Damaged by Love

Damaged by Love

From The Tom Petty Project by Kevin Brown

May 13, 2026 · 21 min · Season 14 · Episode 10

About this episode

The episode explores the lyrical depth of Tom Petty's song 'Damaged by Love' and the contributions of Dana Petty.

“There's rain on the road And the faithful have gone. In a crowd all alone, Walking 'round in a song”. It’s a great little snapshot or vignette, as Tom so often gives us, of perhaps a wedding or some other celebration at a small roadside church. That feeling of being alone in a crowd is beautifully phrased by changing the order of the words; rather than All alone in a crowd, “in a crowd all alone” feels more poetic and more deliberately focusing on the alone part rather than the crowd part. And, we have to tip our hat to Dana Petty of course here! Tom tells Paul Zollo “Dana actually helped me with two lines in that song. I was kind of stuck. It’s not something I would ordinarily do, but I said, “Hey, what would you put here? What would you say?” he then says “In a crowd all alone/Walking round in a song. That was hers”. Song : https://youtu.be/DZa8wc2uoow ADDITIONAL LINKS Judge Timbers' tutorial: https://youtu.be/2ld4U8pvr3A Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show. Follow: https://linktr.ee/tompettyproject Listen: https://pod.link/1580769475 All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend…

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Brown

Topics covered

  • song analysis
  • Tom Petty
  • lyric interpretation
  • music commentary
  • personal reflection

Keywords

  • Tom Petty
  • Damaged by Love
  • lyrics
  • Dana Petty
  • Paul Zollo
  • music analysis
  • songwriting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Boneless Podcasting Network

Books & works: Damaged by Love

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