Some good bands came out of the '80s but few great outfits come rolling off the tip of your tongue with relative ease when discussing that particular decade. It is funny, when I think about the Pretenders I think of the '70s. The only problem is the band did not exist then. They had a classic rock sound with enough grit and punk to fit right into that era so it is easy to envision them in that timeframe. Whatever it is about this band I know one thing, the first time I heard them I loved their sound. I would think most longtime fans hang on to the first two albums as the holy grail of their catalog. And so they should because they were never better.
Once James Honeyman-Scott was gone so went the Pretenders sound into a more straight-ahead rock formula. It was good but not the same. This is what separates their first two releases from everything else they have ever done, hence Rhino’s choice of reissuing these two great recordings with a truck load of bonus material, the cardboard cases and sleeves to emulate the old LP gatefold format, and in addition to all of that, booklets with some great pictures and fine informative write ups. So when you put it all together it is a great package. I love when CDs come in cardboard packaging, they do not scratch or crack nor require replacement all the time, you just take care of them and store them carefully as if you would collectable vinyl LPs, and there are no worries.
It is debatable which album is the best. I think they are on equal ground, each one has its moments, and they rate five stars in my view. Honeyman-Scott was special and there is no telling how far he would have gone, just like many others before him. The good thing is he left behind some masterful guitar licks on these two classic albums.
Article comments
1 - zingzing
"Some good bands came out of the '80s but few great outfits come rolling off the tip of your tongue with relative ease when discussing that particular decade."
ahem.
art of noise
birthday party
the cure
dexy's midnight runners
esg
the fall
guns n roses
husker du
inner city
the jesus and mary chain
killing joke
loop
my bloody valentine
new order
omd
prince
quando quango
run dmc
the smiths
talk talk
u2
the vaselines
wipers
xtc
yello
john zorn
2 - zingzing
sorry. i love the pretenders. i will now read the article.
3 - Keith
I knew I would stir some controversy up with that line! Hah!
I agree with three on your list, U2, The Fall, and the king of pop-funk Prince, the rest well, they were all fly by night's. Well maybe not XTC, but surely you can come up with a better list than this? I know! Make a list from the 70s or 60's, you will run out of room and won't even have to think about it!
Thanks for reading the article and your comments. It's all enjoyed with a smile.
4 - El Bicho
The Cure's first album was 1979.
5 - SFC SKI
An almost excellent article, Keith, except for not mentioning the incredible rhythm section of Martin Chambers on drums, and the incredible Pete Farndon on bass. Lots of Brit Pop and New Wave were bass-heavy, and the Pretender's was no exception. USe the EQ and take the bass out of almost every Pretenders song and you see just how much it shaped the flow of the song. Pete Farndon was just awesome for finding the write bassline, for laying back on a reggae style track like "Private Life" or pushing the song insistently on "Brass in Pocket". Listen to the song porceliain and here how much the bassline propels the song, but changes several times while the drums keep pumping out the beat. Martin Chambers was likewise a huge piece of the band's sound, and his contributions are mentioned in the liner notes to Pirate Radio; in short, the original Pretenders were a whole band, greater than the sum of its parts. The loss of James Honyman-Scott as well as the firing of Pete Farndon and his subsequent death were equally damging to the Pretenders sound. (I am a bass player, and I consider Pete Farndon one of the top 5 bassists ever). Each musician in the original line up had a truly unique sound, and none of their replacements has matched up since, though I have enjoyed later releases.
I also disagree with deciding which album is the best, in their original forms. Though I agreee that the first album is a 5 star classic, the second is a bit less, maybe 5 stars but not bold type. The first Pretenders album was more coherent, and more diverse, (an instrumental on a debut album?), a couple of pop songs, one reggae style, some ass-kicking rockers, even a ballad. P II is a great album, but the first really did set the bar so high it would be hard to meet, let alone exceed expectations.
Amongst bands of that era, I think few other bands debuts hit with such an impact, nor had such tragedy strike them on the edge of true superstardom. I liked the Pretenders much more than U2 or a lot of the ohter bands named above. One thing about bands of that era is that a lot of their music was so ahead of its time that it still sounds fresh and innovative today, IMO. I am sure that the fact that most of the bands above formed the soundtrack of my 20's also adds to my affection and reverence for them.
Anyway, thanks for the article. As you can tell, I am a huge fan of the Pretenders; even though I bought the Pirate Radio box set, I am purchasing both of these remasters in their physical form after checking them out on iTunes. Most CD's are to me something to rip and resell, but these two will be keepers.
6 - Rodney Welch
The Pretenders DEFINITELY existed in the 1970s, Jack. They started in 1978. Their first album -- by far their best, and the one most people associate with the group -- was released on January 12, 1980, which means it was recorded and pressed well before, and so if you listen to it and think of a sound that was forged in the heat of the punk fervor of the late 1970s, you'd be absolutely right. It's "easy to envision them in that timeframe" because they WERE in that timeframe. The copyright date on the disc says "1979, 1980."
As for which of the first two discs is better, I go with the first because it was totally fresh and it just bursts out of the stereo every time you drop the needle on "Precious." I don't think there's another debut like it. They sound like a garage band that knows it is now or never, and on every song they just play their hearts out. There's a great balance of raw and cooked on it; they're professionals and they also know how to play ragged and rough.
