The Pretenders - VH-1 Storytellers, VH-1 Storytellers Studio, New York City, 6-26-1999

Here's another album from the "Storytellers" TV show. This time, it's the Pretenders.

In 1999, the Pretenders released a new studio album called "Viva El Amor." As part of their tour to support the album, they did a turn on this TV show. However, only two of the songs performed actually come from the album: "Popstar" and "Biker." The rest are classics from earlier albums.

Chrissie Hynde, the band's lead singer and main songwriter, usually has little to no banter between songs in her concerts. But she was quite talkative here, sharing interesting stories. Martin Chambers, the band's founding drummer, also talked some.

All the music on this album is unreleased, except for "Back on the Chain Gang," which made it onto a Storytellers various artists collection.

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 Talk of the Town (Pretenders)
02 talk (Pretenders)
03 Kid (Pretenders)
04 talk (Pretenders)
05 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)
06 talk (Pretenders)
07 The Phone Call (Pretenders)
08 Back on the Chain Gang (Pretenders)
09 talk (Pretenders)
10 Don't Get Me Wrong (Pretenders)
11 talk (Pretenders)
12 The Adultress (Pretenders)
13 talk (Pretenders)
14 My City Was Gone (Pretenders)
15 talk (Pretenders)
16 Popstar (Pretenders)
17 talk (Pretenders)
18 Biker (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17053527/TPRETNDRS1999StrytllrsStrytllrsStdoNwYrkC__6-26-1999_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/uQXnXnAL

I couldn't find a good photo from this exact concert. So instead I went with a photo of lead singer Chrissie Hynde at a memorial concert for Paul McCartney's wife, Linda McCartney, in the same year.

US Festival '83, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 5-30-1983 - Day 3, Part 6: The Pretenders

The sixth act from Day Three (Rock Day) of the 1983 US Festival is the Pretenders.

At the time of this festival, the Pretenders were undergoing some changes. They'd released two very successful albums, "Pretenders" in 1980 and "Pretenders II" in 1981. But in 1982, bassist Pete Farndon was fired from the band due to his excessive drug use. He died of a heroin overdose in April 1983, a month prior to this festival. Also in 1982, shortly after Farndon was fired, lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died of heart failure related to taking too much cocaine.

Later in 1982, the Pretenders released a single of the song "Back on the Chain Gang," backed with "My City Was Gone." Both became classics, and the single reached Number Five on the U.S. charts, the band's biggest success in the U.S. so far. But the band took a long time finishing their third album, "Learning to Crawl." It wouldn't be released until January 1984.

Although "Learning to Crawl" wasn't released yet, the band played four songs from it in this set: the previously mentioned "Back on the Chain Gang" and "My City Was Gone," plus "Middle of the Road" and "Time the Avenger." Most of the rest of the songs were from the band's first two albums. 

However, the set concluded with a cover of the classic Motown song "Money (That's What I Want)." This was done as kind of a jokey reference to all of the intrigues in the news about the big payments some acts were getting for taking part in the festival, including the bickering between bands like the Clash and Van Halen. Lead singer Chrissie Hynde introduced the song by saying, "I'd like to do this song especially for all the bands who played at the US Festival. And especially all the ones who didn't because they weren't getting paid enough."

This album is sourced from a soundboard worthy bootleg, and it is the complete set. I believe all the performances on it are unreleased with the exception of "Money." That was included as a bonus track on a "Learning to Crawl" release. I also was growing up in Southern California at the time. I didn't get to see the festival, but I remember this version of "Money" got played on the radio a lot at the time, even though it apparently never got an official release until much later.

This album is an hour and seven minutes long.

060 My City Was Gone (Pretenders)
061 Message of Love (Pretenders)
062 The Adultress (Pretenders)
063 Talk of the Town (Pretenders)
064 talk (Pretenders)
065 Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
066 Private Life (Pretenders)
067 Time the Avenger (Pretenders)
068 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)
069 The Wait (Pretenders)
070 talk (Pretenders)
071 Middle of the Road (Pretenders)
072 Up the Neck (Pretenders)
073 Precious (Pretenders)
074 talk (Pretenders)
075 Back on the Chain Gang (Pretenders)
076 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
077 Money [That's What I Want] (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17039576/VA-1983USFstvlDay0306Prtndrs_atse.zip.html

alternate link:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/FzL72FUP

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Heatwave Festival, Mosport Park, Bowmanville, Canada, 8-23-1980, Part 3: The Pretenders

Next up for the 1980 Heatwave Festival is a set by the Pretenders.

At the time of this concert, the Pretenders had released their first album in 1979, simply titled "Pretenders," but were still a year away from releasing their second album, "Pretenders II." So most of the songs were from their first album, but two of the songs, "The Adultress" and "Louie Louie," were from the coming second album. Additionally, "Porcelain" only came out as a B-side and on an EP.

