I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”. For example …..
By Request DIRECT DESCENDANTS from lineatus – “Lost in Space” anti-hero Dr. Zachary Smith and Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky. Whaddya think?
OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.
ART NOTES – an exhibition of photographers exploring their medium by turning to the window as a framing device or conceptual tool is at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to January 5th.
TV NOTES – this past weekend’s CBS Sunday Morning had a nice segment on cat videos from its (resident) humorist Bill Geist.
QUOTE for today from Duncan Black, a/k/a Atrios:
You’re the party of gay marriage, abortion, and Obamacare – whether you like it or not – and it’s better to convince your constituents that you’re going to do good things for them than to try to convince them that you’re not a real Democrat.
They can already vote for someone who isn’t a real Democrat. He or she is called a Republican.
THURSDAY’s CHILD is Joy the Cat – a New York kitteh who was rescued after Hurricane Sandy – and has just been adopted by another storm survivor. Joy was the last (of 300-plus animals) cared for in the ASPCA’s special temporary storm shelter, following Sandy.
LEGAL NOTES – victims of Spain’s Franco regime are hoping that recent legal moves made in Argentina will help bring justice in the crimes committed during the dictatorship.
RIGHT NOW there is a series to determine the world championship of men’s chess – between the defending champ (43 year-old Viswanathan Anand of India) and his challenger (the 22 year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway) …….
…. but not-so-you’d-notice, laments a Guardian chess-lover, about the lack of coverage.
BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at the first audio pioneer of the post-1950’s, Dr. Amar Bose – in many ways, the best of his generation.
SEPARATED at BIRTH – International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde and the Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius.
GOOD LUCK to the 31 year-old Englishman Levison Wood, who will set-out on December 1st to become the first person to travel the entire 4,250-mile length of the Nile River – going north from Rwanda through seven countries – which he believes is medically (and politically) possible for the first time.
HAIL and FAREWELL to Barbara Cheeseborough – who was featured on the cover of the first issue of Essence magazine (at age 67), longtime CNN correspondent Robert Vito (age not listed), former NFL star Todd Christensen (at age 57), and the Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing at age 94.
FRIDAY’s CHILDREN are a mama cat w/four kittens – found in a box (next to a dumpster) near Pittsburgh by two construction workers – who brought them to a shelter, where they are recovering … and up for adoption in a few weeks.
……. and for a song of the week …………………………………………… it is always interesting to hear a band in concert years later, to see how things change. I have enjoyed the music of The Pretenders these past thirty-three years, seeing them live in 1980 and a different band in 1994. The one constant is, of course, lead singer Chrissie Hynde – and while they have become something of a legacy band this past decade, wotta legacy it is: birth in the New Wave/punk era and becoming a mainstream rock band over the years.
Chrissie Hynde was born in Akron, Ohio (later to spawn punk bands such as The Cramps and Devo). She was a student at Kent State on that fateful 1970 day, and relocated to London two years later. She had two interesting jobs in that time: writing for the the New Musical Express weekly, and part-time at the clothing boutique SEX owned by Vivienne Westwood and the late Malcolm McLaren. And since this was ground-zero of the oncoming punk movement – well, she was in the right place at the right time.
After recording some demos, she was encouraged to form a band and did. Named after The Platters tune The Great Pretender – the band included:
* Guitarist James Honeyman-Scott (right in 1st photo below) whose suspended chords and syncopation would be very influential years later …
* Bassist Pete Farndon (left in 1st photo below) and …
* Drummer Martin Chambers (2nd from left in 1st photo, far left 2nd photo) of whom Chrissie Hynde says of his audition, “as soon as Martin started playing with us, I knew this was it”.
They made their first Top 40 – a cover of “Stop Your Sobbing” by the Kinks – in late 1979, and had subsequent hits with “Kid” and Brass in Pocket which was (to Hynde’s surprise) an early MTV hit, and a staple of their sets ever since. Their eponymous debut album in 1980 is considered a classic, and Rolling Stone named it #155 in their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Their 1981 follow-up Pretenders II wasn’t nearly as well-received, but did have hits with Talk of the Town – reflecting Chrissie’s relationship with The Kinks’ Ray Davies – and “The English Roses”. I had a chance to see the band before this release in New Jersey and thought their future unlimited. But as “Behind the Music” would say ……..
In June of 1982, Hynde fired bassist Farndon (whom she had dated years earlier) due to his unreliability due to drug problems. A mere two days later, guitarist Honeyman-Scott died of of a cocaine/heroin overdose. Chrissie Hynde went into seclusion, as she was then pregnant with Ray Davies’ child. Only two months after giving birth in February, 1983 she learned that former bassist Pete Farndon – who was trying to begin a band with former Clash drummer Nicky Headon (also dealing with drug issues) – died of a heroin overdose.
Hynde remade the band with bassist Malcolm Foster and Scottish guitarist Robbie Mcintosh. Their album Learning to Crawl garnered some good reviews and had hits with Back On The Chain Gang and a song which later helped finance her social activism (environmentalism and vegetarianism).
When your-friend-and-mine Rush Limbaugh began using the music-only from My City Was Gone two results were:
(a) the irony of him using a song about Akron suffering from corporate downsizing and
(b) Hynde donates the royalties to PETA that Rush was forced to pay.
(Chrissie Hynde maintains her ties to Ohio; singing the Star Spangled Banner at the 1995 World Series in Cleveland).
Meanwhile, the band’s personnel began changing often, with Hynde even firing drummer Martin Chambers, her sole remaining original band mate in the mid-1980’s. But still more fan favorites followed, such as Don’t Get Me Wrong plus “A Thin Line Between Love & Hate” as well as Hymn to Her throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s.
Hynde was married for a time to Jim Kerr – the Scottish lead singer of Simple Minds – from “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” fame. Fifteen years after the band’s founding, drummer Martin Chambers rejoined for the 1994 Last of the Independents album … which spawned a single in Night in My Veins and a nice cover of Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”. I saw them in Albany, NY and discovered band no longer playing large venues but with a a mature sound that served notice they could still rock.
Their most recent studio album is 2008’s Break Up the Concrete and this is also included as a second disc along with a Greatest Hits compilation in 2009.
Then came 2010’s Live in London CD/DVD set that showcases the current line-up. They are not currently active – although they did perform at the 2011 Super Bowl party with Faith Hill – but The Pretenders were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and one would be advised not to close the book on them yet.
While my favorite Pretenders tune remains “Mystery Achievement” from their debut album: at the 1994 concert I attended I sensed that I’ll Stand by You would henceforth be a fan favorite. Uncharacteristically co-written by a pair of tunesmiths (Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg) – rather than by Chrissie herself – it was later performed by Patti Labelle, Rod Stewart, Shakira and two talent-show stars: Girls Aloud in 2004 and Carrie Underwood in 2007.
And below you can hear the original.
Oh, why you look so sad?
Tears are in your eyes
Come on and come to me now
Don’t be ashamed to cry
Let me see you through
’cause I’ve seen the dark side too
When the night falls on you
You don’t know what to do
Nothing you confess
Could make me love you lessI’ll stand by you
I’ll stand by you
Won’t let nobody hurt you
I’ll stand by you
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