The pretenders lie to me4/13/2023 A revitalized Hynde and Chambers lead two new Pretenders through a collection of characteristic songs, including all three aforementioned single sides and such new grippers as “Middle of the Road” and “Time the Avenger,” which are equal to anything she had previously written or recorded. Rather than the rattled, self-pitying record many expected, Learning to Crawl was a remarkable return to prime form. The band’s output the following year also amounted to one fine single, the wistful, sentimental “2000 Miles.” In 1982, the Pretenders released only one 45: “Back on the Chain Gang” b/w “My City Was Gone,” with Rockpile’s Billy Bremner guesting on guitar and future Big Countryman Tony Butler on bass. Scott died of a drug overdose in 1982, bassist Pete Farndon left and subsequently followed Scott’s fatal lead. (Cassette collectors may be interested in a US tape pairing the first two albums.) The Rhino reissue of Pretenders II includes a demo of “Talk of the Town,” a guitar-focused version of “I Go to Sleep” and the single mix of “Day After Day.” The bonus disc offers also 15 songs from a superb 1981 performance at the Santa Monica Civic Center, most of which had been released on a promo album. An air of uncertainty - whether to play up the overstated arena-scaled side or explore restrained ballads and more complex, subtle arrangements - stymied them, and resulted in a confusion of conflicting directions. Only a handful of the other ten tunes match the first album’s quality, with selfconsciousness and repetition marring Hynde’s writing and performance. Pretenders II would have been a real stiff, creatively speaking, were it not for those selfsame 45 cuts (“Message of Love” and “Talk of the Town”), the latter being one of the best things the band has ever done. The two B-sides, “Porcelain” and “Cuban Slide,” appeared on the bonus disc of the 2007 Rhino reissue of Pretenders, along with two other B-sides, “Swinging London” and “Nervous but Shy.” The disc also includes an early version of “Tequila” (not the Champs instrumental but a Hynde original that would not see official release until 1994), demos of several first-album songs, live tracks, a cover of ? and the Mysterians’ “I Need Somebody,” a song loosely based on and incorporating a bit of the Troggs’ “I Can’t Control Myself” and a bizarre rendition of “Stop Your Sobbing” over the music of Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance.” Eighteen months of touring left little time for writing or recording the stopgap EP compiles both sides of two singles and a live version of “Precious.” The record’s fine as a placeholder, but was rendered redundant when both A-sides turned up on the second album. Mind-boggling success caught the Pretenders short of material, and producing a follow-up proved no small challenge. The band’s several strengths - Hynde’s husky voice and sexually forthright persona, drummer Martin Chambers’ intricately syncopated (but never effete) rock rhythms, James Honeyman Scott’s blazing, inventive guitar work - give numbers like “Tattooed Love Boys,” “Mystery Achievement,” “Kid,” “Brass in Pocket” and “Stop Your Sobbing” (the last three were pre-LP singles) instantly identifiable character and obvious rock excitement. In 1980, Ohio expat Chrissie Hynde was the mind, muscle and heart of a superlative London quartet that married her forthright sexuality and independence to inarguably great music, vaporizing stereotypes rock women had been expected to accept.Īfter several brilliant singles (starting with an unforgettable Nick Lowe-produced Kinks cover, “Stop Your Sobbing”), the long-awaited and absolutely classic Pretenders (produced by Chris Thomas) proved that the 45s were only the beginning. It was Hank Williams who sang “I’ll never make it out of this world alive,” but it was the Pretenders who went to the trouble of determining just how much hell a group could endure without actually giving up.
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