Chrissie Hynde, for nearly four decades the singer/songwriter/ undisputed leader of the Pretenders, is a justly legendary figure.
Few other rock stars have managed to combine her swagger, sexiness, stage presence, knack for putting words to music, gorgeous voice and just all-around kick-assedness into such a potent and alluring package. From “Tatooed Love Boys” and “Brass in Pocket” to “Talk of the Town” and “Back on the Chain Gang,” her signature songs project a unique mixture of toughness and vulnerability that millions of men and women have related to. A kind of one- woman secret tunnel linking punk and new wave to classic guitar rock, she is one of the great luminaries in rock history.
Now, in her no-holds-barred memoir Reckless, Chrissie Hynde tells, with all the fearless candor, sharp humor and depth of feeling we’ve come to expect, exactly where she came from and what her crooked, winding path to stardom entailed. Her All-American upbringing in Akron, Ohio, a child of postwar power and prosperity. Her soul capture, along with tens of millions of her generation, by the gods of sixties rock who came through Cleveland—Mitch Ryder, David Bowie, Jeff Back, Paul Butterfield and Iggy Pop among them. Her shocked witness in 1970 to the horrific shooting of student antiwar protestors at Kent State. Her weakness for the sorts of men she calls “the heavy bikers” and “the get-down boys.” Her flight from Ohio to London in 1973 essentially to escape the former and pursue the latter. Her scuffling years as a brash reviewer for New Musical Express, shop girl at the Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood boutique 'Craft Must Wear Clothes But The Truth Loves To Go Naked', first-hand witness to the birth of the punk movement, and serial band aspirant. And then ,at almost the last possible moment, her meeting of the three musicians who comprised the original line-up of The Pretenders, their work on the indelible first album “The Pretenders,” and the rocket ride to “Instant” stardom, with all the disorientation and hazards that involved. The it all comes crashing back down to earth with the deaths of lead guitarist James Honeyman Scott and bassist Peter Farndon, leaving her bruised and saddened, but far from beaten. Because Chrissie Hynde is, among other things, one of rock’s great survivors.
We are lucky to be living in a golden age of great rock memoirs. In the aptly titled Reckless, Chrissie Hynde has given us one of the very best we have. Her mesmerizing presence radiates from every line and page of this book.
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 8, 2015 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780385540629
- File size: 30571 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780385540629
- File size: 30865 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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September 7, 2015
For music fans, Hynde's autobiography has been a long-anticipated event. It's here at last, but unfortunately it's not quite worth the wait. The founder, guitarist, and lead singer and songwriter of the Pretenders, Hynde is rock royalty. In 1980, the band's eponymous debut album topped the charts, and Hynde's ascent from London's late-'70s punk scene to pop stardom became the stuff of legend. But the book meanders too slowly toward that legend. Hynde earnestly recalls her middle-class upbringing in Akron, Ohio, and how the alienation of suburban Midwestern life pushed her toward drugs, sex, bikers, and rock music (Iggy Pop especially). It also led to some terrible experiences (she was sexually assaulted by a biker gang while a student at Kent State, and her comments on it have drawn recent criticism in the media). Ultimately, Hynde fled for London, where she soon found herself writing reviews for the British magazine NME (New Music Express) and in the middle of a scene that included the Clash, the Sex Pistols, and Malcolm MacLaren. But her emergence in London doesn't come until almost 200 pages into the book. And, remarkably, the Pretenders don't take the stage until about 60 pages from book's end. Hynde writes briefly of the fatigue that quickly settled in--the infighting, the drugs and exhaustion, how "fissures had become cracks," and how, after just two albums, the band "just wanted it to be over." There are virtually no details about Hynde's relationship with the Kinks' Ray Davies (with whom she has a daughter) and her later life. Hynde's fans will recognize her lyrical voice in the writing, but will surely be disappointed with the lack of details about her life as a Pretender and beyond. Not unlike the original lineup of the Pretenders, Hynde’s autobiography flames out just when it gets interesting. -
April 15, 2015
The guiding light of the Pretenders says, "I'm approaching writing this memoir much the same way as I would an album. I hope it makes you want to dance, have fun, dig out some old records and maybe even root through your closet and dust off your guitar. If it makes you cry I can only say, in the words of Willie Nelson, 'YOU were always on my mind.'"
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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November 2, 1992
Coyote, the trickster of Native American legend, gets his comeuppance in this strikingly illustrated and humorous morality tale. Coyote, or Ma'ii, visits his cousin Horned Toad and decides to take advantage of his hospitality. Stuffed with roast corn and squash stew, Coyote is too lazy to help tend the crops but wants the farm anyway. He tricks his cousin into climbing into his mouth, then swallows him. Horned Toad, however, swiftly proves that he who tricks last, tricks best. Begay (illustrator of The Mud Pony ) seasons his forceful language with spontaneous songs and Navajo phrases. Faintly drawn lines pull the eye to the focal points of his boldly colored, dynamic full-spread illustrations, which, like the text, pay equal tribute to the charming rogue Coyote and his earnest but resourceful cousin. Ages 4-7.
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