Middle of the Road (song)
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"Middle of the Road" is a single that appears on The Pretenders' album Learning to Crawl.
It is a song that has a 60s-style rhythm, and it peaked at #19 on the US pop singles chart[1] and #2 on the US mainstream rock chart in January 1984, where it stayed for four weeks.[2]
Hynde has stated that "Middle of the Road" refers to Tao Te Ching, which she interprets as "the middle way."[3] According to Charles M. Young of Musician, the song is about "getting out there and mixing it up with the world."[4] The song lyrics are semi-autobiographical,[citation needed] including observations about the difference between wealth and poverty singer-songwriter Chrissie Hynde had observed, but mostly about changes in herself: I got a kid, I'm thirty-three, baby! (In reality, Hynde turned 32 shortly before the single was released). Hynde plays the harmonica solo near the end of the song.[5]
"Middle of the Road" uses a 4/4 time signature.[5] Hynde has acknowledged that "Middle of the Road" uses the same chords as the Rolling Stones' song "Empty Heart" and that it doesn't have much melody.[4] She says that it uses basic chords and that it is like "a regular R&B song," going on to say that "it's like taking a basic format, like the blues, and just giving it new lyrics."[4] She describes Robbie McIntosh's guitar solo as "nifty."[4] Audio Magazine compared the song's structure to that of Dobie Gray's "The 'In' Crowd."[6]
Allmusic critic Liana Jonas calls "Middle of the Road" a "classic example of pure, unadulterated rock music."[5] She ascribes this to the fact that the lyrics focus on people's innate desire to "get up and go" and the "driven" music backs up the sentiment.[5] Fellow Allmusic critic Mark Deming calls it a "furious rocker."[7]
In 1989 the song was donated to a double album for Greenpeace along with other songs that had environmental or other earth-sensitive subjects titled "Greenpeace: Rainbow Warriors."
References
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