doggies + Pretenders 2014-09-07 13.11

The #30 Album Of All-Time

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Back when Home Box Office was still referred to as Home Box Office and not by its acronym, the network showed music videos between movies. There was no MTV yet, certainly no YouTube. It was between movies on Home Box Office that I discovered Pretenders.

doggies + Pretenders 2014-09-07 13.11
“Brass in Pocket” was shown regularly and I was instantly taken by this woman playing a waitress, signing that she’s “got bottle” and a “new skank,” she’s “Detroit leaning,” and she’s gonna use her “sidestep” to get a guy to notice her. I hadn’t the foggiest what she was talking about.

In Pretenders’ 2005 box set, the woman, lead singer Chrissie Hynde, explained the lyrics. Having “brass in pocket” means you’re doing alright. “So reet” refers to marijuana. “Got bottle” means “I’ve got front.” “Detroit leaning” refers to an attitude with which people from that city drive. “Gonna use my sidestep” refers to a dance move. I still haven’t the foggiest what she’s talking about, but what a great record!

Hynde didn’t and doesn’t care for the song. The track’s producer, Chris Thomas, saw the band play at a club in London and afterwards told Hynde he especially liked “Brass in Pocket.” He insisted the band record it. After acquiescing, Hynde told Thomas “he could release it over [her] dead body.” She was convinced to let the song come out. It became the group’s first top ten single in the UK, where it hit #1 in January 1980, and their first top 40 single stateside, where it peaked at #14.

“Brass in Pocket” was included on the band’s self-titled debut album, released in January 1980. The album also includes their first single, “Stop Your Sobbing,” a Kinks cover produced by Nick Lowe, who declined to produce the rest of the album, supposedly because he didn’t feel the group were going anywhere. (A few years later Hynde would become romantically-involved with The Kinks’ lead singer, Ray Davies.)

“Kid” was the single follow-up to “Stop Your Sobbing.” Here is what AllMusic.com says about this song: “The Pretenders recorded a fair share of brilliant tracks on their first three albums, but ‘Kid’ is probably the band’s masterpiece.”

Other stand-out tracks on the debut album include “Precious,” wherein Hynde sings “But not me, baby, I’m too precious/Fuck off!,” a line that was supposed to end with “I had to fuck off,” but Hynde couldn’t get all the words out; “I Go to Sleep,” another Ray Davies composition, this one not released previously by The Kinks; “Private Life,” a song covered by Grace Jones, of whose version Hynde said ‘Now that’s how it’s supposed to sound!,” calling the cover a “highpoint of [her] career;” “Tattooed Love Boys” and “Mystery Achievement.”

Presently, Pretenders sits at #30 on my Top All-Time Albums list.

Chrissie Hynde turns 63 today. Here are twenty of her finest.

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Glenn’s Ten – 8/12/14

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Demi Lovato’s “Really Don’t Care” moves from #4 to #1 in Glenn’s Ten this week. There are three new entries – “New Dorp, New York” performed by SBTRKT featuring Ezra Koenig, “Chandelier” by Sia and “Dark Sunglasses” by Chrissie Hynde. This is SBTRK’s first appearance in Glenn’s Ten, while guest vocalist Koenig has been in the countdown a handful of times with his band, Vampire Weekend. Sia has been in Glenn’s Ten previously as a co-writer of Britney Spear’s “Perfume;” this is her first time in the ten as an artist. Chrissie Hynde showed up in Glenn’s Ten many times with her band Pretenders and with UB40 on a cover of Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe.”

Glenn’s Ten for this week is:
1. “Really Don’t Care” – Demi Lovato featuring Cher Lloyd
2. “Do You” – Spoon
3. “New Dorp, New York” – SBTRKT featuring Ezra Koenig
4. “All the Rage Back Home” – Interpol
5. “Chandelier” – Sia
6. “Nothing More than Everything to Me” – Christopher Owens
7. “You Are Your Mother’s Child” – Bright Eyes
8. “Dark Sunglasses” – Chrissie Hynde
9. “Left Hand Free” – Alt-J
10. “Heart is a Drum” – Beck

Rounding out today’s playlist are ten tunes that were #1 on this date in Glenn’s Ten history, in reverse chronological order.

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Winston + Nick Lowe 002

Get Lowe. Nick Lowe.

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Winston + Nick Lowe 002
As a producer, Nick Lowe has worked with Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash, Pretenders, Graham Parker, John Hiatt, The Damned, Paul Carrack, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, among others.

As a songwriter, Lowe’s works have been covered by Wilco, Dave Edmunds, and most famously, Elvis Costello, whose version of “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” is a must for every music fan’s library.

As a musician, Lowe has played in Rockpile, Brinsley Schwarz (no relation to yours truly), and Little Village.

As a solo artist, Nick Lowe has had one top 40 hit in the US. Written with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ “The Love I Lost” in mind, “Cruel to be Kind” reached #12 in 1979 and was one of the 206 music videos that aired on MTV’s first day of broadcasting, August 1, 1981. The song was written by Lowe and a Brinsley Schwarz bandmate, Ian Gomm. Coincidentally, Gomm also had his only US Top 40 hit as an artist, “Hold On,” at the same time as Lowe.

Today, Tunes du Jour celebrates Nick Lowe’s 65th birthday.

Merry Annie Lennox’s Birthday!

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Today marks the annual commemoration of the birth of Annie Lennox, a widely observed cultural holiday, celebrated in Western Christianity every December 25 by millions of people around the world. Annie Lennox’s birthday is a civil holiday in many of the world’s nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-new wave fans, and is an integral part of the holiday season.

The birth year of Lennox is estimated among modern historians to have been between 1953 and 1955 AD.

The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Annie Lennox’s birthday have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, Eurythmics music and caroling, an angel playing with your heart, walking on broken glass, rain again, and sweet dreams. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of Annie Lennox’s birthday involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, her birthday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Annie Lennox’s birthday is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.

Source: Wikipedia

Sinead 003

It’s Sinéad O’Connor’s Birthday And I Can’t Think Of A Headline

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The latter half of the eighties was a great time for alternative rock music and its fans. During the years after the new wave boom but before Nirvana penetrated the mainstream, bringing a host of new rock acts with them, we would hear fresh, interesting acts on WLIR/WDRE and see them on MTV’s 120 Minutes.

In early 1988 120 Minutes aired a video from a new Irish singer named Sinéad O’Connor. The song was “Mandinka.” It grabbed me immediately. I bought her LP The Lion and the Cobra. It was (and is) great. I became obsessed. Not in a creepy stalker kind of way. I felt the need to own every note this woman released. I bought the albums, the remixes, the non-LP singles (e.g. “My Special Child”), the singles with non-LP b-sides (the UK CD single of “Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home” with its cover of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” the UK CD single of “This Is a Rebel Song” with its cover of “Redemption Song”), every movie soundtrack album she appeared on (Married to the Mob, In the Name of the Father) and every compilation she appeared on (Red Hot + Blue, Help, A Very Special Christmas 2). I loved her passion, her songs, her intelligence, her tenderness, her individuality and her look. She stood out from the pack.

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Today Tunes du Jour celebrates the birthday of Sinéad O’Connor with a playlist inspired by her and the music of the 120 Minutes era.