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 TAB
Tom Petty‘s epic Into The Great Wide Open has two chord progressions that remind me of another two songs. The first is the Em chords during the intro and verse. They remind me of Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’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.
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 two songs, it’s just common chord progression language.
Let’s look at some TAB and chords, I want you to have a part to play that’ll work in a band as the only guitarist. On the record, Tom and Mike have obviously layered several parts which sounds great but won’t help you on this Saturday night’s gig.
Here’s a verse part that would work should you play Into The Great Wide Open with your band.
There are lots of little details here worth mentioning. The Em and Am progressions are similar but not the same. For the Em, the bass player stays on the E, so it’s the extensions that change. For Am, it’s the actual bass.
The C chord is played without string 5, but since the bass plays a C, we must call it a C, not a C/E, or a C/G.
The D5 makes the initial D chord more powerful, the last two open strings are there to make it easier to play the first chorus chords.
Here are Into The Great Wide Open’s chorus chords as a part, using TAB.
I’ve kept a similar approach to what the verse had in order to have familiarity. Adding one more string on beat two fattens it just enough.
The Dadd4 is a chord with both the sus4 and 3rd, this is the same chord that R.E.M. plays in their Man On The Moon.
If you searched the internet for Into The Great Wide Open chords, you’ll notice how I’ve written different chords here, most people say Dsus4 and Am, not Dadd4 and Dadd4/A.
Play along with the original recording above using this TAB and decide for yourself who’s correct.
To learn more about arranging guitar parts and chords, check out my guitar courses, the first month is only $1!
Into The Great Wide Open chords | Related pages
Five similar tunes
- (Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay chords.
- The Joker chords
- Learning To Fly chords
- Man On The Moon chords
- Sunny Afternoon chords
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
