The chorus of a song is generally its most instructive part because it repeats, but Tom Petty often prefers to put his lessons in the bridge or final verse. And he was not fond of handing out advice anyway: "I'm certainly not trying to preach or tell anyone what's right or wrong. I see myself as an observer, a reporter. I try to use what's happened to me or people in my immediate vicinity—and the better I get at expressing that and getting it across, the more meaningful the tunes are to people." Indeed, the chorus of "Straight Into Darkness" at first appears to be mostly reportage.
