Thanks for posting this video, Andi. I've been praising this album, Break Up the Concrete, since it came out a month ago. There are at least three songs on it that have a rockabilly or a Bo Diddley/Rebels Rule feel to them. And there are a couple of nice ballads as well (love Nothing Man!). They played Farm Aid in September sandwiched between Jerry Lee Lewis and Willie Nelson and performed mostly newer stuff - Don't Cut Your Hair, Boots of Chinese Plastic, and included Thumbelina to complete a full-on rockabilly set. They have a pedal steel guitarist as a regular in the band and they sound terrific. I'll say it again: touring with the Stray Cats last year must have had some influence on the direction of the new album. I'm a fairly big Pretenders fan and feel like this is the best album they've done since Learning to Crawl.
Despite Chrissie Hynde's militant support of PETA and veganism, I still find her every bit as enticing as I did back in 1980! Still not quitting cheeseburgers, though!
Tangentally speaking, I have to give credit to one of the most important albums of my pre-teen years. In late December 1979, Paul McCartney and an all-star cast put on a series of concerts to benefit the people of Kampuchea (now Cambodia). The resulting benefit album hit the stores the next year, and I immediately picked it up for the Paul McCartney/Wings set. I liked The Beatles and Elvis and a lot of 50s artists, but as far as the music of the day, I was subject to whatever the corporate rock radio stations rammed down my throat. Bands/Artists like Styx, Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Kansas, Zeppelin, etc. were actually current acts, and not "Classic Rock" staples yet. But plenty of great music wasn't getting airplay. The album from those concerts The Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, a 2-LP set, had a huge influence on me, as it contained songs from bands I knew like Wings, Queen and The Who, while introducing me to bands like The Clash, Rockpile (Nick Lowe/Dave Edmunds), The Specials, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, and The Pretenders. I didn't have older brothers or sisters to inform my musical tastes, so this album was quite the eye and ear-opener.
As for the Pretenders, I knew Brass in Pocket, but didn't know anything about their punkier side, which I heard in all its defiance on the Kampuchea album. Later on, I saw a VHS version of concert highlights, where McCartney performed Lucille, Ian Dury performed Sweet Gene Vincent, and Rockpile took on Little Sister with Robert Plant on lead vocals. There aren't too many records out there that had the impact of this one. I shall always remember it with great affinity.
Tattooed Love Boys-billy
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Subject: The Pretenders! 
Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:29 pm
