The best Pretenders post, ever

My favorite band of the 1980's, no contest.....I am not, as we shall see, a huge fan of the work that the Pretenders (or, basically Chrissie Hynde) did after "Learning to Crawl", much like Elvis Costello, there was a point where she just lost me......latter day Pretenders  stuff does NOTHING for me, and I'm sure I will get blasted for not including this or that here, but in 1) I don't HAVE it, and 2) if you want it that bad it is readilly available on Pirate Bay and elsewhere.....there was a time when quality bootlegs of the band were kind of difficult to locate, but they are MUCH more readilly avaialable now and I have a STACK of them (they were a PHENOMINAL live band, as I was fortunate enough to catch the original Chrissie Hynde/Martin Chambers/Pete Farndon/James Honeyman-Scott lineup.....Scott and Farndon, of course, are no longer with us).

When that self titled debut came out in late 1979/early 1980 I was fresh out of high school, and that album hit me like a sledgehammer. I LOVED that album, still LOVE it today and will still love it 20 years from now. "Precious".....what a great track. I don't recall a song EVER where the chick sings about "doing it on the pavement", and as a BONUS worries about getting pregnant a few lines later....."Up the Neck".....the ingenious "Tattooed Love Boys" ("Stop snivelin'...you're gonna make some plastic surgeon a rich man")....the thundering "The Wait", "Mystery Achievment"....this was and is one of my favorite albums ever. You should already have it in your collection, if you don't, why not?

Then came "Pretenders II"......I wonder how many hours of thought went into that very imaginative title, but it was fairly appropriate, actually, because the album didn't sound as though a terribly high amount of work went into it either, and if ever there was a band that had "one album wonder" written on them, it was the Pretenders.....not that it's a BAD album, mind you, it has some highlights (who among us would not wish to hear Chrissie Hynde sing a song called "Bad Boys Get Spanked"? "Talk of the Town" was one of their better early singles (better, I think, than "Brass in Pocket", but this album sounds rushed together, and it sounded as though the Pretenders were finito.

In 1983, one of the first things I purchased after beginning my disasterous first marriage was a vinyl copy of their third album "Learning to Crawl" (marriage: less than one year. Still have the vinyl "Learning to Crawl")......it is, in my opinion, a BETTER album than the first, although not as "significant" if you get what I'm saying......"Middle of the Road" opens the album brilliantly ("I'm not the kind I used to be, I got a kid, I'm 33")....."Time the Avenger" is another great song about growing older, "Watching the Clothes" examines the lonely life of a waitress, "Thumbelina" deals with spousal abuse.....haven't even talked about the albums two best known songs, "My City Was Gone" and "Back on the Chain Gang"....it is a brilliant album, full of brilliant, versatile songs, concluding with "2000 Miles", perhaps the ONLY TIME EVER a rock musician did a "serious" Christmas song without sounding 100% moronic.

As I said before, I am not a fan of the Pretenders post-"Learning to Crawl".......there were some good songs, some bad ones too, and I just didn't care for the direction in which they went. I enjoyed seeing Chrissie Hynde on "Friends" a few years back and she looked good and was pretty funny as well.....I have not followed her closely since "Learning to Crawl", I'm sure that there are fans of hers that insist she has made some brilliant stuff, and I don't doubt it.....but I was a fan of the PRETENDERS, and post-1983 I think it is pretty much The Chrissie Hynde Band.....nothing wrong with that, just wasn't my thing.

The first album was reissued a few years back with a bonus disc of other material, I have included that here. If it's live stuff you want, and as I say they were a PHENOMINAL live band, we got the goods.....the oldest is really of interest because it is from early 1979 and they hadn't broken yet....from London it opens with a frantic version of "The Wait", very short set and quite interesting. Have a 1980 show from Chicago with the band at their best, running through a set of stuff from the first two albums, and an encore of "What You Gonna Do About It".....we have a good set from 1980's Heatwave Festival, another 1980 set from Central park NY, yet ANOTHER one from that year from the Palladium NYC. From 1981 comes a radio simulcasat from Amsterdam,and  a show from Santa Monica CA.Their fine peformance at the US Festival, 1983, we have here, and rounding out the live stuff is a 2 disc set from 1984 from Berkeley California.....given this is a LOT of shows taken from a relatively short period of time, obviously there is a good bit of overlap in material between them.....this one is for FANS, of which I was a dedicated one for a few years there, NOT about examining and exploring their entire career......it's about my life, getting out of high school and getting into a bad first marriage and the soundtrack to that era,which, for me included a heavy dose of the original Pretenders. God, they were great for a while there, albums #1 and #3 among my very favorite albums of anyone ever.

As much trouble as I am having with the Edgar Broughton uploads, God knows when I'll get this one up.....hopefully it is Monday when you see this. Until, have a good holiday government workers (like myself), and I apologize for the issues with Zippyshare....even though they are not my fault, I think it reflects badly on my blog to a degree. Thanks to all who read, listen, share, and comment here.

THE PRETENDERS-01 Precious/02 The Phone Call/03 Up the Neck/04 Tattooed Love Boys/05 Space Invaders/06 The Wait/07 Stop Your Sobbig/08 Kid/09 Private Life/10 Brass In Pocket/11 Lovers of Today/12 Mystery Achievment