make this song better.
Great bit of rebuke in the lyrics, too.
btw...the trick of running a tape loop around the room over microphone stands was used at Abbey Road by Pink Floyd for the sound effect track on "Money."
Floyd also did that in 1968 for the drum loop for the "Syncopated Pandemonium" section for "A Saucerful of Secrets."
They did not have sampling back then, so this crude, yet effective trick worked great.
- oldpink, New Castle, IN
I always like the darkness of this song and imagine the protagonist to be a pretty nasty character. His partner would probably be better off without him.
- David, Seattle, WA
This video rocked. The band and Petty were like future people/ghosts checking out old artifacts from the past. They were puzzled over our strange and ancient technology (like arcade games and stereos and stuff) and generally looked like they were having a great time hamming it up. Fun sci-fi silliness.
- Bubba Zanetti, Austin, TX
The video was a kind of Mad Max-apocalyptic wasteland. Funnily enough, Tom Petty kinda reprised a similar role in Kevin Costner's "The Postman" about 15 years later.
- Vernon, Trinidad, WI, Other
I remember them "trashing" a bunch of video arcade games, in the video for this. I also remember going...NO! Give those to me! When I was growing up, I always wanted one of those in my house.
- Mary, Phoenix, AZ
Great tune! Nice sound! Who has not thought that your partner was the lucky one?
- Darrell, Williamsburg, KY