There has never been an officially released live album from the early years of the Pretenders, although a full 1981 concert has been released as bonus tracks for the deluxe edition of "Pretenders II."

The sound quality is excellent, since the festival was professionally recorded, even though it's all officially unreleased. There were no problems.

This album is 56 minutes long.

044 talk (Pretenders)
045 Precious (Pretenders)
046 The Adultress (Pretenders)
047 Kid (Pretenders)
048 Space Invader [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
049 talk (Pretenders)
050 Private Life (Pretenders)
051 talk (Pretenders)
052 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
053 Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
054 talk (Pretenders)
055 The Wait (Pretenders)
056 Louie Louie (Pretenders)
057 Porcelain (Pretenders)
058 Tattooed Love Boys (Pretenders)
059 Up the Neck (Pretenders)
060 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17315601/VA-HtwveFstivlMsprtPrkBwmnvlleCnda__8-23-1980_03Prtndrs.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CQwgZcVc

The cover photo of Chrissie Hynde is from this exact concert.

Live Aid - JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, PA, 7-13-1985, Part 3: George Thorogood & the Destroyers, Simple Minds, the Pretenders, & Santana with Pat Metheny

This is Part 3 of the Philadelphia portion of the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert. As I've explained elsewhere, I'm posting the London portion separately after I finish with Philadelphia.

In retrospect, I'm disappointed about all the musical acts that didn't get to play Live Aid, given how many were very eager to do so. But at least some more got represented by guesting for some of the acts. For instance, George Thorogood had Bo Diddley guest for one song in his set, and Albert Collins guested for another song. I'm sure neither of those acts would have been considered popular enough to appear otherwise.

There was a big problem with the Simple Minds set. Everything was fine until the last song, "Promised You a Miracle." Halfway through the song, the video cut out completely. Apparently, it couldn't be recovered, since none of the concert was professionally recorded (because some acts worried they would be pushed into taking part in an official album eventually). So when the video feed was cut (along with an audio feed for radio stations), all the music was lost, apparently permanently. However, I did my best to fix this problem. I found a live version of the song from 1986 with similar sound quality, and used that to finish it off. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in the title.

Actually, I could have put "[Edit]" in the titles of many other songs, for this part and the others. In addition to fixing the mixes for all the songs using UVR5, I patched in missing chunks of applause for many of the songs. But I only saved mentioning "[Edit]" in more drastic cases.

Anyway, there's not much to say about the Pretenders set. Although I am surprised that there was no collaboration between Jim Kerr, lead singer of Simple Minds, and Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of the Pretenders, considering the sets of their bands played back to back and the two lead singers got married in 1984. (They would divorce in 1990.)

The last act on this album was Santana. I find it rather odd that they generally played recent album cuts instead of classic hits, but oh well. Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny guested on the last two songs.

This album is an hour and ten minutes long.

054 Who Do You Love (George Thorogood & the Destroyers with Bo Diddley)
055 talk (George Thorogood & the Destroyers)
056 The Sky Is Crying (George Thorogood & the Destroyers)
057 Madison Blues (George Thorogood & the Destroyers with Albert Collins)
058 talk (Joe Piscopo)
059 Ghost Dancing (Simple Minds)
060 talk (Simple Minds)
061 Don't You [Forget about Me] (Simple Minds)
062 Promised You a Miracle [Edit] (Simple Minds)
063 Time, the Avenger (Pretenders)
064 Message of Love (Pretenders)
065 Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
066 Back on the Chain Gang (Pretenders)
067 Middle of the Road (Pretenders)
068 talk (Bill Graham)
069 Brotherhood (Santana)
070 Primera Invasion [Instrumental] (Santana)
071 Open Invitation (Santana)
072 talk (Santana)
073 By the Pool [Instrumental] (Santana with Pat Metheny)
074 Right Now (Santana with Pat Metheny)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15699706/LveAidJFKStdiumPhladlphiaPA__7-13-1985_Part3.zip.html

As with Part 2, I've divided the cover art so I could post four photos, all from Live Aid. That's George Thorogood on the top left, Jim Kerr of Simple Minds on the top right, Chrisse Hynde of the Pretenders on the bottom left, and Carlos Santana of Santana on the bottom right.

Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, Hammersmith Odeon, London, Britain, 12-26-1979 to 12-29-1979: Day 3: The Pretenders, the Specials & the Who

Here's Part Three of the four-part Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. It has the highlights from the third night. Just like Part Two, there were three big music acts. This time, it was the Pretenders, the Specials, and the Who.

If you want to know more about these concerts in general, check out my write-up for Part One. The track numbering here begins with track 47 in case you want to put all four parts in one folder. If you do, you'll have a mega-concert nearly five hours long.

