s i x f o o t z e r o . c o m

Pretty much sums up The Pretenders of the 80s. One reviewer on Amazon.com wrote: "New Wave got assimilated. Band members enjoyed the rock and roll high life, paying the ultimate cost themselves and exacting a high cost on survivors. Causes arose that had to be addressed, but the Pretenders music survived. "Back On The Chain Gang," and "Middle Of The Road" (from 1983's top-selling "Learning To Crawl") are defiant statements of purpose, band members rocking ever harder as Hynde shouts, "I'm going home, I'm tired as hell/I'm not the kind I used to be/I've got a kid, I'm 33." It may not have been the first time a working mom expressed her frustration in song, but it was among the most powerful."

1. Stop Your Sobbing
2. Kid
3. Brass in Pocket
4. Talk of the Town
5. I Go to Sleep
6. Day After Day
7. Message of Love
8. Back on the Chain Gang
9. Middle of the Road
10. 2000 Miles
11. Show Me
12. Thin Line Between Love and Hate
13. Don't Get Me Wrong
14. Hymn to Her
15. My Baby
16. I Got You Babe - UB40

Stop Your Sobbing (from Pretenders)

It is time for you to stop all of your sobbing
Yes it's time for you to stop all of your sobbing oh oh oh
There's one thing you gotta do
To make me still want you
Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah yeah stop it stop it

It is time for you to laugh instead of crying
Yes it's time for you to laugh so keep on trying oh oh oh
There's one thing you gotta do
To make me still want you
Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah yeah stop it stop it

Each little tear that falls from your eyes
Makes, makes me want
To take you in my arms and tell you
To stop all your sobbing

There's one thing you gotta do
To make me still want you
And there's one thing you gotta know
To make me want you so
Gotta stop sobbing now
Yeah yeah stop it stop it

[top]

Kid (from Pretenders)

Kid, what changed your mood? You've gone all sad so I feel sad too.
I think I know some things we never outgrow, you think it's wrong,
I can tell you do. How can I explain when you don't want me to.

Kid, my only kid, you look so small, you've gone so quiet.
I know you know what I’m about, I won't deny it
but you forgive though you don't understand, you've turned your head, you've dropped by hand.

All my sorrow, all my blues, all my sorrow.
Shut the light, go away, full of grace, you cover your face.
Kid, gracious kid  your eyes are blue but you won't cry,
I know, angry tears are too dear, you won't let them go.

[top]

Brass In Pocket (from Pretenders)

Got brass in pocket, got bottle, I’m gonna use it.
Intention, I feel inventive, gonna make you, make you, make you notice.
Got motion, restrained emotion. Been driving, Detroit leaning.
No reason, just seems so pleasing, gonna make you, make you, make you notice.

Gonna use my arms, gonna use my legs, gonna use my style, gonna use my sidestep,
gonna use my fingers, gonna use my, my, my imagination
Cause I gonna make you see, there's nobody else here, no one like me.
I’m special, so special, I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me.

Got rhythm, I can't miss a beat, got new skank, it's so reet.
Got something, I’m winking at you, gonna make you, make you, make you notice.

Gonna use my arms, gonna use my legs, gonna use my style, gonna use my sidestep,
gonna use my fingers, gonna use my, my, my imagination
Cause I gonna make you see, there's nobody else here, no one like me.
I’m special, so special, I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me
Cause I gonna make you see, there's nobody else here, no one like me.
I’m special, so special, I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me.
And when you walk…

[top]

Talk of the Town (from Pretenders)

Such a drag to want something sometime, one thing leads to another, I know.
Was a time wanted you for mine, nobody knew.
You arrived like a day and passed like a cloud, I made a wish, I said it out loud.
Out loud in a crowd, everybody heard, 'twas the talk of the town.

It's not my place to know what you feel I’d like to know but why should I?
Who were you then, who are you now? Common laborer by night, by day highbrow.
Back in my room, I wonder, then I sit on the bed, look at the sky.
Up in the sky, clouds rearrange like the talk of the town.

