Put the word “Christmas” in a song, and it becomes a “Christmas song” by default. Such is the all-encompassing definition of holiday music that even songs that come from a sad, mournful place can get pulled into it.
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Case in point: the lovely “2,000 Miles” by The Pretenders. Chrissie Hynde set the song at Christmas when she wrote it. But the song has less to do with the season than it does the tragic loss of a close friend.
“Miles” to Go
The Pretenders burst out of the starting gate with two early 1980s albums that wowed critics and did some excellent crossover business as well, especially with the single “Brass in Pocket.” In Chrissie Hynde, they possessed a songwriter with a no-nonsense attitude and much more musical versatility than the average punk/new wave artists of the day.
The band also boasted a solid chemistry when it came to their musical attack, derived from the excellent chops of guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers. Honeyman-Scott, in particular, had helped Hynde in determining the sound and direction of the band in their earliest days.
Unfortunately, the band, like many of its era, were pushing the rock-star lifestyle to the hilt. In 1982, Honeyman-Scott died of an overdose. Farndon, who had been dismissed from the band that same year, died in the same manner in ’83. While devastated by the deaths, Hynde took refuge in her music.
Since The Pretenders were established as a brand, she released the 1982 hit single “Back on the Chain Gang” under that name, with session players filling out the group. Robbie McIntosh (guitar) and Malcolm Foster (bass) were added for the 1984 album Learning to Crawl, and they played on “2,000 Miles,” which preceded that album as a single release in late ’83.
Examining the Lyrics of “2,000 Miles”
Like “Back on the Chain Gang,” Hynde wrote “2,000 Miles” while processing her feelings about the loss of Honeyman-Scott. Unlike the former song, however, “2,000 Miles” doesn’t hint at death being the factor that separates the narrator from the person she’s missing.
Instead, it’s distance that keeps them apart. He’s gone 2,000 miles, Hynde sings around some cascading guitar lines by McIntosh to begin the song. Is very far. Knowing the story of Honeyman-Scott, you can read that distance as being a more figurative expanse that can never truly be breached.
The seasonal trappings promise a reunion: The children were singing / He’ll be back at Christmastime. But he can only come back to her as a kind of apparition: In these frozen and silent nights / Sometimes in a dream, you appear.
When she mentions the weather getting colder, it’s easy to imagine she’s describing not just the actual temperature, but how she feels on the inside. All she can do is let him know, through her song, how much he’s missed: Two thousand miles / Is very far through the snow / I’ll think of you / Wherever you go.
Even though the meaning behind it digs a bit deeper than the typical song written to cash in on the holiday music craze, “2,000 Miles” certainly sounds at home when it’s played throughout December. Thanks to Hynde’s expert touch, it became a song for anyone feeling lonely at the holidays, for whatever particular reasons they might have.
Photo by Ross Marino/Getty Images
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