More about: The Pretenders

The youth work in mysterious ways. As the market for nostalgia never ceases to die, there’s always a curiosity and appreciation that lingers within a young audience; the resurgence in popularity that ABBA and Fleetwood Mac have had over the years with a surprisingly fresh-faced target market illustrate this.

The musical output of both bands somehow manages to sound of its time, yet equally timeless; they have that perfect pop blueprint that the Lordes, Taylor Swifts and Phoebe Bridgerses of today are built from. In my mind at least, the holy trifecta of late 70s/early 80s retro pop is completed by The Pretenders. The rest of the world may not have caught up yet, but the genius of Chrissie Hynde has rippled throughout popular music with an underappreciated legacy. 

With that said though, taking a look at the video for their sharp and sassy number 1 1979 single ‘Brass in Pocket’ makes you wonder if the same rules of timelessness apply. Whilst the song has left an undeniable impact on the indie rock genre as we know it, the video is so, SO 80s. A kitchen sink budget, limited location space and a pallid colourscape leave little to the imagination, but the band are undeniably having fun. Well, most of them anyway. 

Martin Chambers, Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott swagger into a café, copping off with miscellaneous girls at the table, and run off into the sunset with them. All the while, they are watched by the waitress, played by Hynde, who simpers and longs for their affection. If this was some kind of subversive statement, it’s all too implicit. For a song with such unshakeable charisma and confidence as ‘Brass in Pocket’, it’s disheartening to see the band’s iconic leader - the effortlessly cool Hynde - reduced to such a passive figure in the video, even for the time the video was made. And in agreement with this statement is Hynde herself; in a 2016 interview with Louder Sound, she said of the video “the closing shot shows the band driving off and me looking out of the window, weeping. I wanted to put a bullet to my head.”

The themes of the song and the video clash in such a way that it leaves somewhat of an unfortunate taste in your mouth, which is disheartening for a band like The Pretenders. When you go and re-listen to your music, you’ll find that the rest of the indie world owes them an unpayable debt. Sundara Karma? St Vincent? The bloody Smiths? All devotees to the church of Hynde. One day I hope that ‘Brass in Pocket’ becomes the centre of the latest TikTok craze in order to leave behind the unpleasantness and lack of character present within the official video. Maybe then we’ll have nice things. One last thing though; the bit where Hynde sings “I’m special” and the band respond “Special” whilst pointing to the menu header of ‘SPECIAL’ gained a mild chuckle out of me. That’s all.

More about: The Pretenders