Yeah I’m Runnin’ Down a Dream!
When they announced this week’s DLC offering, I pretty much exploded in a frenzy of, “Tom Petty’s in Rock Band! Tom Petty’s in Rock Band! SQUEEEEEEE!!!” Not very dignified, I know, but I was too excited to be ashamed! I was even happier to find that one of the tracks being released was “Runnin’ Down a Dream” one of my favorite songs to play whenever I drive. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sung along with Tom on this tune while speeding down the highway. I couldn’t wait to get this track into my game, and I decided way in advance to make it my FC pick for the day it released. Yay, Tom Petty!
I knew I wasn’t going to get around to my FC until I got home from the two (yeah, count ‘em, TWO) Rock Band bar nights I planned to attend last night, but I did get a chance to sing “Runnin’ Down a Dream” at one of them! I did better than I expected for a sightread, but I could tell that my habitual way of singing the song was not going to cut it for game credit. I wondered how long it would take me to reprogram myself to sing “Runnin’ Down a Dream” the way the game wanted me to. Only one way to find out!
Just in case, I checked the ScoreHero Wiki page and found not only an optimal path (3/sk1, 3/sk1, 4/BOD), but a link to the vocal chart as well! Wow, I must not have been the only one excited about Tom Petty, cause this info went up FAST!
By far my biggest challenge on “Runnin’ Down a Dream” was getting full credit for the all “Ooh woo” phrases. I habitually sang these in a higher octave, but couldn’t get the game to award me Awesomes when doing so. I switched to a lower part of my range for better pitch/breathing control, but still had consistency issues. There seemed to be very little margin for error on these phrases as compared to others in the song. During my FC run, you might notice I go way sharp at the start of phrase 22 (“I rolled on, the sky grew dark” @ 1:55 on vid). This is because I was distracted by my relief at passing the first set of “Ooh woo” phrases! Fortunately, the game wasn’t nearly as particular about me staying on pitch for the entirety of phrase 22 as it was for those that came before it! Since the track ends with a 14-phrase series of “Ooh woo”s, getting this FC really came down to focus, endurance, and holding the mic really close to my mouth so the game could register a steady flow of breath on these finicky phrases!
It took me around 37 minutes to make the bare minimum of vocal adjustments and pass “Runnin’ Down a Dream” with a 100% score. I made 9 separate attempts during this time, though only 4 of them (including the FC) were full runs. Around halfway through the session I kicked my vocal track volume up 2 notches, helping me key in a little better on Tom’s voice. One more possible point of interest: I never once got ANY of the pie to fill up for the talky “Oh” at the beginning of phrase 36 (@ 2:53 on vid). So annoying! My score tied for the #2 spot on ScoreHero, 300 points behind #1. Not bad, not bad at all! Now, just one more time, say it with me: Yay, Tom Petty!
