The reckless life of Chrissie Hynde
«Reckless». This is the adjective that Chrissie Hynde chose to introduce herself, when in 2015 she took pen and paper – so to speak – and told her life story in her autobiography “Reckless: My life as a Pretender“. At the time she was 64 years old, today she is 74 but remains a beacon of authenticity, strength and rebellion. When last December the Pretenders frontwoman performed at the Roundhouse in London on the occasion of the tribute concert to Mark Lanegan, the Times wrote that «His voice would now deserve the status of a UNESCO world heritage site». In “Duets special”, his new album, out this Friday, that voice duets with those of friends and colleagues such as Brandon Flowers of the Killers, Debbie Harry of the Blondies and Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode. And then Shirley Manson of Garbage, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, Alan Sparhawk.
The idea of the covers album
Together with them Hynde pays homage to myths such as Elvis Presley (together with Rufus Wainwright he re-read “Always on my mind”), Morrissey, Brenda Holloway. With Julian Lennon he re-recorded “It’s only love” by the Beatles, with Kd Lang “Me & Mrs. Jones” by Billy Paul. «I had never thought about making a duet album before. I think the idea came about in 2023. I was talking on the phone to Jörn, Rufus Wainwright’s husband. I think we were recommending novels to each other, and for some reason I said, “Hey, maybe Rufus and I should do something together,” and I quickly jotted down 10 songs that came to mind. Jörn asked Rufus, who was enthusiastic, and that’s how it all started: something spontaneous and which I thought would be fun”, says she, who since the 70s it has managed to keep its identity intact through decades of musical changes.
From industrial America to punk London
Raised in the industrial and disillusioned America of the ’50s and ’60s, in her 2015 autobiography she also recounted the sexual harassment she suffered from members of the motorcycle gangs of Akron, Ohio, the city where she was born, among generational fractures (with the father, who listened to Bob Dylan and said of his daughter, contemptuously: «Chrissie can’t even sing») and ideological conflicts. One of the first rock bands Chrissie Hynde saw live were Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, at a fair in her native Akron, “maybe in 1965 or maybe ’66.” The future founder of the Pretenders was 14 years old, the groups played in the afternoon and she remembers being enchanted by Ryder’s voice (who would later inspire the young Bruce Springsteen) and Jimmy McCarty’s guitar solos. The set, however, came to an abrupt end when a fight broke out on stage between the Detroit Wheels: a fistfight broke out and the equipment was destroyed. «It was the most exciting thing I had ever seen in my life. So I begged my friends to stay for the evening show. Halfway through the show there was the exact same fight. I thought, “Now this is life!”», he would recall decades later in an interview with the Guardian. In London in the 1970s he directly witnessed the explosion of punk, at the hands of Sex Pistols and gods Clash. But while others screamed anger and sowed destruction, she built. In 1978 he founded i Pretendersimmediately establishing itself as a woman who, in a world dominated by men, won approval with her art.
A model
The turning point came in 1979, when the single “Brass in pocket“, the third released by the Pretenders, reached number one in the UK charts and was followed by the album of the same name. Tenacity (she survived tragedies such as the overdose deaths of two members of the group, James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon, rebuilding the band) and courage made her a symbolic figure of female freedom in rock, allowing her to pave the way for generations of female artists: «I loved Hynde when I was a troubled, bullied teenager in Scotland» he says Shirley Manson of Garbage. Incredible but true, “Duets special” is only the fourth solo album in almost fifty years of career for Chrissie Hynde, whose debut without the Pretenders, “Stockholm”, dates back to 2014: «For 35 years I said: “I’ll never be a soloist”. But after a while all the things you never wanted to do eventually become the only things you haven’t done. Then they start to seem quite interesting.”
