Musical interlude

February 25, 2014 • 8:44 am

Here’s The Pretenders’ best song (and one of my favorite rockers), “Don’t get me wrong” with the inimitable Chrissie Hynde, who wrote the whole thing. I love the largely monotonic background (or whatever it’s called; I’m sure some music buff will explain). The song’s origin is explained by Hynde on Wikipedia:

Hynde stated in the VH1 Story Tellers series that she got the inspiration for the chorus’ melody while on a British Airways flight. The airline’s distinct “tone” jingle, which was played at certain times in the flight (for announcements from the pilot, seatbelt attention, etc.) had the same series of tones/notes as the chorus: DON’T- GET- ME- WRONG.

Here’s the song performed live in Sydney.

Also, listen for this (my emphasis):

The song features a jangly guitar sound and an emphasis on melody. Hynde’s lyrics contain literary and scientific references in addition to the more relationship-based subject matter typical for pop music.

43 thoughts on “Musical interlude”

  3. “Brass in Pocket” By the way, I like Chrissie Hynde, but I always found it troubling that after the deaths of James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon she kicks out the only remaining member Martin Chambers. She supposedly said “he wasn’t drumming well.” And then later she rehires him because she couldn’t find a replacement to get “his” sound!

        1. Yes! It has all the elements of the perfect pop song – trebly guitars, nice bass line. And the lyrics are bittersweet with a nostalgic “middle eight”. I especially like the second verse, with the imagery of the pigeon from hell and the descending flies:

          A circumstance beyond our control, oh
          The phone, the tv and the News of the World
          Got in the house like a pigeon from hell, oh
          Threw sand in our eyes and descended like flies
          Put us back on the train
          Oh, back on the chain gang

          The News of the World is now a defunct tabloid in the UK?

  4. Gorgeous metaphors. A lot of depth and layers to Chrissie Hynde. She’s a subtle but strong force. Quite brilliant.

  5. I love The Pretenders. Makes me a little ill to hear one of their songs being used as the bump for Rush Limbaugh.

    2. I was on a nostalgic Pretenders high and then saw this about Rush, what nerve. Just wrong. Riffs are returning now, soaring out of that momentary low. Brilliant wins in the end.

        1. The article says that’s for the song “My City Was Gone.” Doesn’t Limbaugh also use the music for “Don’t Get Me Wrong”?

    3. According to wiki she stopped her record company from suing because her parents like RL. I guess you could call that tolerance.

      And if it helps, she let an anti-whaling campaign in Australia in the 1980s use “I’ll Stand by You” to promote their cause.

  6. Hynde lyrics are great. My favourite is Middle of the Road I especially like how Hynde integrates the harmonica.

    1. Mine too. Though many of their songs are fantastic and still competitive, in the sense that one’s time for listening to music becomes less as life moves on so only the great ones last. Likewise, there is a ton of music to listen to nowadays.

  7. I too like the fast but monotonic music, but I have never noticed the hip science references before. I think i need to procure a collection of The Pretenders music in my library.

  10. Also, too, the best The Avengers themed video.

    PCC has a point, though for me too many of her songs are too good for me to say any one is “best” – generally I prefer melancholy songs about love lost through misdeeds, being trapped by circumstances, losing out to smooth-talking philanderers, etc (why,yes, I am a big Elvis Costello fan, why do you ask?)

    Pretenders-wise, right up there for me is 2000 Miles, which I keep on my Xmukkah carol playlist.

    1. “… generally I prefer melancholy songs about love lost through misdeeds, being trapped by circumstances, losing out to smooth-talking philanderers, etc …”

      Oh, same here. Conversely I’m totally annoyed by “perfect love”/”our love will last forever” type songs–I just immediately think, “bullshit.”

  11. Hynde’s best song is “I’ll Stand By You”* (ducks and runs out before everyone throws something at him.)

    *Seriously though, DGMW is probably my favorite. It has that chord pattern that I love that is in so many great songs. And it showcases the lovely side of Hynde’s vocal style.

  12. Dear Prof. CC,

    There is a guitar pattern that is pretty uniform throughout, mostly on one note, and also plucky and infectiously appealing. I’m guessing you are responding to that. The official musical term for a repeating musical pattern of pitches, rhythms, or a combination of both, is ostinato. I would call the guitar pattern in the song an ostinato.

