The Pretenders, what a band! The original line up of Chrissie Hynde (rhythm guitar, vocals), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar), Pete Farndon (bass) and Martin Chambers (drums) only managed to survive through two albums before Jimmy and Pete lost their lives through drug abuse. Learning To Crawl was the band’s third album and while only half of the original line up remained, the spirit of the band was still well and truly alive for their third outing.
James Honeyman-Scott had already begun working with Chrissie on some of the songs that would become part of Learning To Crawl before he died and as Chrissie readily admits it was Jimmy’s melodic genius that was so essential to the sound of the Pretenders:
“Jimmy provided the hooks that transformed my otherwise ordinary songs into something else.”
In Chrissie’s brilliant memoir Reckless she explained the creative process of making music after Jimmy’s departure:
“I found that any musical question I had could be easily answered. I just had to imagine what Jimmy would do. I had come to understanding him so well that it was as if he was standing next to me talking to me.”
Not long before his death James had spoken to Chrissie about a hot young guitarist he was keen to get on stage with the Pretenders. So Robbie McIntosh became the band’s new guitarist on Jimmy’s recommendation.
I’m a big fan of the first 3 Pretenders albums and could easily have chosen either of Learning To Crawl’s predecessors to review, but despite the departure of Jim and Pete strangely this album of the three sounds more cohesive to me – maybe because Chrissie had to work so much harder to ensure the band’s legacy stayed in tact.
Certainly some of the raw edges from the band’s punk and new wave influences had been rounded off with Learning To Crawl, but according to Chrissie that’s the direction she and Jimmy had been heading towards when they first started working up the new material for this record.
I always assumed the album’s title was a reference to Chrissie and Martin trying to rebuild the band and obviously it’s an apt description, but the idea for the name came from Chrissie’s recently born daughter Natalie, who was only beginning to make her way in the world.
So what makes Learning To Crawl so good? Well, it doesn’t get any better than the opening track, which is by far my all time fave Pretenders song. Martin Chambers thumps Middle of the Road into gear in just a few beats with that fat intro and he maintains its driving rhythm throughout the song. The band’s new bass man Malcolm Foster holds his own with Martin’s beat accompanied by Chrissie’s looping rhythm as Robbie McIntosh cuts loose with some classic blues rock riffs. The band is so tight on this track you’d swear they’d been together for years and when Chrissie purrs before launching into that honking harp this track is smokin’! Middle Of The Road is anything but in musical parlance and I love the irony that this track – the fattest and dirtiest of Pretenders songs uses that title. As Neil Young said after his massive commercial success with Harvest:
“Heart of Gold put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there.”
One read of Chrissie Hynde’s memoir Reckless and you’ll know that ditch is her spiritual home and why the Pretenders were such a captivating band. In the pantheon of rock chicks she cut a path that so very few had before her time and lyrically Middle Of The Road echoes that.
From my favourite Pretenders track to one not so endearing. Don’t get me wrong (as Chrissie would say), Back On the Chain Gang isn’t a bad song, it just got flogged to death on the air and seemed to be around on the radio forever. It was first released as a single in 1982, then included on the soundtrack of the De Niro film The King of Comedy the following year, before finally also being included on this album in 84. By that time my radio career was about to take off and I was well and truly over it, but it was a song I ended up playing a hell of a lot over the years. An occupational hazard of working in commercial radio.
Back On The Chain Gang was one of the early numbers that Chrissie worked on with Jimmy before he passed away. With Jimmy gone Rockpile guitarist Billy Bremner stepped in along with Tony Butler (Big Country) on bass for the session, before Hynde finally settled on Robbie McIntosh and Malcolm Foster as Jimmy and Pete’s replacements to record the remainder of the album. Back On The Chain Gang became one of the band’s biggest hits and with that sealed its fate on high rotation at just about every radio station I worked at for many years to come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=radFwHzD-PM
Time The Avenger thuds with a new wave urgency that really gives the song some oomph, but it’s Robbie’s blistering guitar work that takes the song into another dimension making it a killer album cut. Watching The Clothes carries all the excitement of another repetitive day in suburbia, and while it was obviously Chrissie’s intent did we really need to be reminded of it? Even an extended guitar solo from Robbie McIntosh can’t save it from its own monotony. The song was apparently written in the very early days before the Pretenders’ debut and it sounds like a leftover that should have been left out altogether. It’s the only disappointment on the album.
Learning To Crawl is quickly redeemed by the last track on side one – Show Me, a gorgeously crafted pop song that carries that distinct Pretenders sound thanks to Chrissie’s vocal phrasing and tremolo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEV7FpT4Rv0
Thumbelina is a fab little rockabilly number with the band taking a back seat to Martin’s rhythmic precision and feel on the kit that is the backbone of the song. Robbie McIntosh chimes in with some retro guitar flourishes, but essentially it’s Martin’s song.
On My City Was Gone Hynde reflects on the sad decay of her beloved hometown of Akron, Ohio. It’s a subject she covers in some depth in Reckless as she dissects the urban alienation created by America’s shopping mall culture and the extensive freeways carving up the cities and towns that were once thriving communities.
Thin Line Between Love And Hate is a cover of the Persuaders’ R & B hit from the early 70’s. The band plays it tight with Chrissie wringing an emotively soulful vocal and making the song her own. Paul Carrack, ex Squeeze and Roxy Music, features as guest keyboardist.
I Hurt You rolls on in a slow, funky groove with an almost a spoken vocal from Hynde. It’s Chrissie detailing a spiteful relationship as Robbie McIntosh once again provides some intricate lead work.
The gorgeous 2000 Miles closes out the album and was also the B side to Message Of Love in the US – what a double! 2000 Miles was originally released preceding Learning To Crawl in the UK and Australia in late 83, just in time to cash in on the track’s Christmas sentiment. In reality it’s not a Christmas song, but a tribute from Chrissie to her fallen band mate James Honeyman-Scott.
In these frozen and silent nights
Sometimes in a dream you appear
Outside under the purple sky
Diamonds in the snow sparkle
Our hearts were singing
It felt like Christmas time
Two thousand miles
Is very far through the snow
I’ll think of you
Wherever you go
He’s gone…
Hynde said that Jimmy’s replacement Robbie McIntosh came up with the sublime melodic guitar motif for the song and in hindsight (Hyndesight?) she should have given him a co-writing credit for the track. She was also full of praise with Robbie’s beautiful playing on the track – “anything to avoid listening to my voice and stupid words.” Finding the right tenor of sentiment for a lyric can be incredibly difficult and Hynde is often her own toughest critic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iYtzTZ2xVA
The Pretenders self titled debut is often cited as their best record and with stellar tracks like Private Life, Precious, Kid and Brass In Pocket there’s a solid argument for that, but as much as I enjoy that album it jumps all over the place stylistically like a band still trying to figure out what it wants to be. Learning To Crawl has a much more cohesive feel – there’s a diversity of musical ideas, but collectively they sound like the formation of a singular vision, like any classic album does. On reflection Learning To Crawl might not have been such a good title at all, because on this album the Pretenders finally found their feet.
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