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My City Was Gone

"My City Was Gone"
My City Was Gone.jpeg
Single by The Pretenders
from the album Learning to Crawl
A-side "Back on the Chain Gang"
Released October 1982
Genre Rock
Length 5:14
Label Sire
Writer(s) Chrissie Hynde
Producer(s) Chris Thomas
The Pretenders singles chronology
"Back on the Chain Gang"
(1982)
"My City Was Gone"
(1982)
"2000 Miles"
(1983)
Learning to Crawl track listing
"Thumbelina"
(6)
"My City Was Gone"
(7)
"Thin Line Between Love and Hate"
(8)

"My City Was Gone" is a song by the rock group The Pretenders. The song originally appeared in October 1982 as the B-side to the single release of "Back on the Chain Gang"; the two-sided single was the comeback release for the band following the death of founding bandmember James Honeyman-Scott. The song was included on the album Learning to Crawl released in early 1984, and it became a radio favorite in the United States. It is sometimes referred to as "The Ohio Song" for its constant reference to the state, though it is not part of the song's title. The song's final title was due to the fact that there had already been a song called "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

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 and pollution 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. The opening of the song, before Hynde's vocals appear at about 40 seconds, has been used as the opening theme 'bumper' for Rush Limbaugh's popular American talk radio program since 1984, during his days at KFBK in Sacramento, California. He didn't use the lyrics, but 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."


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