Monday, April 29, 2024

The Poetry of Rock n' Roll: "Day After Day" by The Pretenders

To observe National Poetry Month, I have been featuring lyrics of rock n' roll or pop songs that also double as exquisite poetry and this is our last installation for 2024.

Singer-songwriter Chrissie Hynde is the soul of her group The Pretenders. She worked at Vivienne Westwood's boutique in Chelsea and knew The Sex Pistols before starting her own band in 1978. She has written some truly stellar songs that rightly live in the rock n' roll canon. But this song from the group's sophomore album, "Pretenders II" has always touched me. The world weary sense is palpable as our narrator circumnavigates the globe in a state of perpetual night, while the wistful closing, looking forward to the end of a war, is even more wearying. Feels like a bit like 2024.

"Day After Day"
by The Pretenders

Way up in the sky
Over the city, over Tokyo
Silver light, summer moon
You'll be over somebody's winter this afternoon
While the dolphins swim in the sea
You're going grey, my baby
Still the war is waging endlessly
Day after day, day after day

Way up in the sky
Over the city and Lake Erie
You remember the flats, you were there
Out every night Mr. Moonlight

Round and round and round we go
Just like yesterday

Way up in the sky
Over the city where you sleep tonight
The light outside your window blinks
Hotel, hotel, hotel
Open the blind and dream in a moonbeam

When the war's finally over
We'll meet again
And pick up where we left off


https://thepretenders.com/

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