Line #39 Music/Pretenders


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pretenders.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The Pretenders' original lineup. L-R: Pete Farndon, Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott and Martin Chambers.]]
3
4	->''Got brass in pocket,\
5	Got bottle I'm gonna use it,\
6	Intention I feel inventive,\
7	Gonna make you, make you, make you notice.''
8	-->"Brass in Pocket"
9
10	Pretenders are an English-American AlternativeRock band that emerged during the [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] scene, formed in 1978, and whose most famous lineup is made up of vocalist Chrissie Hynde, James Honeyman-Scott on guitar, Pete Farndon on bass and Martin Chambers on drums. Their first SelfTitledAlbum, from 1980, is often considered one of the foundation bricks of AlternativeRock as we know it.
11
12	Despite losing their guitarist and bassist at the peak of their success, the remaining living members went on with the band and released some more albums, got more singles on the charts... While at the same time changing members like one would clothes.
13
14	The original lineup of the Pretenders were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
15
16	----
17
18	!!Principal Members (Founding members in '''bold''', current members in ''italic''):
19	* '''''Martin Chambers''''' - drums, backing vocals (1978–86, 1993–present)
20	* Blair Cunningham - drums, backing vocals (1986–93)
21	* ''Carwyn Ellis'' - keyboards, guitar (2012, 2017–present)
22	* '''Pete Farndon''' - bass, backing vocals (1978–82, died 1983)
23	* Malcolm Foster - bass, backing vocals (1983–86, 1987)
24	* ''Eric Heywood'' - pedal steel guitar, backing vocals (2008–present)
25	* Andy Hobson - bass, backing vocals (1993–2005)
26	* '''James Honeyman-Scott''' - lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1978–82, his death)
27	* '''''Chrissie Hynde''''' - lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar (1978–present)
28	* Johnny Marr - lead guitar (1987)
29	* Robbie [=McIntosh=] - lead guitar, backing vocals (1983–87)
30	* Adam Seymour - lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1993–2008)
31	* T.M. Stevens - bass (1986–87)
32	* ''James Walbourne'' - lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (2008–present)
33	* ''Nick Wilkinson'' - bass, backing vocals (2005–present)
34
35	!! Discography:
36	* 1979 - ''Music/{{Pretenders\|Album}}''
37	* 1981 - ''Pretenders II''
38	* 1984 - ''Learning to Crawl''
39	* 1986 - ''Get Close''
40	* 1990 - ''Packed!''
41	* 1994 - ''Last of the Independents''
42	* 1999 - ''Viva el Amor''
43	* 2002 - ''Loose Screw''
44	* 2008 - ''Break Up the Concrete''
45	* 2016 - ''Alone''
46	* 2020 - ''Hate for Sale''
47	----
48	!!"Back on the Trope Gang":
49	* ChristmasSongs: "2000 Miles" from ''Learning to Crawl'', as well as their cover of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" on one of the ''Very Special Christmas'' charity compilations.
50	* CoverVersion: "Stop Your Sobbing" and "I Go To Sleep" by Music/TheKinks, "Room Full of Mirrors" and "May This Be Love?" by Music/JimiHendrix, "Forever Young" by Music/BobDylan, "Thin Line Between Love and Hate" by The Persuaders, "Human" by The Divinyls.
51	* DrugsAreBad: Half of the original lineup died of drug overdoses within a year of each other.
52	* EpicRocking: "Private Life". "Up the Neck" also gets extended past the 6-minute mark in live shows.
53	* EvenEvilHasStandards: "I Hurt You":
54	-->If you'd been in the [=SS=] in '43\
55	You'd've been kicked out for cruelty
56	* ForeverYoungSong: "Forever Young"
57	* GranolaGirl: Chrissie is vegetarian (she even owned a vegan restaurant in Akron, Ohio before it closed) and supports animal rights. It was her love of animal rights that caused her to allow Creator/RushLimbaugh to continue using "My City Was Gone" after initially balking at it; she donates the licence fees to PETA (who Rush sided with against the EPA on animal testing).
58	-->Blow up the abbatoir! DETONATE!
59	* GriefSong: "Back on the Chain Gang", about fallen member James Honeyman-Scott.
