A soundtrack breakdown running down his dream

Tom Petty’s 1989 hit “I Won’t Back Down” is filled with defiance.

“I won’t back down, no I won’t back down/You can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won’t back down.”

The gates of hell? That’s some real point-of-noreturn imagery.

“No, I’ll stand my ground, won’t be turned around/And I’ll keep this world from dragging me down, gonna stand my ground. And I won’t back down.”

Standing one’s ground in rebellion against a world — a world! — dragging them down is a larger-than-life idea. It’s lonely, resolute and, if taken literally, more than a little scary.

But it’s a great song, maybe because so many of us have been driven momentarily street-rat crazy by the world around us. Sure, it’s dramatic, but who hasn’t felt this kind of overwhelming outrage? Petty understood; in the documentary “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” he described the song as “personal”; he said it had so little ambiguity that he had second thoughts about recording it, thinking maybe he ought to take it back and disguise it. He didn’t, and it became one of his biggest hits.

In 2000, then-GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush used “I Won’t Back Down” during campaign appearances until he received a cease-and-desist letter from Petty’s representation, saying use of the song implied that Petty endorsed the Bush ticket — Petty did not.

Reports say Petty even went on to play “I Won’t

Back Down” at a private party at Al Gore’s home on the night the sitting vice president gave his concession speech and, in effect, backed down. Surely, there was anger and defiance at the idea of hanging chads and the popular vote denied, but there was Petty singing the song Bush wanted to use.

“Well I know what’s right, I’ve got just one life/In a world that keeps on pushing me around, but I stand my ground. And I won’t back down.”

Bush didn’t seem like the type who was being pushed around by the world — even after 9/11. Especially after 9/11. The song might have resonated with Americans, but it really didn’t apply to the son of a president who became, well, president.

It doesn’t apply to President Donald Trump, either. But that didn’t stop the president from rocking it during his rally in Tulsa last weekend. Perhaps he thought a cease-and-desist letter might not come since Petty died last year.

One might guess that he felt the COVID-19 pandemic is dragging him down, but he called it something other than COVID-19, thus putting it in its place.

He went on a 14-minute rant about how the lying mainstream media was waiting for him to slip on a stage ramp, slick as a skating rink, at West Point, where he saluted graduates 600 times, so perhaps standing in front of the cameras draws a parallel to the gates of hell. Thing is, he used to be on a reality show, so he’s no stranger to the camera.

Maybe his people picked the song because it resonates with supporters feeling compelled to stand their ground, something that makes them feel as if the whole world is dragging them down.

Maybe. But Petty’s family did send Trump a ceaseand-desist letter. The family also posted a letter on Petty’s Twitter account saying the president was in no way authorized to use the song to further a campaign “that leaves too many Americans and common sense behind.”

Surely, Trump could have found an artist willing to lend a song. Or maybe it was just another mistake.

In 2015, Petty and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra fame were given credit as co-writers of a song that sounded remarkably like “I Won’t Back Down.” Just maybe, in the wake of falling approval ratings and the thought of the very rough road ahead, Trump’s team really meant to play that other song for Americans who turned up at the political rally.

The other song? Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me.”