Songfacts®:

• In 1914, Thomas Hardy published a poem which was a bizarre conversation between a dead woman and her dog. The animal was digging at her grave, she thought to pay its respects, until it told her it was simply burying a bone and had forgotten where she was buried. In life, people we once held dear often forget us just as easily. This song is in the same vein.
• The phrase "even the losers get lucky sometimes" is something Tom Petty's dad used to say. It's a self-deprecating was of explaining some accomplishment; another way so say it is "even a blind squirrel sometimes gets a nut."
  
  In the song, Petty looks back on a love that he thought was true, only to realize she was never that into him - he's just a loser who got lucky. In real life, Petty was married to his first wife, Jane Benyo.
• Petty, the sole writer on this track, framed the lyric around an interpersonal relationship, but drew inspiration from his legal battle with MCA Records, which nearly thwarted the album. After the band's record company, Shelter, was sold to MCA, Petty refused to make the move, leading to a flurry of lawsuits that Petty suppressed by filing bankruptcy. A deal was reached, with Petty joining the MCA imprint Backstreet under new terms. The ordeal left some scars, but Petty got to keep a little bit of pride, and a lot more of his earnings.
• Speaking about Damn The Torpedoes with the New Musical Express in 1980, Petty said: "I wanted to write anthems for underdogs, songs like 'Even The Losers' and 'Refugee'... the theme of the album wasn't self-conscious but when I put it together afterwards I could see it was about standing up for your rights, the ones that everyone has which can't be f--ked with or taken away."