Re: WELCOME BACK, The Pretenders' "My City Was Gone"

Well, it took....70 years....but future generations will FINALLY be able to appreciate the song as Hynde and The Pretenders had intended.

Wha??? Don't get it.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

Rush Limbaugh used this song as his theme song.

From Wikipedia:

The instrumental opening of the song (before Hynde's vocals appear at 36 seconds in) was used as the opening theme "bumper" for Rush Limbaugh's popular American talk radio program since 1984, during his days at KFBK in Sacramento, California. Limbaugh said in 2011 that he chose it because of the irony of a conservative using such an anti-conservative song, though he mainly liked its "unmistakable, totally recognizable bass line."[4]

In 1999, Rolling Stone magazine reported that, according to Hynde's manager, Limbaugh had neither licensed the song nor asked permission to use it. According to Rolling Stone, EMI 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."[5] EMI issued a cease and desist request that Limbaugh stop using the song, which he did. When Hynde found out during a radio interview, she said that her parents loved and listened to Limbaugh and she did not mind its use. A usage payment was agreed upon which she donated to PETA.[4][5] 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..."[5]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2021 12:41PM by Michael Toland.

I'd forgotten that Rush Dildaugh used to start his show with that Pretenders riff. Back in the '90s, I worked at a place where my boss tuned in Rush's show every day at lunch hour. Kinda made me mad to hear an old favorite song used by that gas-bag. (It really says something, that I felt compelled to explain the circumstances under which I heard his show.)

Damn. Who knew? My media firewall is rather impervious. I did know that the well-founded bloviator kicked the bucket at the tragically young age of 70. I wonder who is going to fill his power vacuum. Not that I'd care to know!

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

> I did know that the well-founded bloviator
> kicked the bucket at the tragically young age of 70.

More like, after a tragically long life of 70 years.