Brass in Pocket-The Pretenders
There's a lot of bad ass women in rock & roll and a lot of great debuts by bands, but I do believe Chrissie Hynde fronting The Pretenders is the perfect axis of these two factors (if what I just said sounds like garbled nonsense, my defense is that I'm totally faking any math intellect). Hynde's back story is fascinating-she grew up in Cleveland, attended Kent State University during the time of the anti-Vietnam protest which ended with four students killed by National Guard members. She moved to London in the early '70s and immersed herself in the punk rock scene, hanging out with members of The Clash and The Sex Pistols and nearly marrying Johnny Rotten to get a visa to stay in country, but ultimately she returned to the States and became the lead singer of The Pretenders. Ohh, and she had a child with Ray Davies from The Kinks and was married to the lead singer of Simple Minds. She's like a punk rock female version of Forrest Gump for the '70s and early '80s.
So, why this song for 1979? Besides being an earworm that I never tire of listening to, she sings with such sassiness and confidence, particularly the refrain of "I'm special, so special", well, how can it not carry you along in its exuberance?
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