What is 2000 miles mean

Happy Holidays! Since it’s the first year of my blog, and since it’s the last year for my Annual Holiday Show on my little 20-year-old 80s radio program, STUCK IN THE 80s (on WMPG community radio in Portland, Maine), I wanted to present to you THE 31 DAYS OF 80s XMAS SONGS, or, 31 of my favorite 80s holiday musical treats.

Table of Contents Show

The Story Behind '2000 Miles'
What '2000 Miles' Means
Gatlin's Favorite Lyric

For Day 17 of the 31 DAYS OF 80s XMAS SONGS, it’s a 1983 gem that wasn’t intended as a Christmas song – it’s just the way it worked out: “2000 Miles” by The Pretenders.

“2000 Miles” was released in late 1983 in some parts of the world (here in the U.S., it was the B-side of the single, “Middle Of The Road”), in advance of The Pretenders’ amazing third album, LEARNING TO CRAWL.

James Honeyman-Scott and Chrissie Hynde.

While some folks misconstrued the lyrics of the song to mean that 2000 miles is the distance between two lovers who miss each other over the holiday season, Chrissie Hynde actually wrote the song for the band’s original guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott, who died in 1982.

The song reached No. 13 in Holland, No. 15 in the U.K., No. 30 in Australia and No. 36 in New Zealand. It’s been covered by the likes of Coldplay, KT Tunstall, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Kylie Minogue, and even Chrissie Hynde herself did an update of the song in 2014.

Xmas song or not, “2000 Miles” struck a holiday chord and more with listeners, and as for me, “2000 Miles” is never really far away, this time of year and then some…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5G2dyA8JxY

Gatlin's brand new single "2000 Miles," out today, March 16, is a bold and breezy ode to rediscovering yourself, and we think it's a breath of fresh air.

The indie-pop singer-songwriter has a fantastic voice and a clever yet heartfelt approach to writing that never misses the mark, and as soon as we heard this one, we just had to know the story behind it. We had the opportunity to chat with Gatlin all about the song's origins and its personal lyrics, and here's what she revealed to us:

The Story Behind '2000 Miles'

Gatlin: In January of 2021, I moved from Nashville to Los Angeles. I road tripped with friends out there and we did the drive in four days. I wrote the song the first week settling in L.A. just about that experience of moving to a new place and wanting to discover new parts of myself and find freedom on the West Coast.

What '2000 Miles' Means

Gatlin: It means learning to love myself and choose my own happiness before anybody else's. I hope it does the same for everyone else. It's about learning to let go.

Also read about: Country Duo Everette Reveals How Their Wives Inspired Their New Single 'Gonna Be a Problem'

Gatlin's Favorite Lyric

Gatlin: I think my favorite lyric is "I lost my colorful" because it so accurately just describes what it was like in this co-dependent relationship I was in—but I recognized it and wanted to change it!

Love discovering the stories behind today's hottest new songs? Click HERE to read our interview with Ziggy Alberts on his latest single, "Tattoos."

The falling snow and the appearance of jolly old Saint Nicholas in the video notwithstanding, the Pretenders' favorite "2000 Miles" wasn't exactly intended as a Christmas song.

The closing track to the band's third album, 1984's Learning to Crawl, "2000 Miles" is a tribute to one the band's founding members, James Honeyman-Scott. In 1982, two days after lead singer Chrissie Hynde fired bassist Pete Farndon for drug abuse, the guitarist died of cocaine-induced heart failure. He was only 25 years old. (Farndon himself passed away the following year.)

Hynde and drummer Martin Chambers recorded a new single, 1983's "Back on the Chain Gang," with guitarist Billy Bremmer of Rockpile and Big Country bassist Tony Butler; it became their biggest release in America. The rest of the album was recorded with guitarist Robbie McIntosh (later a sideman for the likes of Paul McCartney and John Mayer) and bassist Malcolm Foster. McIntosh's jangly guitar on the track, issued as the B-side to the track "Middle of the Road" but issued as its own single in the band's native England, was a tribute of sorts to the sound Honeyman-Scott popularized on the band's first two records.

For her part, Hynde was always cagey about explaining the track's meaning. "I wish you hadn't asked me that," she said on the Dutch show Countdown, before cryptically conceding, "It's about someone who's gone...and let's just say it's Father Christmas." U.K. audiences sympathized with the song's melancholic spirit during the holidays; the song peaked at No. 15 there upon its original year-end release, and since 2017 the song has reappeared on the country's Top 100 chart every December.

Read More: September 1986: The Pretenders Release "Don't Get Me Wrong"

And in 2014, Hynde leaned into the song's seasonal affects with a solo version, cut during the sessions to her solo debut Stockholm (recorded in the Swedish city with producer Björn Yttling of indie trio Peter Bjorn and John). "I think it captures the mood of the season perfectly as it gets cold in Sweden, reindeer wander the streets freely and the snow was coming down!" she declared in a statement when the recording was released.