Pretenders – Back on the Chain Gang (Official Music Video)
The official music video for ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ by The Pretenders.

Pretenders – Back on the Chain Gang (Official Music Video)
Lyrics:
I found a picture of you, oh oh oh oh
What 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
A 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

Back on the chain gang is lyrically brilliant and sonically suggestive of the period, time, and place you heard it first or the first time you truly listened to Chrissie Hynde belt out the lyric. Do you know another voice close to Chrissie Hynde’s vocals? How about the passionate sneer she employs to deliver the punch line on so many of the Pretender’s best songs?