When The Pretenders hit in 1980 (on Amurrican shores, anyway), they were about the freshest breath of fresh air in too long a time.
Here was a band that had the drive, energy, and power of punk - they could hit as hard as The Clash without even working up a sweat - but they weren't a punk band. Their musicianship was top-of-the-line - a tight, powerful rhythm section, a distinctive, flashy lead guitar player (who owed nothing to standard-issue blues-rock guitar moves), and a front(wo)man who could seriously sing. They had great songs - Chrissie Hynde's writing was smart, mature, and sexy - and so was she. They were loaded with hooks you could hang your coat on. What's more, they ROCKED. This wasn't "new wave" and it wasn't "power pop" - it was flat-out in-yer-face balls-to-the-wall rock and roll. It was clearly influenced by and built from 60's pop, British Invasion-era rock, rockabilly and (later) soul, but there was nothing retro about it. It was completely modern, completely contemporary, and yet followed no particular trends in rock music of the time (which is why it hasn't dated a bit). On top of all that, they were actually popular. Yeah, here was a band that was practically everything you could want, and they actually had hits. You could hear them on the radio, see them on TV!
And Chrissie Hynde was truly ground-breaking. She was a step beyond Patti Smith as a female rocker. Patti had proved a woman could rock by taking over previously boys-only territory by force - coming off as grotty as Keith Richards on a bad day. Chrissie, by contrast, for all her toughness, was utterly and unapologetically feminine. In her appearance, demeanor, and her songwriting POV, she was a W-O-M-A-N all the way. She was sexy and classy. She had no need to show off a lot of skin to be hot. And if she had plenty of attitude, she had the chops and the band and the music to back it up every step of the way.
And man, did she let me down.
But album two was a serious letdown. Worse, it was one of those oddball records that wasn't actually in any way bad. It just wasn't that good. The best tracks ("Talk Of The Town", "Message Of Love", "I Go To Sleep") were right up there with album one - thrilling. But the rest either went in one ear or out the other, or just hung some riffs over some repeated tough-chick phrases. Then Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon were dead.
But the story didn't end there. It had a second act. With new recruits on board, Hynde unleashed the gorgeous "2000 Miles" and "Back On The Chain Gang", and then the Learning To Crawl album which, if it wasn't quite as good as album one, was song-for-song far superior to album two, showed profound growth, maturity, and versatility, and rocked like hell. Honeyman-Scott and Farndon might have been missed, but it looked like The Pretenders could be counted on for great things to come.
The sad part is, that was it. The Pretenders aka The Chrissie Hynde show never blew me away again.
Instead, she put out Get Close, an album overloaded with fake funk and awash in icky 80's synthesizers. Robbie McIntosh aside, they weren't a guitar band anymore. And while the songs were still well-crafted and smart, only on a few moments ("Chill Factor") did she hit something I cared to hear even a second time. I saw them on that tour in `87 - a great show (Iggy opened), but it was the older songs we were all there for. A few years later, when Packed came out, a buddy of mine loaned me his copy. I couldn't get more than 30 seconds into any track without hitting the skip button. While I've heard better stuff since then, nothing she's done has ever come within a light year of those first three albums. But damn, they were good in the beginning.
The Pretenders Archive
Pretenders - Allmusic
Pretenders Wiki
Essential Listening
The first three albums are all readily available. The bootleg of their 1980 Central Park show is superb, too, and worth seeking out (pretty much all the live recordings of the original band I've heard are first rate).
