2000 Miles - the Pretenders
Like the Pretenders' previous 1983 hit "Back on the Chain Gang", (see post https://www.unclestylus.com/single-post/2019/12/06/back-on-the-chain-gang-the-pretenders ) their Christmas song "2000 Miles" is haunted by the loss of lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott who died in June 1983. At a band meeting shortly before his death Honeyman-Scott suggested they recruit another guitarist, Robbie McIntosh. As it tragically transpired, he became Honeyman-Scotts replacement and it's his Christmassy jingly jangly guitar backdrop along with Chrissie Hynde's anguished vocal that sets the mood in "2000 Miles", yet another "missing-you" yuletide ditty.
Hynde has acknowledged Honeyman-Scott as a massive influence on her, saying she owes her musical success to him and there is genuine sorrow and regret in her vocal from her opening "he's gone" phrase where the word "gone", with its five descending stresses, is almost a moan of grief or a howl in reverse.
Although, ostensibly, she's singing about her lover who's 2000 miles away, there's never any sense that he may be returning, and the absence feels very permanent as she finally sings:
"He's gone two thousand miles,
it's very far.
The snow is falling down,
gets colder day by day,
I miss you....."
Which is why "2000 Miles" is one of the best Christmas songs: it reminds us to pause and remember, just as Christmas does, of those we loved who are no longer with us, of Christmases past. Even forty years on, Chrissie Hynde hits the spot tenderly and perfectly..
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