Chrissie Hynde took a long, hard road to rock & roll stardom, but when her band,
the Pretenders, finally broke through in 1979, they wasted no time, growing from promising newcomers on the British music scene to major international stardom with a pair of smash albums to their credit in a mere three years. But
the Pretenders' meteoric rise came to a crashing halt in 1982, when drug abuse claimed the life of guitarist
James Honeyman-Scott and forced
Hynde and drummer
Martin Chambers to dump bassist
Pete Farndon, who would also succumb to an OD in April 1983.
Hynde was forced by circumstance to reinvent
the Pretenders for their third album, 1984's
Learning to Crawl, but if the new edition of the group lacked some of the spark of the band that made the first two LPs, through sheer force of will
Hynde created a masterpiece. While
Hynde hardly held back in her emotionally potent songwriting in
the Pretenders' early work, on
Learning to Crawl there's a gravity to her lyrics that blended with her tough but wiry melodic sense and streetwise intelligence to create a set of truly remarkable tunes. "Back on the Chain Gang" is a touching tribute to her fallen comrades that still sounds bitterly rueful, "Middle of the Road" is a furious rocker that explores the emotional and physical toll of a musician's life, "Time the Avenger" is a taut, literate examination of a businessman's adulterous relationship, "My City Was Gone" deals with the economic and cultural decay of the Midwest in a manner both pithy and genuinely heartfelt, and "2000 Miles" is a Christmas number that demonstrates
Hynde can be warm without getting sappy. As a guitarist,
Robbie McIntosh brought a simpler and more elemental style to
the Pretenders than
James Honeyman-Scott, but his tough, muscular leads fit these songs well, and bassist
Malcolm Foster's solid punch fits
Chambers' drumming perfectly. Three albums into her recording career,
Chrissie Hynde found herself having to put the past to bed and carve out a new beginning for herself with
Learning to Crawl, but she pulled it off with a striking mixture of courage, strength, and great rock & roll; with the exception of the instant-classic debut album, it's
the Pretenders' finest work. ~ Mark Deming