As I mentioned previously, there was an official double album released of these concerts, but it is long out of print. Three songs by the Pretenders, one song by the Specials, and four songs by the Who come from that. In addition, a bootleg of outtakes from the official album was made public eventually. The rest of the Pretenders and Specials songs come from that, as well as some of the Who songs. 

But on top of all that, I found a bootleg of the entire set by the Who. However, I've only included some of the songs from that, for a couple of reasons. One reason is that while the sound quality is very good, it's not quite as good as the songs from the other sources. 

The other reason is that it was an off night for the Who. Lead guitarist (and occasional lead singer) Pete Townshend was going through a phase where he was going overboard with drugs and especially alcohol. It was very obvious to concert goers that he was very drunk during this concert. He danced around much more than usual, but sometimes flubbed his guitar or vocal parts. He also gave a kind of political speech during the "Dancing in the Street - Dance It Away" medley. It was meant to support the goals of the benefit concert, but it was done in a sarcastic style that could have been easily misunderstood.

Because of all that, I tried to only pick the Who songs that sounded the best and didn't have obvious flubs. 

I would have liked to have more songs by the Pretenders and the Specials, but I think there's just enough for both acts to put up a good showing. But for all three acts, there were many more songs played that what's included here. I'm sure about the song order for the Who set, but the songs might be a bit mixed up for the other two acts, I'm not sure. Also, I'm guessing some of the banter between songs is missing. But since I've heard the full Who set, I know there was no banter before the starts of any of their songs.

This album is an hour and 33 minutes long.

47 The Wait (Pretenders)
48 Precious (Pretenders)
49 Tattooed Love Boys (Pretenders)
50 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
51 Private Life (Pretenders)
52 Monkey Man (Specials)
53 talk (Specials)
54 It Doesn't Make It Alright (Specials)
55 Stupid Marriage (Specials)
56 talk (Specials)
57 Too Much, Too Young (Specials)
58 Baba O'Riley (Who)
59 Sister Disco (Who)
60 Behind Blue Eyes (Who)
61 Who Are You (Who)
62 See Me, Feel Me (Who)
63 I Can See for Miles (Who)
64 Won't Get Fooled Again (Who)
65 Summertime Blues (Who)
66 Dancing in the Street - Dance It Away (Who)
67 The Real Me (Who)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/mqTe6o6o

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/mlzNvPL6h789zg0/file

second alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/DZ7ETVr3I2XqGoN/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. Pete Townshend is closest to the camera. Roger Daltrey is in the middle ground, and John Entwistle is farthest away. I sharpened the picture using Krea AI, and made some additional changes in Photoshop.

Chrissie Hynde - Later Tonight - Non-Album Tracks (2009-2014)

My long series of Pretenders stray tracks albums continues here. However, this is so dominated in the credits by Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer and songwriter of the Pretenders, that I'm billing it as a Chrissie Hynde album. Only two songs have the Pretenders in the credits, and even those are duets.

The Pretenders put out an album in 2008, "Breaking Up the Concrete." They didn't put out another one until 2016, "Alone," nearly a decade later. The Pretenders had basically been Hynde plus a changing cast of backing musicians for a long time prior to this era. But I guess she figured putting the band name on an album meant that a certain style was expected.

In this time period, she increasingly moved away from that style. In 2010, she created a band with her boyfriend at the time, called "JP, Chrissie & The Fairground Boys," and put out an album called "Fidelity." Then, in 2014, she released her first true solo album, "Stockholm."

But on top of that she was doing other musical projects that often further expanded her musical range. For instance, she'd gotten into Brazilian bossa nova music in a big way back in 2004, even living in Brazil for a while. That interest continues on a couple of songs here. She also sang some in French!

Six of the 12 songs here are officially released. They generally come from various artists compilations. For instance, her version of "Let It Be" appeared on a tribute album to Paul McCartney. The unreleased songs are tracks 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, and 12. "This Kiss" and "Cry" come from an episode of the TV show "CMT Crossroads" in which she collaborated with country star Faith Hill. The others are cover songs done in concert. "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" was by Moby Grape, "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones, and "Vocal" and "Later Tonight" by the Pet Shop Boys.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Postcard from London (Ray Davies & Chrissie Hynde)
02 Murder in My Heart for the Judge (JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys)
03 This Kiss (Pretenders & Faith Hill)
04 Cry (Pretenders & Faith Hill)
05 Un Garcon Qui Pleure (Benjamin Schoos, Marie France & Chrissie Hynde)
06 The Empty Boat (Chrissie Hynde, Moreno, Kassin & Domenico)
07 Laisse-moi t'Aimer - We'll Be Together (Michel Berube & Chrissie Hynde)
08 Rodeo (Paul Allen & the Underthinkers with Chrissie Hynde)
09 Under My Thumb (Ingrid & Chrissie Hynde)
10 Let It Be (Chrissie Hynde)
11 Vocal (Chrissie Hynde)
12 Later Tonight (Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700859/TPRETNDRS2009-2014_LatrTonght_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a private dinner event in 2014. Hynde was sitting next to supermodel Cindy Crawford, but unfortunately I felt obliged to crop her out.