    If you have time, you can hear the ostinato pattern slightly more clearly on this live video (add this suffix to the youtube dot com URL: /watch?v=15WH9cUvIq4). Unfortunately the video is faded out before the performance is over!

    Thanks for introducing me to The Pretenders. I like them!

    1. Never heard of The Pretenders?? Holy christ. If you like ostinato there is also Radiohead (modern) and Tool (alternative) and RATM (heavy). Go backwards and you will find Steve Reich…the man who invented ostinato, but what most know only through Philip Glass.

      1. Heh–Steve Reich hardly invented ostinato! It’s been a staple of non-Western music for thousands of years. Early European examples included the Romanesca ground bass and of course the ubiquitous Kanon of Pachelbel. In the 20th century, Bartok made heavy use of it in his music. Guys like Reich and Glass made it the kernel of their compositions, however.

        1. Right you are. And Bartok…one of my favorites. I had snooty friends who would not let Bartok be in their ‘great three’: Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. Well, their loss.

          1. I had the thought after I wrote the above that Schoenberg in reference to his atonality (a term he did not like) that led to his development of a 12-tone system that he had “emancipated the dissonance,” meaning that dissonances were no longer required to be prepared and resolved into consonance.

            It struck me that in a way, Reich, Glass, and others “emancipated” the ostinato. That is, they freed it from its role of supplying a prmitive underpinning of structure and allowed it to become a living, evolving entity. Kind of like the Pygmalion myth.

          2. Also, the “Vienna Three” had no use whatever for ostinato. I can’t think of a single work of theirs that uses it. (It’s possible that there is something in Wozzeck that uses it–it’s been a long time since I studied the piece.)

      2. Oh, there’s lots of singers and groups I’ve not paid any attention to over the years. I am constantly learning this as I talk to others. I grew up with the birth years of rock and roll. By the time the Beatles became world-famous, though, I had pretty much given up listening to popular music. (I am a classically trained violinist who majored in music.) Except for some folkies like Simon and Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell, and a little Bob Dylan, I did not keep up with the trends in popular styles until 1980, when I found it necessary to go back and learn about what I missed, because my job required me to teach music appreciation classes. What I found amazed me, and I learned to love much of the music that I had ignored for years. But there are so many artists out there now I can’t really keep track of them all.

        I console myself with the fact that I have a friend who didn’t know who Michael Jordan was until I told him!

        1. Impressive. I console myself by not knowing the names of any US senator, but I could name every scientist who attended the 1927 Solvay Conference…priorities, you know.

  13. Great live clip. They put on a good show. I remember seeing Iggy Pop open for them back in Chicago in 1985. Loads of fun. Hynde came out and kissed the stage, which seemed appropriate.

  14. Here’s one of my favorites. If all theology was like this the world would be a better place. With a nod to Dylan, it’s called Boots of Chinese Plastic.

    (Lyricshere.)

    Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Buddha, please
    Can you help a little peasant that’s begging on her knees
    Illusion fills my head like an empty can
    Spent a million lifetimes loving the same man

    Every drop that run through the vein
    Always makes it’s way back to the heart again
    And by the way you look fantastic
    In your boots of Chinese plastic

  17. We saw The Pretenders at The Warehouse in Tarana, Halloween ’96.

    Ms. Hynde verbally slapped out some idjit in the festive crowd & got him booted. It was a thing of beauty. “No one is here to listen to you!”

    And then they carried on…

  18. Unquestionably a great performer and stage presence. I am fortunate in that I saw the original line-up back in the day and saw her again at a festival in Germany featuring, of all groups, The Kinks. Ray came out for Stop your Sobbing, which was as expected a great time.

    And if I may professor Ceiling Cat inject with my re-found 1980’s stage diva – Nena! Yeah, 99 Luftballons (which is an anti-war tune on par with Blowing in the Wind) is what everyone knows but her best song is Fragezeichen followed very closely by Der Anfang. She is a grandmother during the day, and a rock diva at night.

  19. The Pretenders’ 4-CD compilation, “Pirate Radio,” in addition to so many of the great original songs listed above, also has a number of remarkable covers: “Creep,” “Not a Second Time,” “Needle and the Damage Done,” and “Windows of the World,” to name a few. Check these out!

  20. “Hymn to Her” is my pick. Has a really intriguing tune to it. And very enigmatic words.

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