The Pretenders
Back On The Chain Gang
The Singles
(1981)

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274 comments:lyrics:add your comment
Lazarus
Jun 13, 2013 - 19:46

This song is brilliant— both lyrically and musically... love it...



prickelpit96
Jun 05, 2013 - 05:13
Some songs can't get overplayed.
Chrissie... {#Heartkiss}


TJS
May 23, 2013 - 07:44

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




Lazarus
May 04, 2013 - 09:43

Some good news at last!—


Too-Big-to-Fail Takes Another Body Blow
by Matt Taibbi
RollingStone
May 1, 2013

Minds are changing on Too Big to Fail. A month ago, it was just something in the air. Now, it looks like we're headed for a real legislative confrontation. And man, is the finance sector freaking...


Love this song soooo much!!



unclehud
Apr 28, 2013 - 20:25
You know, we've all heard this song a million times -- hell, maybe more than that -- but tonight the lyrics hit me very differently than they have before. Guess that means I really stopped listening to it 985,000 times ago, but this is a GREAT song.

Do I already have it at 10? No? Well, let's get that fixed, shall we?


Lazarus
Apr 28, 2013 - 20:20

Volume is wayyyy up... love this song...

Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever
by Matt Taibbi
from RollingStone a few days ago

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.

You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three – and perhaps as many as 16 – of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t") worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history – MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets."

That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess. Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have worked with up to 15 of the world's largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps...




Lazarus
Mar 28, 2013 - 18:46

Everybody in my church be dancing... this is one of the best songs ever... love it... love Radio Paradise...


Cruel and Unusual Punishment— The Shame of Three Strikes Laws

by Matt Taibbi
this will be in the April 11 issue of RollingStone

And it isn't just in California, but all over the country, where there are countless instances of outrageous and brutal mandatory sentences for relatively minor crimes...

Another result was that instead of dealing with problems like poverty, drug abuse and mental illness, we increasingly just removed them all from view by putting them in jail. It's not an accident that so many of the most ridiculous Three Strikes cases are semicoherent homeless people or people with drug problems who came from broken homes. It wasn't a cost-efficient way of dealing with these issues – in fact, in California at least, it was an insanely, almost criminally expensive burden on taxpayers – but it was effective enough as a way of keeping the uglier schisms of our society hidden from view...







Lazarus
Mar 21, 2013 - 13:06

marvelous song... love you, man... you know it... thanks for everything...



gormeister
Mar 21, 2013 - 13:03
the way her vocals compliment the chord structure in this song is amazing, its like you can hear the emotions in both the guitar and the voice
btw this was an excellent set to listen to IMveryHO
josh ritter
mazzy star
neil young
the pretenders
good stuff


kdarwish
Mar 11, 2013 - 07:30
Certainly an unforgettable classic, thanks.


Lazarus
Feb 07, 2013 - 22:40

This could possibly be the best song that will ever be written and recorded in human history... well, number two to John Lennon's Imagine ...

love it...



Lazarus
Jan 30, 2013 - 11:26
Sasha2001 wrote:

I would have to agree with that. Great hook, great lyrics, Chrissy's voice is amazing - it's as GOOD as the sum of it's parts.

Well said... this song is awesome...


p2h2d2
Jan 21, 2013 - 09:05
Chrissy oh Chrissy!!!!


Zep
Dec 13, 2012 - 16:01
jareti wrote:
great song that was played to death on popular radio back in the day. even hearing it today makes me want to turn the dial. The Pretenders have a bunch of other good songs ya know.

Yes they did. "Precious" for example, is about as rollicking a first cut/first album from any group as you'll ever find. That first album is one of my desert island discs, and "Learning to Crawl" might be on that list too.

But don't blame Chrissie for what FM radio and the soulless corporate Morlocks did to her music. "Circumstance beyond my control," as she says, but they will fall to ruin one day.




sirdroseph
Dec 07, 2012 - 05:35
calypsus_1 wrote:

"PSD button" - Feedback

"PSD button" may initially seem like a good innovative idea, but analyzing best, I am not completely in agreement, because the programming of airplay in RP should be understood as a whole, and therein lies its greatest strength and expression, not to be tempted to distort, mutilate and subvert the "true spirit" of RP as conceived.
The purpose of the implementation of the "PSD button", may have the good intention of satisfying the various sensibilities of listeners simultaneously, but can detract - the receiver - and create a false sense of what is "the receiver" (the listener) that influences and modifies programming at your pleasure, when we know that is not, nor should it be.
For me, generally I do not use the "PSD button", do not even think to use it, because what really interests me is the global perspective programming , the expectation , the surprise factor, the changes of pace, changes of style, and the conjunction, the "intertwining" of the songs together, but this is the true spirit RP Station. And it works, whether we like it more or less like, this or that moment of RP-airplay.
Is that the "PSD button" like be harmless, but as its use allows use private constantly by each receiver, I think the loser is the receiver.






However when it comes to music IMO, repitition is never good, repitition is never good, repitition is never good.........


calypsus_1
Nov 19, 2012 - 16:39

"PSD button" - Feedback

"PSD button" may initially seem like a good innovative idea, but analyzing best, I am not completely in agreement, because the programming of airplay in RP should be understood as a whole, and therein lies its greatest strength and expression, not to be tempted to distort, mutilate and subvert the "true spirit" of RP as conceived.
The purpose of the implementation of the "PSD button", may have the good intention of satisfying the various sensibilities of listeners simultaneously, but can detract - the receiver - and create a false sense of what is "the receiver" (the listener) that influences and modifies programming at your pleasure, when we know that is not, nor should it be.
For me, generally I do not use the "PSD button", do not even think to use it, because what really interests me is the global perspective programming , the expectation , the surprise factor, the changes of pace, changes of style, and the conjunction, the "intertwining" of the songs together, but this is the true spirit RP Station. And it works, whether we like it more or less like, this or that moment of RP-airplay.
Is that the "PSD button" like be harmless, but as its use allows use private constantly by each receiver, I think the loser is the receiver.






Sasha2001
Oct 19, 2012 - 07:45
romeotuma wrote:


This is one of the best songs in the history of humanity... love this soooo much... thank you...


I would have to agree with that. Great hook, great lyrics, Chrissy's voice is amazing - it's as GOOD as the sum of it's parts.


Stingray
Oct 19, 2012 - 07:37

Wonderful song - Romeo is right!

How can it be already 30 years old?

Sounds 100% FRESH!

PS

Where are you, Chrissie?




Rockit
Oct 19, 2012 - 07:37

PSD to the rescue. Wow right to Porcupine Tree (nice upgrade)




Stingray
Oct 19, 2012 - 07:36
cShaggy wrote:


..^ everyone in yr hotel room??..
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