60	* IAmTheBand: Chrissie Hynde was the only official member on ''Packed!'' and ''Alone'', and the only band member to appear on every Pretenders recording.
61	* IHateSong: Hynde rarely holds much back when she dislikes something or someone. For one example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHmvbvRSQs "Pack It Up"]] starts with a cry of "You guys are the pits of the world!" and gets ''magnificently'' venomous at the culmination;
62	-->But you're a piece of junk, and furthermore\
63	I don't like your trousers\
64	Your appalling taste in women\
65	And what about your mind?\
66	Your ''insipid'' record collection!
67	* ItsOkayToCry: "I'll Stand By You" has the singer telling someone not to be embarrassed about their emotions, including tears.
68	* IWantSong: "If There Was a Man" is about a shy wallflower pining for an epic romance.
69	* TheLadette: Chrissie Hynde has said in interviews that she relates much more to men than women and has projected a tough, masculine appearance in her adult life.
70	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Get Close'' introduced a lot more funk influences, to the point where Chrissie Hynde eventually fired half the band mid-tour because they no longer sounded like Pretenders.
71	* PrecisionFStrike: "Precious" is a famous example.
72	-->But not me, babe, I'm too precious, I had to fuck off!
73	* RevolvingDoorBand: Between ''Learning to Crawl'' (the first album after JHS and Pete Farndon's deaths) and ''Last of the Independents'', no two studio albums had the same lineup. Their record of holding a lineup is three albums, between ''Last...'' (1994) and ''Loose Screw'' (2002), with guitarist Adam Seymour and bassist Andy Hobson joining Hynde and original drummer Martin Chambers.
74	* RockStarSong: The third verse of "Middle of the Road"
75	-->In the middle of the road\
76	Is no private cul de sac\
77	I can't get from the cab to the curb\
78	Without some little jerk on my back\
79	Don't harass me\
80	Can't you tell I'm going home I'm tired as hell\
81	I'm not the cat I used to be\
82	I've got a kid, I'm thirty-three baby
83	* SelfTitledAlbum: The first one.
84	* ShoutOut: "Louie Louie" is ''not'' a cover of the classic [[CoveredUp Kingsmen]] song, but contains enough references to it that it almost crosses over into HeavyMeta territory.
85	* SillyLoveSongs: "Show Me," "I'll Stand By You," "Talk of the Town," "Don't Get Me Wrong", "If There was a Man".
86	* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: "My City Was Gone" (namely Akron, Ohio)
87	* TakeThat: "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul?" is an open swipe at pop or rock stars who sell out their credibility by letting their music be used for commercial advertising. The lines ''Millions of kids are looking at you, you say, "Let them drink soda pop"'' and ''Who's got soul? / From the African nation to the Pepsi generation'' are generally taken to mean that the main target is Music/MichaelJackson, who had a huge deal with Pepsi.
88	* TextlessAlbumCover: ''Pretenders II'', whose moody cover photo recalls the textless covers of the first two [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Rolling Stones]] albums.
89	* TheTheTitleConfusion: Just "Pretenders", but they are often called "The Pretenders". The band's Website/{{Wikipedia}} article is titled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pretenders The Pretenders]] but it previously used "Pretenders" throughout. The history of the name is slightly complicated; they started out as "Pretenders", then from 1983-1987 they ''usually'' used "The Pretenders" (but kept the old logo, so when that was used on sleeves and labels instead of text, the "The" was absent), but afterward they went back to just plain "Pretenders".
90	* UnpluggedVersion: The live album ''[[{{Pun}} The Isle of View]]''.
91	* WhenSheSmiles: {{Gender Flip}}ped in "Don't Get Me Wrong":
92	->"I'm thinking of the fireworks\
93	That go off when you smile"
94	* WithLyrics: Their song for ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'', "Where has Every Body Gone?" is {{The Dragon}}'s {{leitmotif}} with WordSaladLyrics added.
95	* WorkingOnTheChainGang: Though not literally about this, "Back on the Chain Gang" does reference Music/SamCooke's [[TropeNamer trope-naming]] tune in its chorus. (''"Hooh! Aaah!"'')
96	* YouAreNotAlone: "I'll Stand by You".

Context Music / Pretenders