Chrissie Hynde, originally from Akron, hangs tough at 54 -- twice Janis Joplin's death age. Hynde has survived band members, a relationship with Ray Davies, two marriages and a long hard haul. Along the way, she had two daughters and has single-handedly kept the Pretenders alive and kicking with their boots on.
Chrissie's biting, driving sensibilities and independent verve make her my kind of rock avatar. I saw her sing with the latest Pretenders incarnation at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor on Valentine's Day, 2003: an interesting date night, indeed. The Bush Administration was just weeks away from launching the "shock and awe" invasion of Iraq, and Chrissie made her opinion known during the show: the U.S. would ultimately get its ass kicked. Her attitude is hardly surprising: she happened to have attended Kent State University when Ohio National Guardsmen infamously gunned down student protestors on May 4, 1970. After that horrible experience, Chrissie moved to England and became a writer/rock critic for the New Musical Express, mixed in with the emerging punk scene, experimented with fledgling bands, and in 1978 formed the Pretenders with Pete Farndon, Martin Chambers, and James Honeyman-Scott. They quickly found success with a string of singles (covering the Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing” and doing an original, “Brass in Pocket”) , then released their first album in early 1980, blasting off from there.
I remember Mely Hodges of Durham, North Carolina, feverishly playing the record for me the day after it hit the local Record Bar. I liked Mely and instantly loved the album -- a Proustian combination, indeed. Four things jumped out at me immediately as different -- "The Phone Call," "Tattooed Love Boys," "Space Invaders," and "Mystery Achievement." It was way cool!
Fast forward to a sunny day in Chapel Hill, June 1982, when I’m reading and drinking coffee and suddenly, an announcement over student radio declares James Honeyman-Scott dead from an apparent overdose.
Chrissie pushed on and quickly recorded “Back on the Chain Gang” and “My City Was Gone;” Pete Farndon died of a heroin overdose in April 1983; Learning to Crawl came out in 1984.
By the night of the Valentine’s show in Ann Arbor, the latest incarnation of the Pretenders was touring behind a new album named -- not inappropriately, I suppose – Loose Screw. That night, Chrissie was in top form, banging away at her guitar and looking lithe and powerful as a panther in jeans and a simple t-shirt, bantering between songs. “This band is not about winning,” she said, “this band is about losing.” And just as clearly, this band’s leader is about enduring. Three years later, the U.S. is still bogged down in Iraq and Chrissie Hynde and her Pretenders press on. Was she right or what?
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