[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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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.
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