The whole album is like a group of stories by an erotic adventurer who has been through it all, from the hottie who worries that a fling might get her knocked up ("Precious") to the bitter other woman in "Private Life" ("Yes your marriage is a tragedy, but it's not my concern") to the brazen seductress of "Brass in Pocket." And yet, for all her toughness, she still has a very vulnerable edge. The best line on the whole record is buried at the end of "Lovers of Today": 'I'll never feel like a man in a man's world."
7 - Christopher Rose
For what it's worth, it's my opinion that the 80s was the last great music decade. NOTHING new musically has happened since, right?
8 - SFC SKI
Christopher, we might not agree about guns, but I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion about '80's music.
Trouble is, most of the best of the '80's was not the crap you get on boxed sets our MTV reruns, most of the best has been lost to history, stashed away on casettes in my basement, most likely.
9 - zingzing
"the rest [of #1's 80's artists] well, they were all fly by night's."
birthday party? husker du? the jesus and mary chain? my bloody valentine? the smiths? talk talk?
i dunno if you've heard these artists if you call them "fly by night." not really sure what that means anyway, but those are some of the most vital artists of the decade, and well, ever.
that really wasn't something i had to think about, except maybe the "q" and "v" ones. and i could run out of room on 80's artists. it was just the first great artist i could think of for each letter.
and yeah the cure came out in 79, that's true, but they were certainly an 80's band. in fact, i would say that the 80's started the moment 10:15 saturday night ended.
10 - zingzing
the 80's were, i would say, the most vital period of music seen since the mid-60's. when else was there such an interesting mainstream (frankie goes to hollywood? madonna?) and such an amazing underground (minutemen? fugazi? pixies?)? and so much of each? and so many genres, new and old?
the answer is never. the underground exploded while the mainstream splintered during the 80's.
like sfc ski said, rather confusingly, the 80's you might remember would not be the 80's you find if you really went back and looked at it.
11 - zingzing
oh, i understand sfc ski now... although i wonder if christopher might be being a bit sarcastic (i hope he is).
12 - Martin Lav
Christopher Rose says:
"For what it's worth, it's my opinion that the 80s was the last great music decade. NOTHING new musically has happened since, right?"
Martin says:
Not in my opinion....
I agree with the author in that the Pretenders coming out of the late 70's along with the Clash and some others, had the sound and feel down. Somehow this morphed into this techno-pop glam-hair sound that made me tune my radio to Oldies but Goldies stations throughout the rest of the decade. It wasn't until the sound of Seattle with Nirvana came back that the true sound of Rock came back with it.
......but....who cares about my opinion?
Listen what a TRUE LEGEND has to say about this band:
"I don’t know what to say. This is one of the greatest Rock and Roll bands that ever lived. They went through all the heartache that rock 'n' roll was built on. They lost two key members, and they never gave up, they kept going, nothing would stop them. Chrissie, she’s a rock 'n' roll woman. She’s got it in her heart. She’s gonna be rocking till she drops, and I love her. I’m very proud just to know her."
- Neil Young
13 - Christopher Rose
So enlighten me, what genuinely new genres of music have appeared since the 80s?
14 - zingzing
you didn't say anything about new genres. what genres appeared in the 80's?
you said nothing new has happened.
microgenres have developed. for example, techno develops several new genres every year, refining and reacting against itself. british hip-hop has changed drastically from the days of massive attack (trip-hop) to dizzy rascal (grime/garage) to the current dub-step stuff.
music ceaslessly evolves and changes, and at a pretty constant speed. you know this.
15 - Vern Halen
Never was a huge fan - loved the EP that had "Cuban Slide" on it, though. Think it came right after these two.
I liked Katrina & the Waves - the original two albums, not the remake greatest hits.
16 - SFC SKI
As much as I celebrate my '80's favorites, and search out MP3's from a lot perhaps little known and currently of out-of-print bands from that time, I'll admit it was not all perfect. In fact, Andrew Sullivan has been posting a lot of '80's mainstream videos, and I remember just what was so bad about so much '80's music. The human psyche forgets traumatic incidents as a defense mechanism, will anything get Don Johnson's solo album out of mine now?
I think that electronica and synth pop, as well as ska wouild not be so big now if they hadn't first come to mass market prominence in the '80's. Devo has a great collection called "The Pioneers get Scalped" a bitter reflection that a lot of '80s bands gave rise to the sounds of today. I saw a band called the Epoxies, and they had a look and a sound that made me think it was 1985 all over again. Not that it's a bad thing, but weird, because majority of the audience was probaby not even born in 1985.
Another genre that really hit its peak before become a self parody is hard rock, aka "Hair Metal". OK, the fashions were terrible, the hairstyles and make up laughable, the lyrics were banal, but who was listening to the words when you had some technically brilliant shredders making your ears bleed. Unfortunately, like most music trends, it died a timely death by the advance of grunge. Still, you can't listen to Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, or even Nirvana without acknowledging that those guitarists spent time copping Randy Rhoads and Van Halen licks.
Anyway, the Pretenders burned brightly but far too briefly in their original incarnation. I can't wait to get these remastered copies, and it looks like a few songs from the EP made it in as bonus tracks.