Of course I have one in mind; “I’ll Stand By You.”!
| by Anonymous | reply 66 | September 7, 2023 7:23 PM |
Back on the Chain Gang is one of the finest songs ever written.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 1 | September 5, 2023 1:55 AM |
You like that Adult Contemporary dreck the best?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 5, 2023 1:55 AM |
Go, R2!
You showed him what that hole was for....yeah
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 5, 2023 1:55 AM |
Even Chrissie Hynde hates I'll Stand by You.
Back on the Chain Gang is their best.
Written by Hynde after half the damn band OD'd, it was profound, almost poetic, with beautiful guitar work. Their biggest American chart hit.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 5, 2023 1:56 AM |
One of the greatest rock songs of all time
THE WAIT
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 5, 2023 1:57 AM |
"Middle of the Road" is one of the best hard rock songs I've ever heard.
and I write this as someone who mostly has listened to soul and R&B all my life.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 5, 2023 1:58 AM |
Back to Ohio, Every Mother's Son, and Stop Your Sobbing.
Four more replies and someone will chime in about her father being a Trumper.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 5, 2023 1:59 AM |
I'll Stand By You is the only song of theirs I can stand.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 5, 2023 2:01 AM |
R4 Agree. It really is perfection.
The whole song is infused with melancholy but when she goes up to a higher note at 2:37 or so and then again sings "I found a picture of you".....that whole verse.......it made me cry at 13, and makes me tear up today.
MARY! *sobs*
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 5, 2023 2:03 AM |
I don’t care r4 whether Hynde likes that song. I love it because I’m living it.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 5, 2023 2:03 AM |
[quote] Back to Ohio
I believe R7 is speaking of My City Was Gone.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 5, 2023 2:04 AM |
I got the Extended Play EP released in between their first two albums and played it into the ground.
Talk of the Town was probably my favorite on the record. Chrissie Hynde at her most seductive.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 5, 2023 2:05 AM |
R12 Talk of the Town and I Go to Sleep are awesome!
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 5, 2023 2:05 AM |
Get Close was a bit glossier, but this was a great song.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 5, 2023 2:06 AM |
I liked this too - though clearly it was a bit more poppy
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 5, 2023 2:07 AM |
Show Me is a great song. It’s one of the few love songs that fesses up to not really being sure what love actually is. Which I find kinda brave.
So many great Pretenders songs though. Stop Your Sobbing, 2000 Miles, Don’t Get Me Wrong, Back On The Chain Gang, Tatooed Love Boys, Watching The Clothes Go Round… it’s hard to choose just one. I fucking LOVE Chrissie.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 5, 2023 2:07 AM |
This is very mellow and different for the band and for Chrissie, but it means a lot to me.....it reminds me of my late mother.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 5, 2023 2:08 AM |
Back on the Chain Gang is horrid
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 5, 2023 2:11 AM |
2000 Miles Christmas song
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | September 5, 2023 2:21 AM |
Message of Love is my all time favorite.
Extended play.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | September 5, 2023 2:22 AM |
Not a fan of theirs, but I like Brass In Pocket.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | September 5, 2023 3:07 AM |
Has anybody ever seen Chrissie Hynde's forehead?
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | September 5, 2023 3:28 AM |
R23 I forgot about Message Of Love! Oh it’s good, good, good! Like Brigitte Bardot!
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | September 5, 2023 3:57 AM |
I had a fantasy of Message of Love playing at my wedding.
That ending just always reminds me of that era, and of Cleveland/Ohio.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | September 5, 2023 4:15 AM |
OP, I agree. I love I'll Stand By You. It's a heartbreaker and not at all like Chrissie's usual thing. I love her and was amazed at how touching this was.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | September 5, 2023 4:28 AM |
I loathe I'll Stand by You.
Night in my Veins is OK.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | September 5, 2023 4:30 AM |
Maybe "Kid." I saw them in concert in the late '80s. Her voice was beautiful, on key, like a bell.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | September 5, 2023 4:37 AM |
I’ve seen them a couple of times in concert, and it’s always a good show.
I do think Back on the Chain Gang is their best, but I also love I Go To Sleep, Stop Your Sobbing, Brass in Pocket, Mystery Achievement, Precious. Do not care for Middle of the Road or I’ll Stand By You.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | September 5, 2023 4:54 AM |
Talk Of The Town, Kid and Show Me are my favorites.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | September 5, 2023 5:00 AM |
The unusually heartbreaking ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ is my fave.
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | September 5, 2023 5:12 AM |
I absolutely love them. Can’t pick one.
Last year I listened religiously to the demo for “Talk of the Town”.
Chrissie sounds like she lost her voice or was sick and there’s a charm to it I love.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 35 | September 5, 2023 5:29 AM |
That was great R35. It has kind of a funk sound to it. Chrissy sounds like she is recovering from a cold.
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | September 5, 2023 5:36 AM |
That is really cool, R35. I've always loved how Chrissie says "I had a weesh" on that track.
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | September 5, 2023 6:26 AM |
[quote]I don’t care [R4] whether Hynde likes that song. I love it because I’m living it.
