Runnin’ Down a Dream

Producers

The song is a nod to Petty’s musical roots, with the lyric “me and Del were singin' ‘Little Runaway’” making reference to Del Shannon’s 1961 hit “Runaway”. The song uses E… Read More

Jul. 29, 19891 viewer371.8K views

Runnin’ Down a Dream Lyrics

[Verse 1]
It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down
I had the radio on, I was drivin'
Trees went by, me and Del were singin'
"Little Runaway, I was flyin'

[Chorus]
Yeah, runnin' down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin' on a mystery
Goin' wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream

[Verse 2]
I felt so good, like anything was possible
Hit cruise control and rubbed my eyes
The last three days, the rain was unstoppable
It was always cold, no sunshine

[Chorus]
Yeah, runnin' down a dream
That never would come to me
Workin' on a mystery
Goin' wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream

[Verse 3]
I rolled on, the sky grew dark
I put the pedal down to make some time
There's somethin' good waitin' down this road
I'm pickin' up whatever's mine

[Chorus]
I'm runnin' down a dream
That never would've come to me
Workin' on a mystery
Goin' wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream
Yeah, I'm runnin' down a dream
That never would've come to me
Workin' on a mystery
Goin' wherever it leads
I'm runnin' down a dream

[Guitar Solo]

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Genius Annotation

The song is a nod to Petty’s musical roots, with the lyric “me and Del were singin' ‘Little Runaway’” making reference to Del Shannon’s 1961 hit “Runaway”.

The song uses E major as a tonic, but makes ample use of chords outside that key, such as D, G, and C major chords. Some passages (including the extended outro) use a pedal point of E in the bass, while changing chords from E major to C and D major chords above it. The repeating fuzz guitar riff, using the notes B, B♭, A, G, and E, lacks only a D to complete the hexatonic E blues scale.