Dark Sunglasses

Album: Stockholm (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • The first single from Chrissie Hynde's debut solo album, Stockholm, finds her in an irreverent mood, an attitude she feels is missing these days. "So much of rock n roll has become what I would call Glory Rock, with family values," she said. "It's the irreverence in rock that was always the turn-on. I disagree with people who say you shouldn't take yourself too seriously. I think life is serious, and you should take it seriously, but in rock n roll either have a f---ing laugh or f--- off."
  • Though Stockholm is Chrissie Hynde's first album under her own name, the former Pretenders frontwoman has previously had some success away from her main band. Her version of Dusty Springfield's "Breakfast in Bed," with UB40, reached #6 in the UK charts as well as #4 on Alternative Songs in 1988 and Tube and Berger's 2004 single "Straight Ahead," featuring Hynde peaked at #29 in the UK as well as topping Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay chart in 2004.
  • After being introduced to Swedish songwriter Björn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John, Hynde spent two years with him at Stockholm's Ingrid Studios writing and recording. Asked by HMV.com about the album title, Hynde replied: "I spent those two years with those guys who I couldn't convince to be in a band with me, so I thought I'd pay tribute to them by calling it Stockholm. It's a very fertile city, musically, lots of studios, lots of bands, I really miss that."

    "Throughout my career I loved it when there a scene going on, I was in London in the punk days when everyone was carrying a guitar and everyone was in bands, it was great," she added. "It's more dissipated now with the internet, scenes don't need to be regional anymore, people are looking at screens."
  • It was Björn Yttling who suggested this song's title. Hynde told HMV.com: "Normally I would go in and Bjorn would suggest a title, one day he said to me 'Dark Sunglasses' and I thought 'You can't title a song Dark Sunglasses,' that's the oldest cliché in the book, but he was right, it's a great title. He'd give me a name and it'd trigger something off. Lyrically, it's just whatever was running around my head."

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