BRASS IN POCKET | The Pretenders
Let’s talk about Chrissie Hynde for a moment. Actually, let’s talk about a song that has been rambling around in Frank’s brain for the last few days… The Pretenders’ BRASS IN POCKET. But let’s talk about Chrissie first.
Chrissie was born in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of a secretary and a Yellow Pages manager.
About her adolescence, she has explained, “I never went to a dance, I never went out on a date, I never went steady. It became pretty awful for me. Except, of course, I could go see bands, and that was the kick. So I was in love a lot of the time, but mostly with guys in bands that I had never met. For me, knowing that Brian Jones was out there, and later that Iggy Pop was out there, made it kind of hard for me to get too interested in the guys who were around me. I had bigger things in mind.”
Hynde would eventually land in England where through a series of life experiences — nearly marrying Sid Vicious for a work permit, acting as a shopgirl for Vivienne Westwood, being kicked out the first day of practice by The Damned, and almost forming a band with Mick Jones (of The Clash) — by 1978, she had formed her own group The Pretenders.
The first iteration of the band featured guitarist James Honeyman-Scott (died in 1982 from a drug overdose),bassist Pete Farndon (died in 1983 from a drug overdose), and drummer Martin Chambers. The Pretenders' lineup would change repeatedly over the next decade.
By 1979, with a demo tape and some touring under their belts, The Pretenders released their self-titled debut LP.
And that brings us to BRASS IN POCKET.
Originating as a guitar line Honeyman-Scott played for Chrissie, Hynde then recorded the part and wrote the song's lyrics. Musically, she has described "BRASS IN POCKET" as "trying to be a Motown song, but it didn't quite get it.”
The lyrics notably mix both British and American slang of the time. Referring to copper coins, ”Brass" is a Northern English expression for money. The term "Detroit leaning" refers to a posture when driving a car.
Conceptually, the lyrics—which are the part of this song that continues to bounce around Frank’s brain—have been explained by some critics to be about the cockiness that one needs to perform effectively.
Other writers have claimed the lyrics detail a female singer about to have her first sexual encounter with a particular person, expressing confidence that the experience will be successful. According to Ken Tucker, the song uses "an iron fist as a metaphor for her sexual clout." Simon Reynolds, Frank’s favorite rock writer, similarly describes Hynde's vocals as "pure sass,” noting that she "lingers languorously" over the phrase "I'm special.”
Hynde, herself, lands somewhere in between: “You're supposed to be kind of cocky and sure of yourself. You're not supposed to say, ‘I'm small and I have no confidence.’ Because you just can't do that. Probably you don't have much confidence, and you do think you're a little piece of shit, or else you wouldn't have gotten a rock band together in the first place.”
Either way, in 1979, this was a breath of fresh air. After years of female vocalists moaning over guys, the closest anyone came to being cocky was when Carly Simon commented on her boyfriend’s cockiness in YOU’RE SO VAIN. We’re not saying Chrissie kickstarted the Riot grrrl movement, but she wasn’t sitting still either.
As a matter of fact, Hynde was not happy with the song at first. As a new singer, it was hard for her to hear her voice on record. Fortunately for us, the song was released. And BRASS IN POCKET became the band's biggest hit to that point, reaching number one in the UK and number 14 in the United States. Its music video, which is bad in that classic early-music-video-trying-to-have-a-narrative way, was the seventh video aired on MTV on its launch on 1 August 1981.
It has been covered at least 16 times, including by Suede.
Thanks for stopping by. And be safe out there,
