Pretenders/Pretenders

B

BJ

BJ
Bought out of the dollar bin at Jive Time - I had forgotten how terrific this is. Proto everything. And more punkish than I remember.
 
originally posted by BJ:
Pretenders/PretendersBought out of the dollar bin at Jive Time - I had forgotten how terrific this is. Proto everything. And more punkish than I remember.
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I recall that "The Wait" was released as a single in the US prior to the release of the album. Hearing it on KROQ in '79 I was blown away by the originality of the sound (it didn't hurt that Chrissie Hynde was basically unintelligible in that song). Solid album, top to bottom.

Mark Lipton
 
Yeah, originality. That in spades. And nothing quite like it since.

Sire had some interesting stuff then - same time the Talking Heads were putting out their own incredible stuff, and Eno.
 
Yup, one of the great debut albums by any rock artist. If those intro guitar riffs on Precious don't suck you in, nothing will. What a great way to lead off an album. That's a song that demands to be turned up to 11.

I didn't see them until 1983. Great, great concert. Learning to Crawl ain't too shabby either.
 
I saw them in 1982. Some guy was repeatedly grabbing at Chrissie Hynde's leg. She kicked him with her motorcycle boot. He stopped. I thought: punk rock.
 
I picked this record up about a year and a half ago after hearing The Wait randomly. I'd totally forgotten the song and couldn't believe how good it sounded again. Then the whole record. Even Precious, which I got a little tired of back then. "But not me baby, I'm too precious, fuck off." Disorderly words to live by.
 
I saw them in either 1979 or 1980 - wait, when did two of them OD? I saw them before that because those guys were still in the band. Part of a double bill with the English Beat at GW's Lisner Auditorium.

Chrissie Hynde is one the great rock and roll vocalists. "Learning to Crawl" is without a doubt a classic.
 
My girlfriend at the time got me to go see them at the Fox-Warfield in SF in August '81 (when it still had its original orchestra seating, prior to the "club" conversion). I was very impressed. The songs were even better live. I even recorded the show. Unfortunately it's only a barely acceptable quality audience recording, we didn't have suitable seats to make a really good one.

We went again to see them at the Oakland Auditorium in May '82. It was the final show in the US of the tour and as it turned out, of the original band. James Honeyman-Scott died a few months later. Tragic of course; it was his guitar playing that really elevated the live shows. They were certainly good later but not as exceptionally good as the original band.
 
I remember seeing them at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, spring 1980. I was touching distance of the stage, but had to leave after only a few songs, because some asshole biker dude kept stepping on my (unbeknownst to me at the time) broken foot (I thought it merely a twisted foot until that time) with heavy leather boots. It was really great, but I was in mucho pain and felt really bad about it. The next day my foot was in a cast. Memorable.
 
seen most of the different versions of the Pretenders including the original; along with Chrissie, Martin Chambers on percussion is the glue that drives the band. After a mesmerizing show at UVA in the 80s (Iggy Pop opened), I spoke with CH briefly, she trashed her performance. A great artist, IMO.
 
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