The random music selector in my car has been on a Tom Petty kick lately. Lots of tracks from Wildflowers, Damn the Torpedoes, Hypnotic Eye, even Traveling Wilburys.
No matter what Petty song it serves up, I’m never tempted to hit the skip button. There’s just something about his music — or at least the music of his that I own — that makes it perfect for any situation.
Today the Random iTunes Fairy is getting into the game, offering up a track from Petty’s album with Mudcrutch, the band he formed as a precursor to the Heartbreakers in the early 70s.
Mudcrutch didn’t release an album back then, but reunited in 2008 to put out a self-titled record that sounded a whole lot like a grungy Heartbreakers record. The fact that the two bands’ lineups overlap by about 80% has something to do with that.
You better not cross it
Oh I’ve been the distance
And I need some rest
Yeah I had somebody once
And damn if I lost her
I’ve been running
Like a man possessed
I don’t scare easy
Don’t fall apart
When I’m under the gun
You can break my heart
And I ain’t gonna run
I don’t scare easy
For no one
Yeah, I am a loser
At the top of my game
I should have known
To keep an eye on you
I got a sky that ain’t never the same
Yeah, I got a dream
it don’t ever come true
I don’t scare easy
Don’t fall apart
When I’m under the gun
You can break my heart
But I ain’t gonna run
I don’t scare easy
For no one
Sun going down
On a canyon wall
I got a soul
That ain’t never
Been blessed
Yeah and I’m a shadow
At the back of the hall
Yeah, I got a sin
I ain’t never confessed
And I don’t scare easy
Don’t fall apart
When I’m under the gun
You can break my heart
And I ain’t gonna run
I don’t scare easy
For no one
And I don’t scare easy
Don’t fall apart
When I’m under the gun
You can break my heart
But I ain’t gonna run
I don’t scare easy
For no one
Meet Me In Montauk 
Daniel has recently gotten into Petty, particularly Full Moon Fever, playing it repeatedly on the commute to and from school with Amy. I recently suggested that they play Southern Accents and Wildflowrrs to expand his Petty horizons. He humored me by playing Southern Accents, but it’s hard to move him off Full Moon Fever.
Nice one. Haven’t heard it since I don’t know when. Tom Petty is highly underrated as a songwriter and I believe Dylan said as much. Full Moon Fever and Great Wide Open kind of mark those times for me. And around the same time was the Wilbury album. But I’m sure I didn’t see Petty like Dylan until I heard Wildflowers. And I started clicking around this site reading about and listening to Mojo. I remember it coming out but never heard it until today and will have to get that one.