Into The Great Wide Open | Chords + Lyric
Intro
||: Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 :||
Verse 1
| Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 |
Eddie waited ’til he finished high school.
| Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 |
He went to Hollywood, got a tattoo.
| Am Am7/G | Am/F# Am7/G |
He met a girl out there with a tattoo too.
| G Fadd9 | C G | C G |
The future was wide open.
Verse 2
| Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 |
They moved into a place they both could afford.
| Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 |
He found a nightclub, he could work at the door.
| Am Am7/G | Am/F# Am7/G |
She had a guitar and she taught him some chords.
| G Fadd9 | C G | C G | C G D5 D |
The sky was the limit.
Chorus 1
| G Cadd9 | Dadd4 |
Into the great wide open.
| G Em | Dadd4 Dadd4/A |
Under them skies of blue.
| G Cadd9 | Dadd4 |
Out in the great wide open.
| G Fadd9 | Em Asus2 G | C G | C G |
A rebel without a clue.
Instrumental 1
||: Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 :||
Verse 3
| Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 |
The papers said Ed always played from the heart.
| Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 |
He got an agent and a roadie named Bart.
| Am Am7/G | Am/F# Am7/G |
They made a record, and it went in the charts.
| G Fadd9 | C G | C G |
The sky was the limit.
Verse 4
| Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 |
His leather jacket had chains that would jingle.
| Em Emmaj7 | Em7 Em6 |
They both met movie stars, partied, and mingled.
| Am Am7/G | Am/F# Am7/G |
Their A&R man said, “I don’t hear a single”.
| G Fadd9 | C G | C G | C G D5 D |
The future was wide open.
Chorus 2
| G Cadd9 | Dadd4 |
Into the great wide open.
| G Em | Dadd4 Dadd4/A |
Under them skies of blue.
| G Cadd9 | Dadd4 |
Out in the great wide open.
| G Fadd9 | Em Asus2 |
A rebel without a clue.
Chorus 3
| G Cadd9 | Dadd4 |
Into the great wide open.
| G Em | Dadd4 Dadd4/A |
Under them skies of blue.
| G Cadd9 | Dadd4 |
Into the great wide open.
| G Fadd9 | Em Asus2 G | C G | C G |
A rebel without a clue.
Into The Great Wide Open chords and progressions
Tom Petty‘s epic Into The Great Wide Open has two chords that remind me of another three songs.
The first is the Em chords during the intro and verse. They remind me of My Funny Valentine‘s chords.
The second progression is what comes up next, the Am chords with a falling bass line. This reminds me of Sunny Afternoon’s chords.
The third is that Dadd4, a chord with both the sus4 and 3rd. This is the same chord that R.E.M. plays in their Man On The Moon.
Making connections like this is important in order to understand music on a deeper level, it doesn’t mean that Tom stole or ripped off those songs, it’s just common chord progression language.
On the record, Tom and Mike have as usual layered several parts that sound great but won’t help you on this Saturday night’s gig.
Members get TAB for what would work in a live band as the only guitarist, as well as an in-depth chord analysis.
Here’s a link to the complete lesson (members only): Into The Great Wide Open chord analysis and TAB.
Become a member today and get unlimited access to all step-by-step guitar courses, TAB for the songbook, the Self-Eliminating Practice Routine, and the eBook Spytunes Method.
Into The Great Wide Open cast Johnny Dep as the Rebel!
The stars certainly aligned when Tom Petty wanted to make his music video for Into The Great Wide Open and the indie comedy-drama Arizona Dream (1993) unexpectedly went into hiatus.
Movie stars Johnny Depp, Gabrielle Anwar, and Faye Dunaway now found themselves playing Eddie Rebel, his girlfriend, and manager in Tom Petty’s music video instead.
As the song has such genius storytelling, this wasn’t difficult to achieve, just costly to set all the scenes and get a cast of this kind of quality.
The result may be one of the best music videos ever made.
Into The Great Wide Open chords | Related pages
Intermediate Acoustic
Most intermediate acoustic tunes can’t be played using just basic open-position chords. We have to move up the fretboard and play CAGED barre chords as well.
We incorporate bass lines, add licks, extend chords, and play vocal melodies. Most importantly, we’ll invent second guitar parts and play these songs together.
Five similar tunes with chords and lyrics
Tom Petty
Tom Petty released most of his albums with his band The Heartbreakers although some solo material appeared as well.
His best-known tunes include American Girl, Free Fallin’, Learning To Fly, Into The Great Wide Open, Don’t Come Around Here No More, and I Won’t Back Down.
Tom Petty on the web
Pop & Rock
Whenever a tune doesn’t fit into a specific genre, it tends to end up here, in the Pop & Rock section.
Learn tunes from Tom Petty, Eagles, Toto, Oasis, Elvis, Clapton, John Mayer, Kings Of Leon, R.E.M., Radiohead, Bruno Mars, and more.