The Pretenders - Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL, 9-8-1980

This week as I write this (in November 2021), 40th anniversary deluxe editions of the Pretenders' first two classic albums ("Pretenders I" and "Pretenders II") were released. I think those releases had a lot of good things included, but when it comes to live material from 1980, they didn't do the best job. They included a 50-minute-long concert from Boston, and 24 minutes of another concert from New York City. Both of those shows sound just fine, but they largely have the same songs.

Personally, I prefer this concert from Chicago. It was professionally recorded so it could be played live on the radio. As a result, it sounds every bit as good as those two shows included on those recent releases, but it's significantly longer, at an hour and 13 minutes. As result, it includes more of the lesser known songs of that time period, instead of just the expected hits. 

I like everything Chrissie Hynde has done, with or without the Pretenders, all the way to the present day. That said, there was something special about their music from their first few years. In my opinion, virtually every song from their first three albums is a classic, and even some of the non-album tracks are great. The original members of the Pretenders had a special chemistry, so if you want to hear this band live, it's hard to beat this concert.

Although this is a bootleg, there were virtually no problems with the recording. The only snag is that, since it was taken from a radio broadcast, DJs tried to talk everywhere they could. Happily, there was no talking over the music, but there was some during times of prolonged audience cheering. I removed all the DJ talk and made sure there was a decent amount of cheering whenever it was expected.

As an aside, I've just redone all the links for all the Pretenders / Chrisse Hynde albums I've posted so far. I did so to fix the volume balance between songs as well as changing how the mp3 tags are done. So if you care about that sort of thing, you might want to redownload them.

01 Precious (Pretenders)
02 The Adultress (Pretenders)
03 Kid (Pretenders)
04 Talk of the Town (Pretenders)
05 Space Invader (Pretenders)
06 Cuban Slide (Pretenders)
07 talk (Pretenders)
08 I Go to Sleep (Pretenders)
09 Private Life (Pretenders)
10 Brass in Pocket (Pretenders)
11 talk (Pretenders)
12 The Wait (Pretenders)
13 Stop Your Sobbing (Pretenders)
14 Louie Louie (Pretenders)
15 Porcelain (Pretenders)
16 Tattooed Love Boys (Pretenders)
17 talk (Pretenders)
18 Up the Neck (Pretenders)
19 Mystery Achievement (Pretenders)
20 Whatcha Gonna Do about It (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700856/TPRETNDRS1980_RvieraThetrChicgoIL__9-8-1980_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any great color photos of the band in concert from 1980. However, I did from one from 1981, a concert at the Lyceum in London, so I used that.

The Pretenders - Both Sides of Goodbye - Non-Album Tracks (2005-2008)

It's been a long time since I've posted the last Pretenders stray tracks album, so here's another one. Of course, by this time "the Pretenders" has basically become lead singer and songwriter Chrissie Hynde, plus whoever else she felt like playing with (though at least original drummer Martin Chambers was in the band during this time period). About half the songs here are credited to the Pretenders and the other half just to Hynde, but it doesn't really make a difference.

The Pretenders put out albums in 2002 and 2008. That was a fairly long time, but as you can see here, Hynde continued to put out songs during that time, with or without the Pretenders. Only three of the songs are officially unreleased: "Candy, "Only Happy When It Rains," and "Waterloo Sunset." Those three are taken from TV show broadcasts, not concert bootlegs, so their sound quality is very good. The rest of the songs come from a wide variety of sources, including singles, an EP, various artists compilations, and movie soundtracks.

This album is 42 minutes long.

Oh, by the way, the same day I posted this, I added three more songs to the Pretenders stray tracks album "Spiritual High." So you might want to check that out too. Here's the link:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-pretenders-spiritual-high-various.html

01 Lovesong (Chrissie Hynde)
02 Neither of Us Can See (Incubus & Chrissie Hynde)
03 Waterloo Sunset (Pretenders)
04 Don't Hang Up (Ringo Starr & Chrissie Hynde)
05 The Joker - Everything I Own (Jason Mraz & Chrissie Hynde)
06 Candy (Pretenders & Iggy Pop)
07 Only Happy When It Rains (Pretenders & Shirley Manson)
08 My Father (Chrissie Hynde)
09 Both Sides of Goodbye (Pretenders with Willie Nelson)
10 Blue Christmas (Pretenders)
11 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Pretenders)
12 Chicago (David Gilmour, Bob Geldof & Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700860/TPRETNDRS2005-2008_BothSdesGodbye_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo shows Chrissie Hynde at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in New York City where the Pretenders were inducted.

