On the front cover photo of the first Pretenders album (released 1/11/80), vocalist, guitarist, chief composer, and bandleader Chrissie Hynde looks like her best songs sound: decidedly stylish and with a purpose. That she and the quartet imbued their musicianship with those virtues as they played in the studio and on stage is a testament to their abiding chemistry, one that vividly evokes the atmosphere of “Swinging London” with which Chrissie Hynde became so enamored during her impressionable youth.
The fundamental result of Hynde’s sojourn to England from her Ohio home–described in “My City Was Gone” from 1984’s third Pretenders’ album Learning to Crawl–the foursome simultaneously spans and connects the varied threads of their late seventies/early eighties era: thrash and Beatles-esque styles are seasoned with reggae and R&B. Simultaneously (and equally importantly); however, this earliest Pretenders album reminds of how the band exalted the virtues of rock and pop conventions, established in the early to mid-sixties; because this attitude wasn’t so wholly respected at the time of the record’s original issue, the stance was more than a little non-conformist.
Whether purring, snarling or somewhere in between, Chrissie Hynde’s voice rings as loud and clear as the chime of the electric guitars she plays. A bedrock component of the Pretenders’ sound throughout their career—see Packed (Sire, 1990)—her rhythm work complementing James Honeyman-Scott’s is as important as his compact solos on songs such as “Kid.” The guitarist would unfortunately pass in 1982, as did bassist Pete Farndon the very next year. In the short term, however, both men’s contributions would distinguish the quartet, forming a formidable but unobtrusive rhythm section with charter member drummer Martin Chambers (who served two separate tenures with the group).
During the instrumental “Space Invaders,” the unity of the Pretenders as a bonafide band comes front and center. Their bond is a tangible reflection of the no-nonsense attitude that pervades Hynde’s best original songs: in numbers such as “Tattooed Love Boys,” she is no more demanding of anyone else than she is herself, the forthright undercurrent of which posture pervaded subsequent future lineups with the same band moniker. Arrangements of the material, as captured in Chris Thomas’ production, are a direct corollary of that straightforward mindset. Nothing is extraneous to detract or distract from the practiced and potent performances in emphasizing the finite structure of the compositions like “Brass In Pocket.” On the contrary, the practiced performances in the studio eventually translated to a potent all-around presence when the foursome took the stage.
Hindsight of four decades-plus works in favor of listening to the first Pretenders. Further reinforcing the experience is the extra content of outtakes, alternates and live recordings within the three-CD anniversary packages of that self-titled debut and its successor. That combination of polish and urgency became fundamental virtues of all the best work by the various quartets Chrissie Hynde assembled under this wry band name in the forty-five years since that debut.
In curating those aforementioned packages, she applied the same tough-minded yet discerning approach that permeates her diverse solo work (Valve Bone Woe and Stockholm) and her aptly-titled autobiography Reckless: My Life as a Pretender. Likewise, right in line with the superlative Pretenders LP of 2023, Relentless,her tribute to Bob Dylan from two years prior, Standing In The Doorway, stands as an honest acknowledgment of the Nobel Laureate’s influence on Chrissie Hynde as an independent and implacable artist.
It’s a redoubtable state of mind Chrissie Hynde has always drawn upon in creating the most outstanding work of her career, not just the initial output titled Pretenders.
3 Responses
thank you for this article. it took me back to 1980, when i was 24 and standing at my boyfriend’s door holding my copy of that first pretenders album, when a car FULL of people my age, plus or minus two or three years in either direction, drove by me … and, of the four people who cheered me, three of them waved the same album at me in some kinda crazy solidarity. after they passed me, one of the four people sitting in the back seat inside of the *outer* folks who’d hung outside the car windows. … this comment has become far more complicated than the actual occasion, lol. a girl in the the back turned to look at me and then held her own copy up to the rear window, then dropped it down, grinned, and waved at me. i felt so validated. 😀
Brass in pocket remains one of my favourite songs. It just takes me back to the late 70s early 80s with my glass of pop down the youth centre, so enamoured with the older punks around the area. Tough times with the strikes and short working weeks, etc , but for us kids it was still a happy time.
I finally saw the Pretenders last summer (’24) live in Madison, WI. I was 18 in 1980, and they captured the best parts of the music genres at that time. I was a never disco, punk, or reggae fan, but, like the Stones with Some Girls in ’78, the Pretender put it all to rock n roll. Every song on The Pretenders sounds as if the band is one, and not a foursome. I’m from a rather conservative Midwestern city of 57,000, so you can image what the Pretenders and the Stones were thought of at that time. Nonetheless, Chrissie and company were on my playlist then and remain there today. The beauty of today is YouTube brings some of it to life. If you search for “the original Pretenders live in the studio”, a flood of nostalgia will engulf you. Life is truly a Mystery Achievement!