Watch: Mike Campbell plays a stripped-back, ‘swampy’ version of Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
He also explains how the song was written.
Image: Theo Wargo / Getty
Guitarist for Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Mike Campbell, has (in lieu of a tour) begun uploading a series of videos to his Instagram, in which he takes apart tunes from his career. The latest is a breakdown of 1981’s Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, a duet between Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty.
In the video, he’s playing the Fender Broadcaster he used on the song’s original recording. He explains in it how he started off the writing of the song with a chord progression “inspired by the drum intro to Honky Tonk Women, if you can believe that,” he says, “I just put different chords to that feel, and gave it to Tom and he wrote these great words.’
Producer Jimmy Iovine then “thought the song would work better as a duet and he was actually right, so Stevie Nicks wound up singing along on the song. Today, I just thought I’d show you how the germ of the song started. It’s a swampy blues song, really.”
Take a look at the performance and the breakdown below:
Campbell initially delayed his summer tour – which should be happening at the moment – and debut LP by his band the Dirty Knobs due to health issues. The album has been pushed back to September, as has the tour – provided touring is feasible by then.
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