This song captures the experience many of us have when we’ve moved away from our hometown and when we return, everything has changed. Chrisse Hynde, the lead singer of the Pretenders and author of this song, grew up in Akron, Ohio, attended Kent Sate (yes, she was there the day of the killings) and then fled for England. She worked on the music magazine, NME, worked in Vivienne Westwood’s clothing shop SEX and played in a series of punk bands before starting up the Pretenders.
A decade later, she returned home, dismayed by the changes. To quote a later song, her city was in ruins, landmarks gone, greenery paved over, a downtown traded for strip malls. She put her response into this song, driven by the pounding bass of Tony Butler and her sneering cynicism captured in the song’s refrain, “Ay, oh, way to go, Ohio.”
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Had been replaced by shopping malls
And Muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
#Songoftheday #thepretenders #chrissiehynde #ohio #akron
YouTube: https://youtu.be/thu8DWsirJo?si=tssKFRIQa0hz42yL
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/2tcQzupbw4uSw7efYw0xkQ?si=b652724e8fed4754