These Chrissie Hynde Lyrics From 1980 Tell a Bittersweet Story of Unrequited Love

Many songwriters take a formal approach to their lyrics to convey the emotions behind the words, playing up the poetics in the process. And we’re not in any way suggesting that such a technique isn’t effective.

But occasionally, lyrics that arrive in a conversational, off-the-cuff style can hit home even harder. Chrissie Hynde mined that strategy brilliantly in The Pretenders’ 1980 single “Talk Of The Town”.

Touching “Talk”

Because The Pretenders so cleverly captured many different genres in their early music, everything from punk to R&B, the songwriting genius of Chrissie Hynde sometimes didn’t get the credit it deserved. It took pop gems like “Talk Of The Town” to drive that point home.

Speculation about who was the subject of Hynde’s lovelorn rant in the song was doused when the singer gave an interview with the BBC (per Songfacts):

“I had in mind this kid who used to stand outside the soundchecks on our first tour… I never spoke to him. I remember that the last time I saw him I just left him standing in the snow, I never had anything to say to him. I kind of wrote this for him, so, in the unlikely event that you’re watching this, I did think about you.”

If that’s the case, Hynde then took this unspoken connection and unspooled a whole backstory around it. The Pretenders released “Talk Of The Town” first as a single in 1980, when it became a Top 10 hit in the UK. A year later, it also popped up on the 1981 album Pretenders II.

Behind the Lyrics of “Talk Of The Town”

In “Talk Of The Town”, the narrator both addresses her crush and makes observations about what it’s like to suffer through unrequited love. “It’s such a drag,” Hynde begins, setting the colloquial tone. But she also makes room for some poetic lines: “You arrived like a day and passed like a cloud.”

The second verse suggests that the unknowable nature of the guy she’s chasing is causing her distress. “Who were you then? Who are you now?” she wonders. “Common labourer by night, by day, highbrow.” It’s the first time she mentions the difference in class that might be keeping them apart.

In the middle eight, Hynde finds herself daydreaming about a potential union. “Maybe tomorrow, maybe someday,” she muses. But the new reality keeps knocking her back down. “You’ve changed your place in this world,” she moans.

When Hynde returns to her rambling thoughts in the final verse, she again notes how her paramour has ascended to a different status. “You call the shots and they follow,” she claims. The irony of the title “Talk Of The Town” is that everyone seems to understand how smitten she is, except the one who needs to know it the most.

“Talk Of The Town” whirs by thanks to its breezy melody. But Hynde stops you in your tracks with the anguish in her voice. Maybe she was imagining a relationship that never actually took place. But she certainly makes you feel the sting of the love that never was.

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