My City Was Gone
“This song is about my beautiful home town. Akron, Ohio.”
That’s how Chrissie Hynde kicks off the performance of “My City Was Gone” in the above video clip. It’s not said ironically or in a mawkish “hello (insert random tour city here)!” way. It’s straightforward, honest, and heartfelt which is how she says most everything.
Coincidentally I had just been down a YouTube rabbit hole watching Pretenders clips when Bill Eichenberger (who now manages publications for the Ohio History Connection after many years covering music and books for The Columbus Dispatch) put out a call asking people to testify about their favorite Ohio music acts. I quickly called dibs on The Pretenders and put together a few paragraphs for him (from which I will now liberally borrow).
I would have loved The Pretenders no matter where they were from, but I do believe that while the band may have broken onto the scene in London, England, the foundation that formed Hynde is all Ohio. She was born and raised in Akron, growing up obsessed with the soulful, hard-hitting rock music that was spilling out of many a midwestern garage. In her autobiography she wrote about the life-shaping experience of seeing Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels (complete with a fake mid-show fist fight) playing at Chippewa Lake Park in Medina. Later, she attended art school at Kent State University (and was a student there during the 1970 shootings) before she and her rebellious nature eventually headed overseas.
It was there The Pretenders’ created, with their self-titled album, one of the most fully-formed debuts ever recorded. Filled with spikey, hooky classics like “Precious,” “Mystery Achievement,” and “Brass In Pocket” it made them stars. It was on the band’s third record where Hynde would most directly draw on her upbringing for inspiration with the song “My City Was Gone.” Released in 1984, lyrics about paved over farmland and endless stretches of shopping malls resonated. And even if it did sound harsh with its sarcastic “hey, ho, way to go Ohio” refrain, it also served as a love song to her hometown.
Hynde’s edges hardly softened over the years. I still vividly recall a Pretenders concert at the Newport Music Hall where, in between songs, she chided an audience member who had brought binoculars to the club. “What? You want to look up my fucking nose?” she said. On the other hand, she also once sponsored a car in the annual Akron Soap Box Derby. The child of one of her old hometown friends entered the race with the artwork from the Last of the Independents album splashed across the side of the car. Don’t know if the kid won, but they certainly had the coolest car. If they didn’t install a cassette player they should have.
The Pretenders rightfully were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. A decade before that, though, they were a part of the all-star concert that opened the Hall. That night, with an Ohio flag hanging from an amp, and as the famously infectious bass line rolled through the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Hynde gave a shout-out to the Indians. She then rattled off the names of assorted northeast Ohio cities big and small. I like to think it was her way of reminding everyone that even as her music took her around the world, she hadn’t forgotten her Ohio roots.
It was also noteworthy that, having lost two members of the original Pretenders lineup to drug use, that night she also covered Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done.”
Hynde and her band played “My City Was Gone” once again at the actual RRHOF ceremony. Of course, beforehand when she was asked about being inducted she replied with her typical bluntness saying, “I hate to be a spoilsport, but I don’t like the way the music industry turns the music world into sports, as if it’s competitive. I mean, if someone’s in, then who’s not in? You can’t say how much music has affected or moved someone. It’s just too personal. So I didn’t feel too great about it.”
I can appreciate her sentiment, but I’m going to assume she also appreciated taking her place alongside her friends, peers, and heroes.
