You Don't Know How It Feels

Label

Warner Bros records .

Genre

Roots Rock

Media Type

CD

Composer(s)

Tom Petty

Entered Chart

Dec 3, 1994

Peak Date

Feb 4, 1995

Released

d November 7, 1994

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

18030

B-Side

Girl On LSD

"You don't know how it feels to be me" is something many of us have said to seek empathy for our burdens. Typical of Petty's songwriting, the lyric is couched in ambiguity, which could be the point: We don't know how it feels to be him, so how can we possibly know what the song is about? It's certainly not entirely autobiographical, at least literally, as Petty's father was not born to rock - he was leery of his son's career in music. We'll get to the point: marijuana had a little something to do with this song. Here's what Petty said about it on his VH1 Storytellers special: "Every blue moon or so, I might have a toke on somebody's... cigarette. It's an OK way to live your life, but it's not to be advised. I'm not going to say it's good or bad. But I wrote this song a while back and I was trying to do this character in the song who was kind of down and looking for some company. And instead of having him say, 'Let's have another beer' - they always have to have that in the song - I thought this guy should roll another joint." The lyrics say, "Let's roll another joint," but a version was distributed to radio stations with that line changed to "Let's hit another joint," which is odd because hitting a joint seems worse than rolling one. This version was also cut down to 4:12 from 4:49. The video was directed by Phil Joanou. It's one continuous shot, with the camera revolving around a microphone as all kinds of crazy stuff happens in the background, including a circus act and a bank robbery. Tom Petty was one of MTV's biggest stars, but they wouldn't play the video as delivered because of the drug reference (sex and violence were generally OK on the network, but they were very sensitive about drugs). When the video aired, the word "joint" was reversed so it came out sounding like "noojh." Apparently, MTV made this edit themselves. Petty said on Storytellers: "The strangest thing happened. I wrote this song not thinking that it was controversial in any way and I nearly left this song off the album 'til the very end, and we put it on. Imagine my surprise when this song comes on television and they say, 'Let's roll another noojh,' which sounded worse to me than joint. Because, I don't know if you've ever had a noojh, but it sounds really wicked." Perhaps to atone, MTV awarded it Best Male Video at the VMAs. This was the first single from Wildflowers, a Tom Petty solo album that his band, The Heartbreakers, all played on; Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell co-produced the set along with Petty and Rick Rubin. Petty had some leftover material from the album that got scattered about; the song "Leave Virginia Alone" went to Rod Stewart, and other tracks either got mothballed or ended up on the She's The One soundtrack, which Petty did in 1996. Many of the songs that didn't make the album the first time surfaced on the 2020 expanded edition, Wildflowers & All The Rest, including Petty's rendition of "Leave Virginia Alone." This won a Grammy in 1995 for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. >> Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers performed this on Saturday Night Live when they were the musical guests November 19, 1994. Their drummer, Stan Lynch, had left the band, so Dave Grohl, who had not yet formed Foo Fighters, sat in for the performance. Steve Ferrone got the gig as Heartbreakers drummer a short time later.

Let me run with you tonight
I'll take you on a moonlight ride
There's someone I used to see
But she don't give a damn for me

But let me get to the point
Let's roll another joint
And turn the radio loud
I'm too alone to be proud
You don't know how it feels
You don't know how it feels
To be me

People come, people go
Some grow young, some grow cold
I woke up in between
A memory and a dream

So let's get to the point
Let's roll another joint
Let's head on down the road
There's somewhere I gotta go
And you don't know how it feels
You don't know how it feels
To be me

My old man was born to rock
He's still tryin' to beat the clock
Think of me what you will
I've got a little space to fill

So let's get to the point
Let's roll another joint
And let's head on down the road
There's somewhere I got to go
And you don't know how it feels
You don't know how it feels
No, you don't know how it feels
To be me

You don't know how it feels
You don't know how it feels
No, you don't know how it feels
To be me