1980-1981: Years of Growth and Ferment One: Pretenders II

Well, I guess I've put this off as long as I can. I had such a good time with my "All My Favorite Records Came Out In 1979" series, and everyone seemed to enjoy it so i figured I was doing something wrong and dropped the original intent. The actual point I was leading to wasn't just necessarily how fuggin' great these records were, and how many of them there were- I had wanted to step into the next year or two and show what happened with their follow-up albums. And I thought I’d be consistent and do it in the original order of the ’79 albums.

Why? Because it lets me go back there for a while. I guess that’s why. I know it labels me as a fogey at the ripe old age of forty, but y’know what? I’ve felt this way since I was 21. I spent most of my musical career so far trying to emulate my heroes in ways other than how they sounded. I mean, I was the perfect age to get in on the stupid Ska revival. I was pretty much in the ballpark when the ‘80’s first came back. I could have ripped off my heroes and had a much, much easier time of it.

I wanted no part of it.

The one thing that has largely disappeared from popular music (aside from the whole "goodness" and "not absolutely sucking" and "being a load of shitty cynical, worthless crap" things, of course, and the “you’re out to pasture at 25, right when you’re actually developing the first glimmers of actually having something to SAY” thing) is the concept of a CAREER. Back before the Curtain of Shit settled over everything, bands and artists actually GREW and WENT SOMEWHERE and TOOK US, THE FAITHFUL, WITH them.

That was the best part; in this context it was essentially an invention of the Beatles, and truly among their best. You were in on it. It was you and them. It was also an invention of the '60's in a larger sense, simply because that's the way things unfolded. Every year of the '60's after '63 has a character and a specific flavor. Like Lifesavers. Registered Trade Mark. Each year is a rung on a ladder of great drama and ferment, and the Beatles' music reflected the tenor of that particular year so perfectly that one ends up with a simple, streamlined chronology. It runs like this here:

1963- Early awakenings. "Love Me Do"
1964- The Shock Of The New. "She Loves You"
1965- The Softening Of The Shock Of The New, or, Here Comes Weed. "Norwegian Wood"
1966- The LSD Thing. "Tomorrow Never Knows"
1967- The LSD Thing Peaks. "A Day In The Life"
1968- This LSD Thing Can Be Really Heavy. "Revolution"
1969- Wow, Those '60's Were Tiring. "I've Got A Feeling"
1970- Maybe Things Will Get Cool Again in Six Years. "Carry That Weight"

Yes, I know the last two are backwards. Anybody with a ass under their back knows that Let It Be was recorded before Abbey Road but was released later. So that’s what..

So anyway, to a lesser extent this happened in a not-quite-so-monumental way when I grew to record-buying age in the late '70's.

And really, I should have started this thing in '77 because that's really when all these bands started to make noise, but see, 1979 was the greatest year so I went with it. There are other reasons that make 1979 of particular importance to me but that's another story.

So Here's The Deal. Pretenders II- holy shit! "The Adulteress", "Message Of Love", "Talk Of The Town"! The b-side of the “Message Of Love” 12” single, “Porcelain”!!! And by way of growth the ballads on this thing are a revelation. "Birds Of Paradise" and "The English Roses" put to bed the popular and STUPID notion that this album didn't show growth from their debut. Silly people! Silly critics! No sense of the bigger picture!
People didn't have albums back then, they had careers. Sometimes it was time for this album; sometime it was time for that album. Next time we'll do this album. Since it wasn't hurtin' old 2005, but rather cool and ass-kicking 1981, there was time. The Pretenders were actually one of the few exceptions in a milieu of these bands who took less than a year to release their follow up, and this only by a matter of a couple of months. Nowadays, people take so long between records to accommodate the endless slew of marketing that they're lucky to get something out every 2 or 3 years.

It kills the whole momentum. It kills the career. Doesn't anybody know this?

Pretenders II is a badass record. It can’t compete with the debut in the Shock Of The New sweepstakes, but that’s just physics and chronology. This would be it for the original lineup with James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon, as they would be deader than shit from drugs that very year. Ah, well. Given the choice, I might well have topped myself from speed if I got to be James Honeyman-Scott for a couple years. You never know. I definitely would have been willing to go at 56 to have been George Harrison. Lennon, I dunno. He had to hang out with that screeching harridan Yoko. That sounds less than fun.

Anyway, I truly love Pretenders II, as a musical statement and as a link in the chain of their career. Chrissie Hynde’s tough/vulnerable thing remains a conceit of wonder, and the guitar work smoulders. As on the first record, the weak point is the Kinks cover.

That would be awesome if artists still had careers. Awesome. ‘Course, it would be awesome if more than 5% of them had LISTENABLE FUCKING MUSIC THAT WASN’T WRITTEN BY SOME FETID DIANE WARREN PLUGGED INTO AN OUTLET SOMEWHERE, but I suppose that’s subjective. For example, if you’re fucking BRAINDEAD, you might not agree.