“There’s no one as honest as those in pain”: The language of Tom Petty’s song lyrics

Tom Petty’s songs are among the most recognized and influential in rock music. One aspect of Petty’s songs that contributes to his popularity is his use of language in his lyrics. The current study performed two sets of analyses: (a) to examine linguistic features of Petty’s song lyrics over the course of his songwriting career; and (b) to investigate similarities and differences between Petty’s lyrics and the earlier and contemporaneous lyrics of an artist widely assumed to have influenced him, Bob Dylan. Results of analyses using a standard textual program, Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), showed that Petty reduced his references to social relations and reduced his focus on future time orientations over his songwriting career. There were also rises and declines in expressions of authenticity as well as increases in analytical thinking. In analyses comparing Petty to Dylan using a time-lagged approach, Petty’s songs remained shorter in number of words than Dylan’s songs and there was an increase in indicators of analytical thinking in Petty’s later work reaching levels that are characteristic of Dylan’s songs. Further research is needed to trace the influences on prolific songwriting and other aspects of music beyond lyrical expression.