The Pretenders - In the Still of the Night - Non-Album Tracks (2003-2004)

Here's the next in a long series of stray tracks albums from the Pretenders. 

However, I should note this is really more of a Chrissie Hynde album. By this time the Pretenders had basically become Hynde plus a revolving group of supporting musicians. All but one of the songs here are credited to "Chrissie Hynde" with or without others instead of the "Pretenders" anyway. But I'll call this a Pretenders album to keep it consistent with all the other stray tracks album in this series.

The songs here are good, but stylistically, they're all over the map, from a cover of a 1930s ballad to a techno hit. By the way, speaking of that techno hit, "Straight Ahead," I'm not a big fan of it (or that style), but it was a hit and Hynde did sing parts of it, so I've included it. It's at the very end, so it's easy to leave off if you want to do that. I found an interesting acappella version that apparently was created by someone isolating just Hynde's vocal track, so I've included that as kind of an intro, or alternate.

During this time period, it seems Hynde took a prolonged break from the Pretenders. From early 2004 until early 2006, the Pretenders basically didn't play any concerts, and didn't release any new music. Instead, Hynde got very interested in Brazil and its music. She actually lived there for much of 2004. You can see this musical influence with some songs in the middle of this album, especially the two she did with Moreno Veloso (who is the son of the great Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso).

In terms of sound quality, five of the songs come from concert bootlegs. The sound quality of those isn't great, but it's plenty good. The rest are all officially released, from a wide variety of sources.

01 Something to Believe In (Pretenders)
02 Big Bad Cat (Bruce Willis & Chrissie Hynde)
03 In the Bleak Midwinter (Chrissie Hynde & the Blind Boys of Alabama)
04 Never Be Alone Again (Russell Crowe & the 30 Odd Foot of Grunts with Chrissie Hynde)
05 As Time Goes By (Rod Stewart & Chrissie Hynde)
06 Don't Let Me Down (Chrissie Hynde)
07 The Empty Boat (Chrissie Hynde)
08 Nenhuma (Chrissie Hynde & Moreno Veloso)
09 I Get Along without You Very Well (Chrissie Hynde & Moreno Veloso)
10 Cry [If You Don't Mind] (Jarabe De Palo with Chrissie Hynde)
11 In the Still of the Night (Chrissie Hynde)
12 Straight Ahead [Acapella Version] (Chrissie Hynde)
13 Straight Ahead (Tube & Berger with Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700861/TPRETNDRS2003-2004_InStllofNght_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from a Pretenders concert in Dublin, Ireland, in 2003.

Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne - Dylan Lockdown (2020)

UPDATE: The link for this album has been removed, because all the songs here, plus one more, has been officially released as the album "Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan."

 

So what has Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders been up to since the coronavirus lockdown began? She's made a couple of recorded appearances, but they've been short and unremarkable. But she's taken a different approach: together with Jame Walbourne, who has been lead guitarist for the Pretenders since 2008, she's done a series of Bob Dylan covers. Instead of the common acoustic approach during the lockdown, she's worked up full band versions of each song, then released then on the Internet once a week.

Her Dylan versions are excellent. What I particularly like is that she's generally selected less covered songs, including a couple of downright obscure ones. She also picked some of my all-time Dylan favorites, especially "Blind Willie McTell." There are only eight songs, but it totals up to 46 minutes, which is an ideal album length.

I've been collecting her Dylan songs each week. I was going to wait longer before posting, because I didn't know how many covers she'd do. But with this week's song, she mentioned it was the last song of the Dylan series.

If you're at all a Chrissie Hynde/Pretenders fan, or a Bob Dylan fan, you should give this a listen. Lots of artists have officially released albums consisting entirely of Dylan covers. For whatever reason, Hynde decided to release this de facto new studio album on the Internet for free.

01 In the Summertime (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
02 You're a Big Girl Now (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
03 Standing in the Doorway (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
04 Sweetheart like You (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
05 Blind Willie McTell (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
06 Love Minus Zero-No Limit (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
07 Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)
08 Tomorrow Is a Long Time (Chrissie Hynde with James Walbourne)

I was planning on making my own cover art for this album, as usual. But when Googling for a picture of Chrissie Hynde and James Walbourne together, I stumbled across some album art a person named spunky2018 made for the Dylan lockdown series. So even though I found some pictures of them together, I've used this one instead. I like how spunky2018 made it in the style of an old Dylan album.

