It wasn’t just because of its groundbreaking, sci-fi/noir visual sensibilities, but because, over the years, it would prove to be a snapshot of sci-fi-centric 1980s pop culture, much like the post-apocalyptic media tent in which it took place. Indeed, the “You Got Lucky” music video proved to be a geeky gestalt, making a greater, longer-lasting cultural impact than the catchy atmospheric tune to which it was set. In the aforementioned I Want My MTV book excerpt, Petty recounted a phone call he received from Michael Jackson – who was on the verge of revolutionizing music videos, himself – telling him that the Mad Max theme was “an incredible idea.” However, the “You Got Lucky” music video was especially a boon to the burgeoning MTV, on which it found a frequent place in its regular daily video rotation and significantly raised the creative bar for other artists in the crucial years to come. 1 on the Billboard Chart for Mainstream Rock Songs, an achievement only matched at the time by Foreigner, who were in their prime as a hit factory. Listen to Tom Petty on Amazon Primeīy December 11, 1982, “You Got Lucky” managed to mark three weeks at No. This incites him to – in true rock and roll style – defiantly throw the machine on its side, before showcasing a legitimately impressive spin-happy display of pistol-holstering, before he and the group make their exit and – perhaps in rejection of “our” superficial “modern” distractions – leave the boom box behind, still playing out the song. However, Tom, fixated on the Astro Invader arcade machine and seemingly contemplating whether or not to play the token he’s just been handed, comes to an epiphany of some kind that snaps him back into his apocalyptic reality.
The group – presumably new to these pre-apocalyptic activities – seem to be having a good time goofing around with the arcade games and slot machines, when a hollow body Gretsch 6120 catches the eye of lead guitarist Mike Campbell, who subsequently picks it up to perform the song’s bridging guitar solo. It’s all complemented by another montage of pop culture imagery, from various black-and-white movies, to an image of Chuck Berry. Besides rolling studio recording equipment, there are early-1980s arcade cabinets showing era-appropriate quarter-thieves.Īlso seen are rows of stacked television monitors, with one turned on to display a clip from the Battlestar Galactica single-season, modern-Earth-set spinoff series, Galactica 1980 (the episode, “Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I,”) and others showing Petty’s 1980 music video for “Here Come My Girl” and 1981’s “A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me),” both of which Lenahan also directed. Upon hitting the power switch inside, they are bombarded by plastic-protected media stimuli.
Their destination is then revealed as a black weather-worn carnival tent, which they enter, only to find a hub of cobweb-covered 1980s geeky goodness.