— David Hepworth
As far as bands young musicians might want to emulate, one could do a whole lot worse than use The Pretenders as a model. They had a charismatic leader (who also happened to be one of her generation's finest songwriters) backed by a trio of first rate musicians. All four looked cool as well, the sort of rock stars who looked like they were making the most of the experience of a lifetime. They were widely popular, enjoying hits around the world, some of which remain well-remembered to this day. Who wouldn't have wanted to be in The Pretenders? (And, yes, I write this well-aware that two members of this same band would be dead within three years of the release of "Talk of the Town")
The early eighties was the dawn of the video age in pop though it would not be for another two or three years that they would begin to be seen as works of art in their own right. Promos were basic with groups just going through the motions miming to their latest record. Nevertheless, there were enough clues in these vids to get an idea of the bands involved. As a teenager I would look down upon singers who had the temerity to smile in their music videos; I knew that they would never be caught dead grinning like an idiot if they were performing the same song in a concert. Non-singing band members who'd mouth along with the vocals in videos also drew my ire: I can't hear anyone singing in the background so why is Bryan Adams' lead guitarist pretending to be harmonizing with his nibs in the video for "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You"? I'm not really even that keen on seeing Bryan doing the singing so why would I ever want to watch a studio musician lip-synch a power ballad?
So, allow me to give my nod of approval to The Pretenders for refusing to stoop to such a level. Chrissie Hynde seldom seems to smile in real life and I don't certainly don't expect her to do so in a video. Her cohorts are a little more willing to mug for the camera but at least its just in an effort to look like goons enjoying their fame rather than in the smug satisfaction that they're not taking the pop star life not quite too seriously. Despite contributing backing vocals to the first two Pretenders albums, James Honeyman-Scot, Pete Farndon and Martin Chambers aren't shown joining in with the group's lead singer. One mouth piece Pretender was more than enough.
And with a vocalist like Chrissie Hynde, who gives a toss if anyone else happens to be singing? Not a conventionally great singer, it would be quite easy to be turned off by the sound of her nasally whine and, indeed, I understand anyone who doesn't care for her voice. But unlike very few in pop, her vocals are multi-dimensional. Confident yet oozing vulnerability. Sensual but not conventionally sexy. Expressive yet reigned in by the limitations of her voice. No, Hynde couldn't sing the phone book: what point would there be in that?
She could also write a decent tune and "Talk of the Town" is one of her better efforts. With many influences going back to at least the sixties, Hynde's forerunners are difficult to pinpoint. Obviously, she loved The Kinks enough to do a pretty good cover of "Stop Your Sobbing" (and, indeed, to wind up in a relationship with Ray Davies) but their sound isn't overly apparent. She owes much more to someone like Elvis Costello — who has admitted a debt to her in turn on "You'll Never Be a Man", even though I've always heard the Get Happy!! cut "Men Called Uncle" as far more Pretender-like — with his intricate word-play and innate sense of melody. Lines like "Who were you then? Who are you now? / Common labourer by night, by day high brow" could easily have been nicked from the Declan McManus songbook, even if she doesn't go out of her way to try to cram a pun in the way he would have done.
Sadly, Hynde's place in the new wave pop revolution has been diminished by lazy rock scholarship that insists on placing her squarely as a female artist. She's typically listed along with the likes of Patti Smyth, Lene Lovitch and Siouxsie Sioux as a leading light of the fearless new woman in rock but this narrative tells only a part of the story. While others entered the male-dominated music industry to provide a female alternative, Hynde has been a woman playing men's rock better than the majority of her male contemporaries. "Talk of the Town" could have been written by Costello or Paul Weller but it happened to be composed by Chrissie Hynde who happens to be a woman who invited herself to a man's world.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Phil Lynott: "Dear Miss Lonelyhearts"
Phil Lynott was always one of the more admirable figures in rock and he remains an Irish national treasure to this day. I'm not a big hard rock guy but I've been charmed by Thin Lizzy records over the years. That all said, I can't muster up much enthusiasm for his debut solo effort. Clearly influenced by the pub rock singer-songwriters like Costello, Ian Dury and Nick Lowe, it's impressive that Lynott decided to go the smart aleck route but the results are much too ordinary for such a unique individual. Perhaps he'd had his fill of combining metal with traditional Irish folk song and that's fair enough but, as David Hepworth suggests, this smacks of a fun little extracurricular activity and he needed to get back to his day job.
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