Song Lyric Sunday: I Still Won’t Back Down

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For today’s SLS, in his post here, Jim has invited us to play a song that reminds us of ourselves. What an opportunity! Just think of all those songs I could share that tell you how wonderful I am! But I decided against that: I thought I should at least try to make this credible. Jim actually ran this theme a couple of years ago, which gave me pause for thought: should I play the same song again or try something new? In the end I decided that my first choice was the best and as no one is likely to remember this from that long ago – or won’t have seen it anyway – I stayed with it, which means that for today I’m again going with this one:

And here are its lyrics:

Well, I won’t back down
No I won’t back down
You could stand me up at the gates of Hell
But I won’t back down

No I’ll stand my ground
Won’t be turned around
And I’ll keep this world from draggin’ me down
Gonna stand my ground
And I won’t back down

Hey baby
There ain’t no easy way out (I won’t back down)
Hey I will stand my ground
And I won’t back down

Well, I know what’s right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around
But I’ll stand my ground
And I won’t back down

Hey baby
There ain’t no easy way out (I won’t back down)
Hey I will stand my ground (I won’t back down)
And I won’t back down

Hey baby
There ain’t no easy way out (I won’t back down)
Hey I won’t back down

Hey baby
There ain’t no easy way out (I won’t back down)
Hey I will stand my ground (I won’t back down)
And I won’t back down (I won’t back down)
No I won’t back down

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Tom Petty / Jeff Lynne

I Won’t Back Down lyrics © Emi April Music Inc., Gone Gator Music

That is such a great song, and he has assembled a pretty good backing band for it! It was on what was officially Tom Petty’s debut solo album, Full Moon Fever, released in April 1989, though members of the Heartbreakers played on several tracks, particularly Mike Campbell, who you saw playing guitar in the video. The album was #3 in the US and #8 here, and has sold over 6m copies. Five of its tracks were released as singles: this was the first, which came out at the same time as the album, and it peaked at #12 in the US and #28 here. Anyone who has seen my music posts before will know that I’m a big Tom Petty fan, and this was for me an obvious choice for the theme. It isn’t a song that has been with me throughout my life, as it only dates back to a time when I was (allegedly) grown-up, but it has meaning for me as being something suggested by a friend that was so accurate – he knew me well!

Many years ago, a group of us from work were in the pub for a drink after work (just the one, honest!) and this came on the jukebox. I was singing along to it and one of the group said to me that I should adopt it as my theme tune: “you can be such a stubborn bastard” was what he actually said. I then delighted in the soubriquet ‘SB’ for quite a while – better than ‘SoB’ I guess. I have to say that he was right: part of my job involved negotiating with commissioners of the services my health trust provided, so it was always a good thing to stand your ground when the occasion demanded. The art of the deal (where have I heard that phrase before?) was in judging when was the right time to compromise. That is, I think, one of those life lessons we should all learn: stand up for what you believe in and when you know you are right, but also recognise when it is the time to compromise, especially if you’re on shaky ground. And that is why this song always reminds me of myself.

A little footnote for you. This song has become a tradition at Florida Gators football games at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Tom’s hometown. Shortly after his sudden death the Gators had a home game and this was played between the third and fourth quarters, after the traditional university song We Are The Boys From Old Florida. It has been played at that time at every subsequent home game, with fans singing along and holding up their mobile phones to fill the stadium with lights.

Here is that first time, complete with their own song:

It appears that I’m not the only one for whom this song has some meaning.

57 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: I Still Won’t Back Down”

  1. Pingback: My September | Take It Easy

    • It’s great, isn’t it. I love Tom Petty’s music and he was such a sad loss. Glad you liked the story too. I made this my ringtone and the team all knew when it was my phone that was ringing!

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    • Thank you, Debbie. That’s a great story, isn’t it. It was planned as part of the programme to commemorate Tom, but they had no idea that it would take off like that and become part of their tradition. I miss Tom too but at least we still have his music.

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  6. Life requires us to stand our ground at times. What some people don’t realize is we can do that without being an enormous jerk. I think I witness this most often when someone reams out an employee who has nothing to do with the situation.

    Like you, I’m a big Tom Petty fan. I still can’t believe he’s no longer with us.

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  10. Well, if you know anything at all about me, Clive … and I think you do … then you can be sure I’ve got a lump in my throat about the size of a good old boy regulation American football. 🏈

    Love your story, love football and I really love this song! ♡🎶♡

    Great post. 😎

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  11. Such a great song Clive and what I have gleaned of you it’s bang on in the nicest possible way! 😜

    It seems to have kept you in good stead and Tom Petty was brilliant and died too young.

    I have added it to my suggestions list to Sam! ………….. 😜💜🍁🍁

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    • Thank you, Willow. It does seem to fit me, but the real art is in developing the understanding of when backing down will be for the best. I’m a big fan of TP, and was so disappointed when he died just a few days after his last concert before retiring to be with his family.

      I hope Sam leaves well alone with this one 🤣

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  18. He was a brilliant singer / songwriter – the 4 hour documentary directed by the late Peter Bogdanovich tells the story of the band and Petty so well, but the recent documentary about the making of his followup, “Wildflowers” is equally fascinating – the record label rejected it originally and what was supposed to be a double album was whittled down – and is a masterpiece…they recently released all of the other tracks over here in the US….one song has Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys and Ringo Starr on it!

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    • I’ve not seen either documentary – not even sure if they are available here – but I’ll look out for them. He was just a great actor, and one of those for whom I’ve had to write a tribute post, sadly. That Wildflowers collection was released here in two stages – both are in my Apple Music library 😊

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    • I guess you do! It’s a great song which I’ve loved since I bought the album – on the day of release. Thank you for that clip – it’s lovely that they did that and that it got such a great response.

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  23. I wasn’t aware of the Florida Gators link, that’s lovely. A great tribute to a great songwriter.

    As for the song, I bought it at the time and still love it. I think the guitar is such a strong element of it’s appeal. Looking at it from a songwriters perspective it’s a mad structure I’m sure the song-writing gurus would tell me off if I tried it myself. It starts with a verse but then goes into something you couldn’t actually call a pre-chorus even though we then go into the chorus itself.

    The first four line verse doesn’t get repeated at any other point in the song, even with a different lyric. The second part is actually another verse but with the ‘I won’t back down’ line tagged on – and that’s part of its genius, from the verse line through every part of the song we hear the title repeated. It really is brilliant.

    Have I banged on enough? Oh and Jeff Lynne, again sometimes underrated, deserves a big mention too.

    Great choice Clive, you SB you…

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