The Pretenders - Get Out of London - Non-Album Tracks (1999-2002)

Here's the next stray tracks album from the Pretenders. Technically, a bunch of songs are credited to Chrissie Hynde, but it doesn't matter because by this point the Pretenders were just Hynde plus a bunch of back-up musicians. So I interchangeably mix her "band" and "solo" tracks.

All but one of the songs on this album are officially unreleased. They come from a variety of sources, mostly soundtracks and tribute albums. The one unreleased song, a cover of "The Loner" by Neil Young, comes from a concert bootleg. Admittedly, its sound quality is a little worse. But it's still good enough to include.

By the way, I especially like the song "Get Out of London." It's super rare. I was lucky to find a version of it on YouTube, because I couldn't find it anywhere else. If you're a Pretenders fan, you should check this out for that song alone.

01 Waiting in Vain (Chrissie Hynde)
02 The Needle and the Damage Done (Pretenders)
03 Loving You Is All I Know (Pretenders)
04 I Wish You Love (Chrissie Hynde)
05 She (Pretenders & Emmylou Harris)
06 The Loner (Pretenders)
07 Nebraska (Chrissie Hynde)
08 Mystery Train (Jeff Beck & Chrissie Hynde)
09 Bless You (Pretenders)
10 Out of This World (Chrissie Hynde & Jools Holland)
11 Get Out of London (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700868/TPRETNDRS1999-2002_GetOutLondn_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from a Bob Marley tribute concert in 1999.

The Pretenders - Angel of the Morning - Non-Album Tracks (1995-1999)

Here's the next in my series of stray tracks albums for the Pretenders. As with previous albums, there are a surprising number of such songs, and they're usually pretty good.

It helps that I'm including Chrissie Hynde "solo" songs. But in fact, by this time, there really is no difference between "the Pretenders" and Hynde's solo work, since the Pretenders had become pretty much Hynde plus a bunch of back-up musicians.

The last album in this series was made up nearly entirely of covers of well known songs. There are a lot of such songs this time around too (such as songs 2 through 6, and 9). But there are more songs that are either originals or at least more obscure covers. (To be honest, I'm not sure who wrote some of these; if anyone knows, please let me know and I'll add that info in.)

All but one of the songs were officially released, usually on movie soundtracks, various artists compilations, or bonus tracks. The one unreleased song, "Creep," comes from a TV show performance, so the sound quality is as good as the rest.

01 Blue Sun (Pretenders)
02 Angel of the Morning (Chrissie Hynde)
03 Everyday Is like Sunday (Pretenders)
04 Creep (Pretenders)
05 Live and Let Die (Chrissie Hynde)
06 Goin' Back (Pretenders)
07 Goodbye (Pretenders)
08 The Homecoming (Pretenders)
09 Baby, It's You - Message to Michael (Chrissie Hynde)
10 Morning Glory (Chrissie Hynde)
11 California (Pretenders)
12 Back Down (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700863/TPRETNDRS1995-1999_AnglofMornng_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Hynde comes from 1995. It was in black and white and I had plenty of other options in color. But I really liked this one, so I colorized it and used it.

The Pretenders - Spiritual High - Non-Album Tracks (1990-1994)

Here's the next in my series of stray tracks albums from the Pretenders. By this point, the Pretenders were really just Chrissie Hynde and a bunch of back-up musicians. In fact, the 1990 album "Packed!" only indicated Hynde as a member. So this also has some Hynde solo songs, and I treat the two things interchangeably.

Either Hynde was really in a mood to do covers during this period, or she wasn't being very prolific with her songwriting, because every single song is a cover version. Maybe it was some of both. She does some famous songs by the likes of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix, as well as some obscurities. "Spiritual High (State of Independence)," in which she was the guest lead vocalist for the band Moodswings, was a minor hit.

All songs here have been officially released, except for one. That one, a cover of the Doors' "Touch Me," apparently was intended for a Doors tribute album that never came to be. Somehow, the cover got released on bootleg, and its sound quality is just as good as all the other songs.

I've unfortunately had to include one songs as a bonus track, due to sound quality issues. That's a cover of "Positive Bleeding" by Urge Overkill. The Pretenders only played this a few times in concert, and all we have is an okay sounding audience bootleg recording.

This album is 47 minutes long, not counting the bonus track.

01 Not a Second Time (Pretenders)
02 Spirit of Life (Pretenders)
03 Gula Gula (Clannad with Chrissie Hynde & Mari Boine)
04 Born for a Purpose (Pretenders)
05 Touch Me (Pretenders)
06 Spiritual High [State of Independence], Part II (Moodswings & Chrissie Hynde)
07 I Shall Be Released (Chrissie Hynde)
08 Bold as Love (Pretenders)
09 I'm Not in Love (Pretenders)
10 Superstar [Groupie] (Chrissie Hynde & Superfan)
11 Full Moon, Dirty Hearts (INXS & Chrissie Hynde)
12 Hey Little Boy (Chris Spedding & Chrissie Hynde)
13 Trouble with Me (Mick Ronson & Chrissie Hynde)

Positive Bleeding (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700862/TPRETNDRS1990-1994_SpritulHgh_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo is of Hynde in concert in Ashbury Park, New Jersey, in 1994.

