@Brian # 51:

You aren’t the only one baffled here. Let’s just get the history straight about Blondie / The Pretenders in 1980: Blondie may have been one of the biggest singles bands of the year, but from ‘Eat to the Beat’ onwards, the critics were shredding Blondie with increasing ferocity. The Pretenders were lauded across the board with their first album in 1980. Don’t be fooled by the comments here; if this was being written in 1980 as a roundup of the years singles, BiP would be the height of credibility, and Blondie would be seen as heavyweight fluff. Yes, in the modern world we love Blondie to bits, especially with their “fills a greatest-hits nicely” bunch of catchy pop-rock, but then we don’t have to sit through ‘Autoamerican’, do we? I say that as someone who loves/loved Blondie, and only passingly liked The Pretenders.

The first two Pretenders singles, “Stop Your Sobbing” and “Kid,” were remarkably unclassifiable yet resolutely of the then-now; Hynde, with a voice deriving from, but reaching far wider than, Sandie Shaw (those elongated vibrati), managed the difficult feat of being sensual and comforting at the same time. “Kid” in particular is akin to being offered a long, lovely, selfless hug. The album was startling too, containing two of the most disturbing and unsettling, but rigidly rationalist, examples of tough love in pop in “Lovers Of Today” and “Private Life” – forthright and chilling.

But “Brass In Pocket” was the pop trump card. Set on paper, the lyric in isolation can look arrogant – “I’m special, so special/I’ve gotta have some of your attention/Give it to me!” One can only shudder at what the Beyoncés of this bereft age would make of such words; strident, clock-watching and loveless. But with Chrissie, you are compelled to agree: “damn right baby, you deserve it!” Because there is a cosmos of difference between arrogance and sassiness, between imposition and assertiveness. She wants that man, desires this world, and she knows the tactics required to secure either, or both: “Intention – I feel inventive!” And she beguiles the listener as she lists her attributes – “Gonna use my arms/gonna use my legs/gonna use my style…” – with her voice rising and swaying in total confidence, so much so that even lines like “Been driving, Detroit-leaning” and “Got new skank, it’s so reet” fly by without the listener taking much, if any, exception. She indulges in rhetorical triplets, almost like a political speech – “Gonna use my, my, my imagination,” “Gonna make you, make you, make you notice.”

The music is splendid; James Honeyman-Scott’s lucid guitars floating through tenderly, rhythm foursquare but fluid, the same bending bass and pre-coital “Oh!” which introduced “Message In A Bottle.” But Hynde’s demands demand attention because you recognise them for the pleas which they really are; I’ve got it all and you HAVE to notice me, acknowledge me. I was about to turn sixteen, so you can imagine my elementary response to all of this, but her delivery and stance are so naturally lovely that it’s impossible to resist her requests to give yourself to her.

ie it means whatever you want it to mean!

(above is from new shorter oxford, which generally flails a bit less than this: viz it defines plangency as “the quality of being plangent”, which is as close as shorter gets to sayin “plz to F.OFF!”)

“Will give Chrissie and her cohorts that major convincing hit. It’s the best kind of derivative, egocentric rock single: it insists ‘I’m special, give me your attention’ in a plangent, pleading manner, provides enough rhythmic poke to qualify as a dance record while still remaining smooth enough for continuous application. It blends ’60s guitar and ’70s drums with an exquisite kitten of a melody. It’s your basic nice record for middlebrows. (…) Not a record to kill for, but one to inspire great fondness.”

Also reviewed;

Boomtown Rats – Diamond Smiles
Barbara Streisand & Donna Summer – No More Tears
Sheila B Devotion – Spacer
Slade – Sign Of The Times
Phil Daniels & The Cross – Kill Another Night

Also in the studio on January 3rd 1980 were; Madness, Boney M, The Beat, Fiddler’s Dram, Billy Preston & Syreeta and Kurtis Blow, plus Legs & Co’s interpretation of ‘My Feet Keep Dancing’. The host was Peter Powell.

Also in the studio on January the 17th were; New Musik, Sad Cafe, Sister Sledge, Positive Force, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Amii Stewart and Rupert Holmes, plus Legs & Co’s interpretation of Green Onions. The host was Simon Bates.

So when I see so much praise lavished on Blondie and Pretenders being dissed – I gotta scratch my head and wonder what was going on in the UK that I missed,,,,,,

Thanks for throwing a light on this -

They had way more resonance amongst girl musician/guitarist/singers that came after, than Blondie, thanks to ‘understated’ glamour (a leather jacket always helps)

They had many better singles than this one (does anyone else have the love for the two groovy instrumentals on the b-side? Just me then), it’s a shame it wasn’t “Message of Love” or “Talk of the Town” or etc…

I’d take the music and the sex appeal of Chrissie and The Pretenders above Blondie any day.

I was always amazed that Blondie were so popular, they always seemd to me as some disco-punk proto-type that I could never trust.

On the other hand , I thought the Pretenders to be more honest and an all around better bunch of musicians.

Someone once told me “If you don’t have anything nasty to say, say nothing” and I think it was good advice which has stayed with me

Ugly old bag singing an ugly song with ugly tactics.

In one of his old Attitude columns, Mark Simpson observed that every gay man who moves to London seems to go through a phase of strutting around Soho as if they were starring in their own personal remake of Miss Thing Comes To Town.

In which case, “Brass In Pocket” was my Miss Thing Comes To Town theme tune.

That said, it’s always been there and the hooks are all over it like velcro. The lyrics are memorable (if utterly cryptic to the 12-year-old me) and the title itself is such a confident statement of intent, it seems foolish to carp. It doesn’t have a chorus but in a sense the excitement of the song is that it goes from verse to bridge to verse and so on, each time adding passion and excitement and intensity. It doesn’t feel the need to aim for the anthemic climax, but releases its pleasures more multiply. (Hm, maybe there’s something in the ‘ditalini’ thesis…)

My mum liked this very much. In retrospect, there’s a female swagger in it that probably inched her forward to her divorce. I can’t quite separate my (generally positive) feelings about that from my own feelings for this song.

Gonna use my style,
Gonna use my sassy [sass-eh]

I know I’m wrong, but I still like the idea. I thought Hynde was pretty sassy; it’s a sexy record. That lingering, caressing guitar riff.

Mind you, The Smiths might have taken their cue from any number of Pretenders records, but this sounds like Texas.

I’m pretty sure the tour helped UB40 though, I bought my copy of “Food For Thought/King” at the gig as did lots of other people there.