My City Was Gone

"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 became a radio favorite in the United States.

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 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).

Use by Rush Limbaugh

The distinctive riff from this song has been used as theme music for Rush Limbaugh's popular American talk radio program since 1988. In 1999, Rolling Stone magazine reported that, according to Hynde's manager, Limbaugh had neither licensed the song nor asked permission to use it, although this charge has been denied. Purportedly, Hynde took action after Limbaugh told a pair of reporters in 1997 that "it was icing on the cake that it was [written by] an environmentalist, animal rights wacko and was an anti-conservative song. It is anti-development, anti-capitalist, and here I am going to take a liberal song and make fun of [liberals] at the same time." This led Hynde to demand that Limbaugh stop using the song, which he did. However, Hynde did an about face and offered Limbaugh the use of her song in exchange for his donating the appropriate royalties to PETA. She later wrote to the organization saying, "In light of Rush Limbaugh's vocal support of PETA's campaign against the Environmental Protection Agency's foolish plan to test some 3,000 chemicals on animals, I have decided to allow him to keep my song, 'My City Was Gone,' as his signature tune...".

After the 2004 presidential election, in which the state of Ohio put George W. Bush over the top in electoral votes, Limbaugh played the entire song, accenting the "hey, ho, way to go Ohio" lyrics.

External links

• Lyrics to My City Was Gone
• Listen to My City Was Gone