The Pretenders - Windows of the World - Non-Album Tracks (1986-1988)

Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders released a new solo album earlier this month, called "Value Bone Woe." I really like it. It's different than her usual stuff, going in a kind of jazzy chanteuse direction. I suggest you check it out.

Here's another album of stray tracks from the Pretenders in honor of her new release. From this point on, I'll be treating the Pretenders and Chrissie Hynde as essentially one and the same, because all the original members of the Pretenders were gone from the band, and it became Hynde plus a group of backing musicians. Also from this point on, she did a fair amount of recordings and performances under her own name.

The first three Pretenders albums are undeniable classics, in my book. This album deals with the time of the band's fourth album, 1986's "Get Close." That album was widely considered a step down, being seen as overproduced and not rocking enough. I have to agree with that critique, even though it still has a lot of good songs on it. Happily, the stray tracks from this time don't suffer those same problems.

This is around the time Hynde starting appearing in concert billed as herself instead of part of the Pretenders. She only performed a few songs here and there, but she played some unexpected songs instead of the usual Pretenders numbers. Four of the songs here come from her appearance at a benefit concert in early 1986. Another three are acoustic duets she did in concert with Elvis Costello. For all the live performances, I removed the audience noise to make them fit in with the other songs. Generally speaking, all the live songs are the only officially unreleased ones, but they sound very good.

I think all the songs but one are covers. The one exception is "Worlds Within Worlds." That was a bonus track for the "Get Close" album. "Reconsider Me" sounds a lot like a Hynde original, but it actually was written by Warren Zevon.

This is a very electric album, ranging from a cover of the proto punk rock song "1969" to the acoustic duets with Costello, plus a fair amount of reggae. Personally, I like this as much or more as "Get Close," because it doesn't suffer from the usual 1980s production issues.

Oh, by the way, this includes two versions of "Windows of the World," the classic anti-war song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Normally, I'm loathe to include two versions of the same song on one album, but I'm making an exception here because the two versions are quite different. One is a full band, album-ready version, and the other is one of the acoustic duets in concert with Costello.

01 Reconsider Me (Pretenders)
02 Worlds within Worlds (Pretenders)
03 Little Latin Lupe Lu (Chrissie Hynde)
04 In My Life (Chrissie Hynde)
05 Property of Jesus (Chrissie Hynde)
06 Give It Up (Annie Lennox & Chrissie Hynde)
07 Where Has Everybody Gone (Pretenders)
08 Windows of the World (Pretenders)
09 1969 (Pretenders)
10 Steppin' Razor (Chrissie Hynde with Coati Mundi, Sly & Robbie)
11 Breakfast in Bed (UB40 & Chrissie Hynde)
12 Days (Elvis Costello & Chrissie Hynde)
13 There's a Place (Elvis Costello & Chrissie Hynde)
14 Windows of the World [Live Acoustic] (Elvis Costello & Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700870/TPRETNDRS1986-1988_WindwsoWrld_atse.zip.html

For the album cover photo, I used a photo of Hynde in concert with the Pretenders in 1987.

The Pretenders - I Got You Babe - Non-Album Tracks (1981-1985)

I've already posted one album of stray tracks from the Pretenders. I have many more to come. This one covers 1981 to 1985.

In 1981, the Pretenders were a "real" band, meaning it wasn't just Chrissie Hynde and a bunch of people backing her up. But in mid-1982, bassist Pete Farndon was kicked out of the band and died of a drug overdose a short time thereafter, then lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott also died of a drug overdose. The Pretenders were never really a real band after that. The first four songs on this album come from before the two deaths.

However, despite these losses, the band's 1984 album "Learning to Crawl" was a huge hit and is arguably the band's best album ever (or maybe tied with the debut album). This album basically covers the "Learning to Crawl" era, so it's pretty good too. Four of the songs are bonus tracks from that album.

Two of the songs are still officially unreleased, a medley of "Wild Thing" and "Whatcha Gonna Do about it," and "Room Full of Mirrors." The sound of these two live songs are pretty good, though I don't think they come from soundboard bootlegs. Note that a version of the Jimi Hendrix song "Room Full of Mirrors" would appear on the next Pretenders album "Get Close." But that album has some typical 1980s production issues, so I prefer the live version here.

