"Middle of the Road" is the opening track on The Pretenders fourth (and probably best) album, Learning to Crawl. If the album didn't have the following track, Back on the Chain Gang, it would easily be the standout track. "Back on the Chain Gang" is one of the earliest pop songs I can remember, with my memories of it going back to my father listening to it driving me to preschool, and even after twenty six years, I haven't gotten tired of it. But someone reading the lyrics alone might think "Middle of The Road" is a better song.
The lyrics are an ironic, cutting look at turning middle age and having changing priorities. They are naturally related to the punk rock years that Chrissie Hynde was exiting, but their message is made for a wider audience then that. What I like most about the lyrics is that Chrissie Hynde doesn't take the easy route of using the lyrics to castigate a strawman sell out, but instead uses them to both criticize herself and sympathize with herself at the same time.
I've got a smile, for everyone I meet
As long as you don't try holding me back, or dropping a bomb on my street
...
I can't get from the cab to curb, without some little jerk on back
Don't harass me, can't you tell, I'm tired as hell
It is only in one line that I feel the ironic detachment evaporate away into fury, when she states that
when you own a big chunk of the bloody third world
the babies just come with the scenery
But even when she says that, she is too honest and punk rock to give us anything as trite as an answer.