Anyone a fan of them? I'm watching them right now and realizing I don't think I've ever heard a song of their's outside of 'Back on the Chain Gang', 'Brass in Pocket' or 'Don't Get Me Wrong'. Is it worth checking out some of their early stuff?

They actually sound pretty good, although Chrissie seems pissed off for some reason.

All of their first three albums are outstanding.
•Pretenders
•Pretenders II
•Learning to Crawl

I cannot think of a single song on any of those albums that isn't fucking great.
After that, I cannot be as certain... it gets a little spottier, but still some solid stuff.

And yeah, Chrissie is one of my favorite singers in all of Rock.

Their first album is a must own, the second only slightly less so. Learning To Crawl has some decent moments, but you can live without it. Everything since is pretty crappy.

You must haved heard songs like "My City Was Gone" at some point, I would think.

The loss of bandmates was fairly insurrmountable, so I do prefer early, less polite Pretenders (songs like "Tattooed Love Boys"), but Chrissie has certainly put lots of good songs over the years. More importantly, even when the songs were blander, she did everything on her own terms and didn't get molded by anyone or any company.

"Watching The Clothes" comes immediately to mind, along with "Thin Line Between Love And Hate". I can't stand "2000 Miles" either.

Perhaps "Watching the Clothes" is less than great.
But other than that, I guess we just disagree. Love those other two songs. That Chi-Lites cover is what really opened my ears to how great a singer she is. (Is it a Chi-Lites song, or am I confusing them with someone else?)

Persuaders song, Todd.

Also to tie in with your other thread, Iron Maiden did it

"My City Was Gone", aka the Rush Limbaugh intro song, makes me want to destroy anything that emits sound.

Other than that, I really don't care one way or another for the Pretenders. I never got all the hoo-ha over "2000 Miles" either.

I think I know more about Chrissie's reputation as boozer than her music. I'm going to try and pick up the first two albums next time I'm record shopping.

Stick with the first one, Dumpjack. It really is one of the best debuts ever - and the Pretenders never got any better than its first track "Precious". Pretenders II was a loooong drop in quality.

Ahhh, but Pretenders II has "Jealous Dogs" on it, and that song is bliss.

Duly noted. It's on the top of my list.

it's true but i'm still gonna buy this:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-re ... adio.shtml

Yeh, I could see myself eventually buying that Pirate Radio box set too.

That P-fork review just reminded me how sad I was when I heard that James Honeyman Scott and Pete Farndon had died. I bought the pre-album single of "Back On The Chain Gang" back then - and it still carries an emotional punch.

This song is tremendous.

Against all reason, I can still groove to this song. Probably to spite that douche-bag. Man, though, what a oool song.

My buddy and his kid sister went to Ireland a few years ago and ran into Martin Chambers in a pub. They stayed out too late, crashed at his place, and that dude bedded his sister (probably 20 at the time).

Ick and AWESOME!

If only to finally get "Cuban Slide" on CD. (Unless you've got that German comp, "Don't Get Me Wrong," which was pretty easy to find in the States.)

As with all things Chrissie, I'll have to buy it eventually, but I'm gonna hold off and hope it shows up on yourmusic.com. There's not enough rarities, and I already have too many of them as it is.

I'm really surprised that Pitchfork gave it such a good review. The All Music review nails it, I'm afraid--you're either a Chrissie die hard or you lost interest after Learning to Crawl, and this 4-disc set has way too much of the later stuff for the casual fan.

i was surprised that pitchfork even bothered to review it. i'm not a fan of the latter stuff as much but i love her and still don't have the cuban slide on cd. actuall i only have the s/t on cd. everything else is on vinyl so yeah, i'm gonna pull the trigger.

and her studio and live versions of kid just break my heart.
in a good way.

Their first album is a must own AGREED, the second only slightly less so MAYBE A LITTLE MORE THAN SLIGHTLY BUT I WON'T NITPICK. Learning To Crawl has some decent moments, but you can live without it I GUESS YOU CAN LIVE WITHOUT IT, BUT MOST THOUGHT IT WAS BETTER THAN II. IT'S PRETTY SOLID Everything since is pretty crappy. NOTHING NEW OR SPECTACULAR MAYBE BUT NOT CRAPPY. SHE'S TOO GOOD AND I THINK CARES TOO MUCH AS A ROCK LIFER OF INTEGRITY TO RELEASE UTTER CRAP. AND I BET A LOT OF THE PEOPLE WHO SAY THAT HAVEN'T EVEN HEARD ALL OF THE LATER ALBUMS WHICH DIDN'T SELL SQUAT.

A quarter century ago, was any other group simultaneously played on both classic rock radio, e.g., KLOS, & 'new wave' radio (KROQ)? I can't think of any. And later Chrissie could even get mushy enough for Adult Contemporary with 'Ill STand By You'. How can one singer be so good at both tough and soft/weak? I just heard Brass In Pocket ( especially love that final 'I'm...') playing at the drug store and I bet it's gonna keep getting played for the next hundred years.

Spot-on.