Maybe tomorrow, maybe someday. Maybe tomorrow, maybe someday.
You've changed your place in this world. You've changed your place in this world.

Oh, but it's hard to live by the rules, I never could and still never do.
The rules and such never bothered you, you call the shots and they follow.
I watch you still from a distance then go back to my room, you’ll never know.
I want you, I want you, but now, who's the talk of the town?

[top]

I Go To Sleep (from Pretenders II)

Released: August 15, 1981
Weeks in charts: 27
Highest position: 7

Chrissie Hynde: guitars and vocals
Pete Farndon: bass and vocals
Martin Chambers: drums and vocals
James Honeyman-Scott: guitars, keyboards and vocals

Chris Mercer: tenor saxophone
Henry Lowther: trumpet
Jim Wilson: trumpet
Geoff Bryant: French horn
Chris Thomas: odds ‘n’ ends

[top]

Day After Day (from Pretenders II)

Way up in the sky
Over the city, over Tokyo
Silver light, summer moon
You’ll be over somebody’s winter this afternoon
While the dolphins swim in the sea
You’re going grey, my baby
Still the war is waging endlessly
Day after day, day after day

Way up in the sky
Over the city and Lake Erie
You remember the flats, you were there
Out every night Mr Moonlight

Round and round and round we go
Just like yesterday

Way up in the sky
Over the city where you sleep tonight
The light outside your window blinks
"Hotel, Hotel, Hotel"
Open the blind and dream in a moonbeam

When the war’s finally over
We’ll meet again
And pick up where we left off

[top]

Message of Love (from Pretenders II)

Now the reason we’re here
As man and woman
Is to love each other
Take care of each other
When love walks in the room
Everybody stand up
Oh it’s good, good, good
Like Brigitte Bardot

Now look at the people
In the streets, in the bars
We are all of us in the gutter
But some of us are looking at the stars
Look round the room
Life is unkind
We fall but we keep getting’ up
Over and over and over and over and over and over

Me and you, every night, every day
We’ll be together always this way
Your eyes are blue like the heavens above
Talk to me darlin’ with a message of love

Now the reason we’re here
Every man, every woman
Is to help each other
Stand by each other
When love walks in the room
Everybody stand up
Oh it’s good, good, good
Say I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you

Talk to me darlin'

[top]

Back on the Chain Gang (from Learning to Crawl)

Released: January 21, 1984
Weeks in charts: 16
Highest position: 11

Chrissie Hynde: guitar and vocals
Martin Chambers: drums and vocals
Robbie McIntosh: guitar and vocals
Malcolm Foster: bass guitar and vocals

Billy Bremner: lead guitar on “Back On The Chain Gang,” “My City Was Gone,” rhythm guitar and vocals on “Thin Line Between Love and Hate”
Tony Butler: bass guitar on “Back On The Chain Gang,” “My City Was Gone"
Andrew Bodner: bass guitar and vocals on “Thin Line Between Love And Hate”
Paul Carrack: piano and vocals on “Thin Line Between Love And Hate”

I found a picture of you, Oh Oh Oh Oh
That hijacked my world that night
To a place in the past
We’ve been cast out of, Oh Oh Oh Oh
Now we’re back in the fight
We’re back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang

Circumstance beyond our control, Oh Oh Oh Oh
The phone, the TV and the news of the world
Got in the house like a pigeon from hell, Oh Oh Oh Oh
Threw sand in our eyes and descended like flies
Put us back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang

The powers that be
That force us to live like we do
Bring me to my knees
When I see what they’ve done to you
But I’ll die as I stand here today
Knowing that deep in my heart
They’ll fall to ruin one day
For making us part

I found a picture of you, Oh Oh Oh Oh
Those were the happiest days of my life
Like a break in the battle was your part, Oh Oh Oh Oh
In the wretched life of a lonely heart
Now we’re back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang

[top]