Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Top of the List for Being Over the Top

Song 204: Today's addition to the playlist is Precious by The Pretenders, written by Chrissie Hynde. I first heard The Pretenders while riding in a car with my friend Eddie Spitzer, on our way going to or coming from one of our flea market selling adventures. Eddie knew the song Brass in Pocket well enough to sing along, and he was amused that I hadn't heard the track before. Over the next few months, I heard a few other cuts from that first album, and I liked them all, particularly for the over the top quality of Chrissie Hynde's persona that came through in the lyrics. Then I heard this song, and it instantly became my favorite Pretenders track, also instantly topping my list for over the top lyrics. Three and a half decades later, it's still at the top of that list, with those lines about shittin' bricks and not me, baby, I'm too precious, fuck off! Add that last line to the previous 2, which are Now Howard the Duck and Mr. Stress both stayed / trapped in a world that they never made, and you have the perfect distillation of the rock-and-roll attitude -- I doubt I could find a better one among the thousands of LPs, CDs and cassettes in my collection.

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