Moving to the Cleveland heat
Led by the irrascible Chrissie Hynde, previously a rock journalist for NME, The Pretenders (best known for songs like "Brass in Pocket" and "Back on the Chain Gang") were a grrrrrrrrrreat rock band. I never liked their post-"Learning to Crawl" work very much though. They turned into Pretenders Lite pretty damn quick.
Listening to these songs makes me wish they'd stuck to their guns and gone on to produced more of this kind of urgent fuck off RnR they were oh so very capable of belting out.
Oh well.
From their first album, the best songs:
- "The Wait",
- "Tattooed Love Boys" and
- "Precious"
, off-kilter brilliant punk, as well as
"Kid"
, a brilliant pop gem.
Eat your heart out, PJ Harvey!
Ah, yes! But you must remember, Juan, that Half of the Band was DEAD by the time you write them off. And by then the Rock and Roll press in America had already decided that Ms. Hynde was Goddess (and that no one else ever contributed anything worthwhile to the band to begin with).
ReplyDeleteAs a result, I suppose, the "band" sold out a bit faster than they would have otherwise. Of course they would have, eventually, anyway.
I say we count our blessings, though, and hold them close. That was One Great Rock and Roll Band!
Thanks for the post!
True that, Vic. On all counts. Thanks for the comment!!
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