My City Was Gone
"My City Was Gone" | ||||
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Single by The Pretenders | ||||
from the album Learning to Crawl | ||||
A-side | "Back on the Chain Gang" | |||
Released | 17 September 1982 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 5:14 | |||
Label | Sire | |||
Songwriter(s) | Chrissie Hynde | |||
Producer(s) | Chris Thomas | |||
The Pretenders singles chronology | ||||
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"My City Was Gone" is a song by the
The song was written by Pretenders leader Chrissie Hynde, and reflected her growing interest in environmental and social concerns. The lyrics take the form of an autobiographical lament, with the singer returning to her childhood home of Ohio and discovering that rampant development had destroyed the "pretty countryside" of her youth. The song makes a number of specific references to places in and around Akron, Ohio including South Howard Street (line 5), the historic center of Akron which was leveled to make way for an urban plaza with three skyscrapers and two parking decks (line 8).
The opening bass riff from this song "was something that Tony Butler used to play just as a warm-up," said Steve Churchyard, the engineer for the record.[4]
Use by the Rush Limbaugh Show
The instrumental opening of the song (before Hynde's vocals appear at 36 seconds in) is best known as the opening theme of the Rush Limbaugh Show, an American conservative talk radio franchise that started in 1984 with Rush Limbaugh and since June 2021 has been hosted by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.
The roots derive from with Rush Limbaugh hosting a local radio show at KFBK in Sacramento, California in 1984, where the show stayed until 1988 when it became nationally syndicated under the EIB Network brand. Limbaugh said in 2011 that he chose it because of the irony of a conservative using such an anti-conservative song, though he mainly liked its "unmistakable, totally recognizable bass line."[7]
In 1999,
Personnel
- Chrissie Hynde – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
- Martin Chambers – drums
- Billy Bremner – lead guitar
- Tony Butler– bass guitar
References
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
- ^ Rosenberg, Tal (11 November 2014). "Listen to the Pretenders' rust-belt-disco jam 'My City Was Gone'". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
- ^ "Back on the Chain Gang". Connollyco.com.
- ^ Pushkin, Richard (September 2005). "Classic Tracks: The Pretenders: Back On The Chain Gang". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
- ^ Wardlaw, Matt (September 7, 2011). "Top 10 Pretenders songs". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ^ Wawzenek, Bryan (September 4, 2013). "Top 10 Martin Chambers Pretenders songs". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
- ^ a b "Origins of the EIB Theme Song". The Rush Limbaugh Show. 2011-05-13. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
- ^ a b c "Really Randoms: Chrissie Hynde, Ricky Martin, Jimmy Page". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 17, 2009. Retrieved May 4, 2011.