Don't be a doormat.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | September 5, 2023 6:59 AM |
Fun fact: Chrissie is pregnant with Ray Davies' baby in the Back on the Chain Gang video.
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | September 5, 2023 7:02 AM |
Yep, R39. The woman flying through the air at various points looks like Chrissie, but it's a stuntwoman.
Chrissie was about five months along, and trampoline work was out.
| by Anonymous | reply 40 | September 5, 2023 7:08 AM |
[quote]the lucky bitch
Except Ray Davies dumped her when she got pregnant, and half her band died within months.
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | September 5, 2023 7:11 AM |
Kid, Tattooed Love Boys, Night in my Veins, everything. Chrissie is brilliant in every way. A true artist.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | September 5, 2023 7:15 AM |
[quote]Except Ray Davies dumped her when she got pregnant
I thought she dumped him for the guy from the Simple Minds?
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | September 5, 2023 7:51 AM |
Even her backup vocals on "My Love Life" by that dreadful egotist nationalist Morrissey is sublime.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 44 | September 5, 2023 8:22 AM |
R38, you are a shit. The song is important to me because I’m taking care of my husband. He has cancer.
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | September 5, 2023 11:59 AM |
Kid and Brass in Pocket are my favorites by the Pretenders.
Her solo record is fucking BEYOND. Completely different from her Pretenders' stuff
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 47 | September 5, 2023 12:04 PM |
Hey OP. Been there. I see you. What you're doing is exhausting. noble, and an ultimate act of love. Wishing you all the best.
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | September 5, 2023 12:07 PM |
Glorious. Where it goes at/after 2:45.......*sobs* MARY!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 49 | September 5, 2023 2:33 PM |
Some of her work outside the Pretenders is quite interesting.
She did a record of standards and old pop songs that is quite good. She said she did it because she missed melody, which she finds largely lacking in contemporary pop.
I like this version better than Streisand’s.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 50 | September 5, 2023 6:27 PM |
And the stripped-down Dylan album she did to keep her sanity during the pandemic is really wonderful.
She makes some very interesting, quite unexpected choices in her song selections.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 51 | September 5, 2023 6:33 PM |
Their first two LPs mean a lot to me as I listened to them a lot as a troubled youth in the early 80’s. I always tear up when I hear “Birds of Paradise.”
But I also thought so many songs they did in the years following were incredible too.
| by Anonymous | reply 52 | September 5, 2023 6:44 PM |
I LOVE the Pretenders... tried to get tickets to their show at Pappy & Harriet's but it sold out in less than 20 seconds. Love all the songs mentioned here... My Baby is one of my favorites.
Also love Boots of Chinese Plastic... very punky
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | September 5, 2023 6:50 PM |
I really don't understand "Best of" threads like this... is there really a "best"? I prefer "Favorite" and yea, for some it's the more radio-friendly tracks from the bands later albums, a few posters have referenced earlier, edgier, punkier tracks.
I'm in the latter camp and one of my favorites is Pack it Up. Damn, it is so good.
And btw, the cover photo for Pretenders II is fabulous.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 54 | September 5, 2023 6:57 PM |
R48, perhaps this post is what needed to be said, in order for some perspective to be gained, & turn things around in a positive direction.
OP is necessarily shooting in the dark.
| by Anonymous | reply 56 | September 6, 2023 3:25 AM |
Correction:
“isn’t necessarily shooting in the dark.”
| by Anonymous | reply 57 | September 6, 2023 3:26 AM |
I don't love a lot of late Pretenders, but I love Break Up the Concrete
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 58 | September 6, 2023 3:43 AM |
The only song I like is Show Me and I like it for a couple reasons: first, her voice of course which is full of longing and at the 2:34 mark she sings, ‘welcome here from outer space’ and then the guitar makes a sound how one might imagine outer space would sound like or portrayed in a movie. Like when you hear a brassy sax and expect a stripper, or a harmonica indicates a western.
I like subtle and clever things like that. I would’ve liked to have been in their recording session to see how that part came to fruition.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 59 | September 6, 2023 3:44 AM |
R58 I like everything about your post except for the part where you said Show Me is the only Pretenders song you like.
| by Anonymous | reply 60 | September 6, 2023 9:00 PM |
The lyrics of Show Me are awe-inspiring.
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | September 6, 2023 9:04 PM |
Hilarious that OP picked the worst Pretenders song of all time.
The correct answer is "Middle of the Road."
| by Anonymous | reply 62 | September 6, 2023 9:05 PM |
I beat the shit out of her one time.
| by Anonymous | reply 63 | September 6, 2023 9:08 PM |
Yep, it's Kelly/Steinberg shiteous twaddle.
It's about as "authentically" Pretenders as "All I Wanna Do" is authentically Heart.
| by Anonymous | reply 64 | September 6, 2023 9:08 PM |
But it seems to be an anthem for recovering addicts
| by Anonymous | reply 65 | September 6, 2023 9:11 PM |
Happy 72nd Birthday, Bitch!
| by Anonymous | reply 66 | September 7, 2023 7:23 PM |
