{"id":26150,"date":"2008-01-25T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-25T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riffsandbeats.com\/non-categorise\/pretenders-middle-of-the-road\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T09:43:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T07:43:58","slug":"pretenders-middle-of-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riffsandbeats.com\/fr\/chroniques\/titres\/pretenders-middle-of-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Pretenders – Middle of the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AIR Studios, 1983: a new Pretenders lineup opens Learning to Crawl<\/h3>\n

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In summer 1983 at AIR Studios in London, Chrissie Hynde and a rebuilt Pretenders tracked Middle of the Road<\/em> with producer Chris Thomas. The song would open Learning to Crawl<\/em>, released in January 1984 on Sire (Real Records in the UK). The US single landed in November 1983; the UK single followed in February 1984. After the deaths of guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon, Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers locked in guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bassist Malcolm Foster. This is the first Pretenders album cut as that permanent quartet.<\/p>\n

Hynde wrote the song alone. Chambers opens with hard tom hits, then the band rides a fast three-chord rock figure. Hynde sings about standing in the middle of life with her plans behind her: motherhood (daughter Natalie was born in February 1983), band loss, and the refusal to soften the attack. McIntosh\u2019s guitar stays dry and forward. Near the end, Hynde takes a harmonica solo instead of a long guitar showpiece. Thomas, with the band since the debut, keeps the mix loud and clear rather than foggy.<\/p>\n

The track sits next to earlier Learning to Crawl<\/em> singles like Back on the Chain Gang<\/em> and 2000 Miles<\/em>, but its job is different: it announces that the new lineup can hit as hard as the first Pretenders records. Sire pushed it as a rock single in the US, where it reached the Top 20. On stage it worked as an opener for the same reason it opens the LP: drums first, no slow build.<\/p>\n

Hynde has said the album title came while Natalie was learning to crawl and the band was learning to stand again. Middle of the Road<\/em> carries that double meaning without slowing the tempo: the lyric looks sideways at age and responsibility, the arrangement stays a garage-leaning rock single. Real\/Sire pressed it as the statement track for the new lineup, not as a soft comeback ballad.<\/p>\n

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I was standing in the middle of life with my plans behind me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Chrissie Hynde, lyric from Middle of the Road, 1983)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Album sessions stretched across 1982\u201383 at AIR while the band\u2019s membership shifted; by the time Middle of the Road<\/em> was finished, McIntosh and Foster were in for good. The LP title nodded to Natalie learning to crawl while Hynde rebuilt the group. Listeners who only know Brass in Pocket<\/em> hear a tougher, straighter rock band here, still led by Hynde\u2019s voice and harmonica.<\/p>\n

Start with the album opening: the tom roll, the first guitar chop, then the harmonica at the close. Middle of the Road<\/em> is the Pretenders proving, after real loss, that they still had a hard single in them.<\/p>\n

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\u00c0 lire aussi<\/h3>\n