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Tom Petty - "Walls (Circus)"

"Some days are diamonds / some days are rocks."

I can't tell you how many mornings and evenings that line has gone through my head. In the morning, it reminds me that every day has its possibilities, even though I don't want to even be out of bed. In the evening, if I had a bad day, it's easy enough to chalk off.

Walls can be found is on the only-Petty soundtrack to the Jennifer Aniston movie She's The One, which I've never seen. The soundtrack is very good and unjustifiably ignored, probably because I'm not the only one who didn't see the movie. So it might be Petty's great lost single.

It's got all of his laid-back, California-rock, pseudo-Dylan hallmarks: harmonica, piano, acoustic guitar, harmonies. And after that great first line, plenty more Zen wisdom follows, such as "some doors are open / some roads are blocked," and "half of me is ocean/half of me is sky."

I'm not one who looks for life advice in my music, but I do look for truth. Nothing in this song is profound or original, but when the song is nearly over and Petty tells us that "some things are over / some things go on," you can't help but think, 'true dat, Tom, true dat.'

Album: She's The One (1996)
Fave Moment: When Tom calls out "Yes they do!" right before the guitar solo.

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