The Pretenders - Live - My City Was Gone (Akron, Ohio) 🎸

[appalachiablue]

- The song was released in 1982. Singer Chrissie Hynde is a native of Akron, Ohio.

- My City Was Gone Lyrics: [Verse 1]

I went back to Ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South Howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces

[Chorus]
Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio...
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- My City Was Gone” was written by The Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde, who reflected her growing interest in environmental & social concerns. The lyrics take the form of an autobiographical lament, with the singer returning to her childhood home of Ohio & discovering that rampant development & pollution had destroyed the “pretty countryside” of her youth. The song makes a number of specific references to places in & around Akron, Ohio including South Howard Street, the historic center of Akron which was leveled to make way for an urban plaza with 3 skyscrapers & 2 parking decks.

The song is easily recognizable, as the instrumental opening of it (before Hynde’s vocals appear at 36 secs in) is the opening theme for Rush Limbaugh’s American talk radio program since 1984, during his days at KFBK in Sacramento, Ca. Rush 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.”...https://genius.com/Pretenders-my-city-was-gone-lyrics