Photo by News46, from the Torontoist Flickr PoolThis post is a follow-up to my previous post about "Back On The Chain Gang," which was written partly about Chrissie Hynde's turbulent relationship with Ray Davies and partly about the drug overdose death of guitarist James Honeyman-Scott. It's a quintessential study in loss and a rightful classic.
In researching that song, I discovered a curious, and perhaps not coincidental, overlap between The Pretenders and The Kinks in 1982. Both the flipside to "Chain Gang" and The Kinks' next single also doubled as statements of loss. However, in each case, the loss they spoke of was not romantic or professional in nature. The loss of which they spoke was of a remembered community.
Kinks - Come Dancing [purchase]
Pretenders - My City Was Gone [purchase]
Musically, these tunes couldn't be more different. The Kinks sound like they're writing with Raul Malo in mind, while The Pretenders are getting so much choogle on, I'm surprised John Fogerty didn't ask for royalties. But thematically, the songs are deeply intertwined. Compare and contrast these lyrical excerpts:
COME DANCING
The day they knocked down the palais,
My sister stood and cried,
The day they knocked down the palais,
Part of my childhood died, just died.
MY CITY WAS GONE
Well, I went back to Ohio,
But my family was gone,
I stood on the back porch,
There was nobody home,
I was stunned and amazed,
My childhood memories,
Slowly swirled past,
Like the wind through the trees.
COME DANCING
Now I'm grown up and playing in a band,
And there's a car park where the palais used to stand.
MY CITY WAS GONE
My city had been pulled down,
Reduced to parking spaces.
COME DANCING
They put a parking lot on a piece of land,
Where the supermarket used to stand,
Before that they put up a bowling alley,
On the site that used to be the local palais.
MY CITY WAS GONE
I went back to Ohio,
But my pretty countryside,
Had been paved down the middle,
By a government that had no pride,
The farms of Ohio,
Had been replaced by shopping malls.
On a fundamental level, the communal loss here is a kind of remembered ... and one could argue, idealized ... community. The palais in "Come Dancing" may have been knocked down for perfectly justifiable economic reasons, just as Akron's city leaders, rightly or wrongly, turned Ohio's pretty countryside into malls in an effort to generate money. However, in each case the change implies a kind of death. It's the death of childhood and innocence, which can be tantamount to a personal violation. That's why Davies sings, "The day they knocked down the palais, part of my childhood died, just died." Similarly for Hynde, "MY city was gone." Akron was still there, of course. But, the Akron that she remembered was gone and that change represented death.
I think this feeling of profound change equaling loss or death is universal, sometimes to entire societies (think Native American tribes) or micro-societies (like the dancers who came to the palais). To give you a taste of this pain and confusion, simply talk to any Brooklynite who grew up watching the Dodgers.
As I've stated many times, Ray Davies will always be rock's master of positive nostalgia, "preserving the old ways for me and for you." So, "Come Dancing" was in his natural wheelhouse. For Hynde, though, capturing the loss of young and innocent days was new territory ... though she did it with Dylan-esque invective (and vocal phrasing) rather than Ray's more contemplative approach. Regardless, it remains one of her signature songwriting moments and the "Back On The Chain Gang"/"My City Was Gone" 45 could be the greatest double-sided single of all-time. Yes, I am looking at you "Hound Dog" b/w "Don't Be Cruel."
As a bonus, I'm including video versions of our two songs. First is the original "Come Dancing" video featuring the big band Kinks. This is followed by The Pretenders in 1998 doing a version of "My City Was Gone" that falls somewhere between Creedence and Neil Young. You know ... rock.
