Chrissie Hynde is one of my rock heroes. Just so badass as a rocker who happens to be a woman. And her voice, to me, is up there with Karen Carpenter’s: a rich alto that is so warm and full she could just hang back and sing crappy Natalie Merchant or Tracy Chapman songs and folks would dig it, but Chrissie is so much more expressive and provocative: not me baby, I’m too precious - fuck off!!
https://www.amazon.com/Reckless-My-Life-as-Pretender/dp/1101912235 why she didn’t incorporate the word Pretender into the title is beyond me. The Pretender. Pretending. My Life as a Pretender. They would have worked really well. Yes, she was Reckless, but c’mon!
This book came out a couple of years ago and I avoided it. She was such an icon to me*, and the reviews were not good - in general overall, but also very specifically because she describes a gang rape she experienced when she was 21 and reviewers said she was way to glib and self-blaming over what happened. She told them to fuck off, but I was worried that something about this important (to me) book was not going to be satisfying.
I finally read it. It was not what I expected, but was not disappointing. It is just that Chrissie found her own path through life - a hippie chick’s (her words) openness and anger at the system; a rocker’s love of sex and drugs; and a street-level punk mindset of figure it out yourself, and if you choose wrong, deal with it.
The plot twist that seems to inform the entire book but is never discussed is Chrissie’s specialness. She puts herself into SO MANY situations where she should have been raped or murdered - walking up to random men for drugs, a place to crash or a good fuck. Or being approached by random men for the same things and just rolling with it. But it is like there is an elephant-sized Harry Potter in the room - she doesn’t ever fully acknowledge her sheer physical beauty, her uniquely-gifted singing voice and how her self-possessed confrontational cool style gave her a Get-Back Stare that worked. She ended up in situations and talking with people based on her immersion in the scene, looks and coolness that Muggles like me, or even other cool rocker chicks, couldn’t even dream of.
Her voice - she only discusses how a singer has to find their voice. She says repeatedly that she “didn’t know if she could sing or not” - excuse me?
She discusses many hard, bad situations with a flat affect - the gang rape, the deaths of James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon (she mourns deeply for JHS’s musicianship, and for the fucked-up nature of her relationship with Farndon). The stupid violence of Sid and Nancy and Johnny and Rat Scabies. How she fought terribly with Ray Davies. But she does so in her own way - with her badass Chrissie Hynde “own your own shit” mindset. It sure kept her going through so much, but just reading it in a memoir can be a smack of realization - wow, she really is like this.
It only goes up to the deaths of JHS and PF, she barely mentions later bandmates, doesn’t discuss her work with the Big Country rhythm section (My City Was Gone) and doesn’t mention Jim Kerr her other marriage at all. The bottom line is that this is her coming of age story – she wanted a Bohemian life style, taking in Life with both hands and huge mouthfuls, and was naive and innocent enough as a midwestern hippie chick to bluff her way into and out of situations without fully understanding the risks. And when the risks sometimes played out, well, that was her own innocence and stupidity. But ultimately, she made it and has endured.
That’s Chrissie Hynde, alright.
Anyone else read it?
*quick story: in HS, I listened to bands that included people like Ted Nugent. Sigh. Anyway, I also reviewed records for the school newspaper. I got The Pretenders, listened to it, and reviewed it at 2 stars our of 4. I got to college a year or so later and was subjected SO MUCH better, different music. I remember putting The Pretenders back on, being blown away, and wearing the grooves out of that album. What the fuck was I thinking?!? That two-star rating is the most embarrassing miss for me when I smile about it now.
As rock memoirs go, I’d put it in the top five, for sure. I think I would only rank Keith Richard’s and Andy Summers’ higher.
she did include it, right after Reckless
yeah, it’s there. I just wish it was the main title.
(And, for me, it’s a big PLUS she didn’t use some Pretender reference in the main title of her work.)