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The Great Pretenders

By Robert E. Martin

In my book, Chrissie Hynde will always stand as one of the coolest women in Rock ‘n Roll.  Tall, lean, and eminently loaded with ‘attitude’, she has built a career predicated upon the ‘fundamentals’ of rock music - catchy melodies and infectious musical ‘hooks’ all framed by a vocal delivery that is snarling, soothing, menacing, and pristine all within the expanse of a four minute song.

For those unfamiliar with her work, Chrissie Hynde exploded upon the ‘Punk Rock/Alternative’ scene in the mid-70s with a string of hits including Brass In Pocket, Middle of the Road, Back in the Chain Gang and Talk of the Town.  But more importantly, throughout the 1980s and ‘90s she and her formidable band ,The Pretenders, have managed to continuously construct music that is timeless and vital.

Hynde, an Akron, Ohio, native, went to England in the 1970s, where she landed a job in Malcolm McLaren’s infamous London boutique, Sex, at a time when McLaren was preparing the world for the anarchy of The Sex Pistols.  Discovering how acclimated her own sensibilities were to this newly explosive sound, The Pretenders emerged along with such artists such as Talking Heads, Blondie, and Elvis Costello to define an emotive and driven side to the music that was capturing the attention of the world.

During the early days of her career Hynde managed to have a baby fathered by Pop icon Ray Davies of The Kinks, and by the time her third album - the platinum selling Learning To Crawl - hit the streets in 1994, two members of her band had managed to die from drug overdoses, which only fueled her own desire to clean up her band and create driven music that rang with newfound clarity and resonance.

And the fact remains that after all these years, Chrissie Hynde is still one hard-boiled babe. Last year when Joni Mitchell made one of her increasingly rare public performances at The Bottom Line  in New York, Hynde was in attendance along with other female pop luminaries such as Carly Simon.  After Mitchell was into her set, Hynde was reportedly clapping wildly , whistling, and shouting ‘Go Joni! This enthusiastic show of appreciation evidently irritated Simon, who went up to Hynde and told her to shut up, at which point Hynde tossed a drink over Simon’s skull.

On the second night of her year 2000 World Tour, Chrissie stepped onto the stage of the State Theater in Detroit on February 29^th to a packed house of avid fans hungry for the purity of a sound not negated by lowered tunings, fancy light shows, and a gaggle of dancers crowding the stage.

Dressed in basic black with her silver-sparkled guitar strapped to gun-slinger level, as drummer Martin Chambers ambled behind his kit (rigged this evening with a special pedal insofar as Chambers had broken his ankle just before the U.S. wing of the tour) Hynde proceeded to introduce the band.

“As for that mouthy chick that left the United States and went on to become a millionaireŠwell, that would be ‘me’,” she joked.

The group itself was incredibly tight and practiced, covering a half dozen songs ranging from Kid  and Message of Love  to newer material such as the infectious and optimistic Night in My Veins  to the escalating melodic construction of Human,  from The Pretenders most recent release, Viva El Amor!

Although she is now 48 years old, Chrissie Hynde has lost none of her swagger and bravado. She is like a fine wine that gets better with age and a benign narcotic that grips with the twist of the diabolical.  Proving that she’s lost none of her ‘edge’, the band launched into Popstar  off the new CD, which is both a short and ironic critique on the manufactured crop of new female artists that practice publicity antics more than their instruments. As she sang the refrain, “They just don’t make ‘em like they used toŠ,” one could tell that Hynde was thoroughly enjoying herself.

The following song, My City Was Gone,  was marked by a bit of reflection.

“We opened this tour in Akron yesterday,” noted Hynde, “and apart from all

the old haunts being torn down, I found out my first boyfriend in high

school passed away. So here in the winter of our discontent, I offer you

thisŠ”

Saving the best moments for last, the band launched into a trilogy of modern classics, including Middle of the Road, Brass in Pocket,  and Stop Your Sobbing.

A particularly humorous moment came when Hynde was complimented about her basic black stage attire.

“What can I say,” she smiled. “We’re probably the last band in the world that isn’t dressed by Versace.  But then I’ve found that there is a thin line between fashion and looking plain freakin’ ugly.”

Another great moment in the show came when Hynde invited a glitter-attired member from the audience upon the stage. Handing him an acoustic guitar, the audience member attempted to sing some type of song, and while strumming only one chord, Hynde took her top hat off and started leaning over into the audience, passing the hat for contributions.

Finally, by the time of the encore, the band was fully fueled and primed to rock the rafters down.

An important key to the appeal of The Pretenders is how they reference the patience that intimacy often requires, balanced with the disappointment and anger that often follows, as noted in lyrics such as “Everytime I get close to you, you throw nails in the road.”

The appeal of Chrissie Hynde & the Pretenders is that after all these years they stand as both a chronicle and a contemplation of pop stardom, equally marked by its confessional context as it is riveting in its Rock ‘n Roll stance & posture.

And when it comes to female oriented rock bands, it doesn’t get any better than this.