I found a picture of you What hijacked my world that night To a place in the past We have been cast out of? Nothing prepares you for this and the strength of your feelings take you by surprise…after all you were doing so well, you tell yourself…Ĭhrissie Hynde describes the experience like this… Memories flood back and the heartbreak feels fresh, just like it did when you heard the news first time round. You’re in a place you used to go with them…doing something you used to do with them…you smell the perfume you associate with them…and you’ve lost it. Most of the time, we convince ourselves we’re doing just fine…close friends and family might not be quite so confident, but we get good at fooling ourselves after a while.Īnd then something happens. In those circumstances, after a few days of tears perhaps, we steel ourselves and try to make it through as if nothing happened. Ironic then, perhaps, that “Back On The Chain Gang” became a big hit, reaching number five on the Billboard charts in the US and, whilst not quite as big a hit in the UK, still a Top 20 single and one of The Pretenders’ best-known songs.Ĭhrissie Hynde starts “Back On The Chain Gang” with an experience familiar to anyone who’s suffered a significant loss…a loved one who passed away…the love of your life leaving for someone else…a best friend from childhood you fell out with over something silly and never see any more… With the old showbiz motto of “the show must go on” ringing in her ears, no doubt, she kept recording and performing, but it must have been hard and I’m sure at times must have felt like being on forced labour of some sort. The only prison “Back On The Chain Gang” really talks about is the prison of your mind…although that is often a much darker place than the kind with physical bars on the windows and, for most people, much harder to escape from.Ĭhrissie Hynde wrote “Back On The Chain Gang” after one of her band members died suddenly and unexpectedly from a drug overdose. Although I’m glad to see the video director gave in to the temptation to weave together a few these fairly obvious themes, as you’ll see in a moment. “Back On The Chain Gang” isn’t about convicts building railroads somewhere in the Deep South…or breaking rocks to make road surfaces…or sewing mailbags…or anything like that. I enjoy my job, in fairness, but even I thought it was a great song for 6.30 on a Monday morning. In an inspired piece of radio programming, “Back On The Chain Gang” popped up as I jumped in my car for the long drive to work last Monday.Īlthough the song is nothing to do with work at all, I’m pretty sure most of us can relate to the idea of being “on the chain gang” when they get back to work after a weekend off. “Back On The Chain Gang” - The Pretenders
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