Album: Damn The Torpedoes (1979)
Charted: 15
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  • We did somethin' we both know it
    We don't talk too much about it
    Ain't no real big secret all the same
    Somehow we get around it
    Listen it don't really matter to me, baby
    You believe what you want to believe
    You see, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)

    Somewhere, somehow, somebody
    Must have kicked you around some
    Tell me why you want to lay there
    Revel in your abandon
    Honey, it don't make no difference to me, baby
    Everybody's had to fight to be free
    You see, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)
    Now baby, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee) No

    Baby we ain't the first
    I'm sure a lot of other lovers been burned
    Right now this seems real to you
    But it's one of those things
    You gotta feel to be true

    Somewhere, somehow, somebody
    Must have kicked you around some
    Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped
    Tied up, taken away and held for ransom, honey
    It don't really matter to me, baby
    Everybody's had to fight to be free
    You see, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)
    No, you don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)
    You don't have to live like a refugee (don't have to live like a refugee)
    Oh, oh, oh Writer/s: Michael W. Campbell, Tom Petty
    Publisher: Gone Gator Music, Universal Music Publishing Group, Wixen Music Publishing
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 17

  • Pops from Mars HotelOf the song, Petty explained: “This was a reaction to the pressures of the music business. I wound up in a huge row with the record company when ABC Records tried to sell our contract to MCA Records without us knowing about it, despite a clause in our contract that said they didn’t have the right to do that. I was so angry with the whole system that I think that had a lot to do with the tone of the Damn the Torpedoes album. I was in this defiant mood. I wasn’t so conscious of it then, but I can look back and see what was happening. I find that’s true a lot. It takes some time usually before you fully understand what’s going on in a song – or maybe what led up to it.”
  • Chris from Norman, OkTom petty and the heartbreakers were huge on videos. Johnny Depp was even in one of his videos.
  • Johnny from Claxton, Gait's a great song... but the main riff is lifted from the stones satisfaction... just tweaked a bit.
  • Beth from Green Bay, WiMy daughter sang this song when she was 3, "You don't have to live like a refuge head!" She knew all of the songs on the VH tape of his videos. She fell asleep every night to that tape. Took her to her first Petty concert when she was 8.
  • Llyle from London, United KingdomAwesome lyrics.
  • Olivia from Boston, MaThis song rocks almost as much as Tom Petty himself!
  • Melanie from Seattle, WaThis song rocks, I love Tom Petty
  • Anthony from Dallas, TxMe and a friend got into a fight when I played this song in the car. He thought I was making fun of him because he fled hurricane Katrina.
  • Joshua from Twin Cities, MnMelissa Etheridge diid a pretty good remake of this a few years ago.
  • Patrick from Tallapoosa, GaI remember a local TV station here in GA used the intro when doing a story on the Cuban refugees back in the mid-90s.
  • Jay from Atlanta, GaAlvin and the Chipmunks did a cover of this. I just remeber when they got to the part that says "revel in your abandon", one said to the other "what the heck does that mean?" It was wierd to hear them doing a rock song like this anyway.
  • John from Boston, MaI always thought of Refugee as a song talking to a girl, not liberating social commentary
  • Jim from Dallas, TxDue to the Congressional Black Congress, this song is being changed to "Evacuee" to be politically correct.
  • Brian from Meriden, CtClassic American rock. Liberating social commentary. Why do we sometimes live like refugees when we don't always have to? F the establishment!
  • Julian from Oakland, ArTom Petty & the Heartbreakers hold the record for most appearances by any musical act on Saturday Night Live.
  • Schmitty from Vienna, Vathis song proves the guitar part doesn't have to be fast and hard to sound good!
  • Pcdj from New Haven, CtGreat tune!
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