The last song, "I Got You Babe," deserves a special mention because it was a hit in 1985. It's a duet between Chrissie Hynde and UB40, and it's a cover of a 1960s hit by Sonny and Cher. I think it's also the first commercially significant Hynde solo song. But on all future Pretenders stray tracks albums, there will be plenty of those, sometimes more than actual Pretenders songs. But I'll be mixing the two together, because there's so little difference between the Pretenders and Hynde solo.

This album is rather short at 35 minutes. There are a couple more songs I want to add to it, but they're very rare and I haven't found them yet. (One is a cover of "Day Tripper" from a 1981 concert and the other is a version of "The Last Ride" from a 1984 concert, which I think is the same song that would show up on a 2008 Pretenders album. If you have either of these, please let me know.)

01 [Your Love Keeps Lifting Me] Higher and Higher [Live] (Pretenders)
02 In the Sticks [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
03 Tequila (Pretenders)
04 Wild Thing - Whatcha Gonna Do about It [Live] (Pretenders)
05 Fast or Slow [The Law's the Law] (Pretenders)
06 Money [That's What I Want] [Live] (Pretenders)
07 Ramblin' Rob [Demo] (Pretenders)
08 Room Full of Mirrors [Live] (Pretenders)
09 I Got You Babe (UB40 & Chrissie Hynde)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15181600/TPretndrs_1981-1985_IGotYouBbe_atse.zip.html

In searching for good album cover art, I came across a neat Pretenders concert T-shirt from 1984. I wanted to use that, but it was too blurry and low-res. However, I happened to find the exact black and white photo that was put on the shirt. So I've used that, and added "The Pretenders" in red, taking the letters directly from a photo of the T-shirt. Of course, I also had to add the album title.

The Pretenders - Cuban Slide - Non-Album Tracks (1978-1980)

There are a lot of musical artists I want to post about but haven't gotten around to yet. The Pretenders/Chrissie Hynde are a big one. I've been surprised at just how much good non-album material there is. This is the first of at least nine stray tracks albums I have from her and her band.

A lot of people think the Pretenders were at their best during the era of their first three albums, and I'm one of them. Arguably, the Pretenders were only a real band for their first two albums, because two of the four band members died between the recording of the second and third albums. It became Hynde plus backing musicians after that. Happily, all of the songs here are from when all four original members were still in the band.

This album is definitely a mixed bag. There are some great songs. For instance, "Cuban Slide" is one of my favorite Pretenders songs of all time, which is why I've named this album after it. There are a handful of other very nice originals. But there also are some slight instrumentals and unremarkable cover versions. But still, I consider anything from these early years to be pretty great.

The first song is a version of the famous 1960s Troggs hit "Wild Thing," except it's sung in French. It's credited to "Chrissie Hynde and the Strangeways." I don't know the full story behind this, but apparently the Strangeways weren't a real band, but a bunch of musicians who came together very briefly just to record this, right before the Pretenders were formed.

The next three songs are some demos recorded by Hynde with or without the other Pretenders. I actually have an entire album of demos from the band's early years to post. But I've put these three songs here instead because these are songs not done elsewhere, while the other demos are all versions of well-known Pretenders tunes. "Do I Love You" is a cover of a 1960s hit by the Ronettes, while the other two are originals that sound good enough to me to have fit on the first Pretenders album.

Most of the rest of the songs are originals also. One exception is "Sabre Dance," a 1960s hit that's a guitar-based instrumental, with Hynde strangely and occasionally singing some of the lyrics to "Stop Your Sobbing" on top of it. "Counterfeit" is a song by Chris Spedding that wasn't officially released by him until 1986.

Unfortunately, the sound quality on that one, plus "Tequila" (a Hynde original and not the 1960s instrumental hit) are rougher than all the rest. That's because they come from an audience bootleg. But still, I think they sound good enough for inclusion. However, the Pretenders' cover of "Girl Don't Come," a 1960s hit by Sandie Shaw, is even rougher. So I've only included that one as a bonus track.

01 Chose Sauvage [Wild Thing] (Chrissie Hynde & the Strangeways)
02 Do I Love You [Demo] (Chrissie Hynde & Steve Jones)
03 I Can't Control Myself [Demo] (Pretenders)
04 Suicide [Demo] (Chrissie Hynde)
05 Sabre Dance - Stop Your Sobbing [Live] (Pretenders)
06 I Need Somebody (Pretenders)
07 Swinging London [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
08 Nervous but Shy [Instrumental] (Pretenders)
09 Cuban Slide (Pretenders)
10 Porcelain (Pretenders)
11 Whatcha Gonna Do about It (Pretenders)
12 Counterfeit (Pretenders)
13 Tequila (Pretenders)

Girl Don't Come (Pretenders)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700858/TPRETNDRS1978-1980_CubnSlde_atse.zip.html

I based the cover art on the cover of the "Extended Play" EP, since "Cuban Slide" and a couple other songs here come from that.  But I changed the photo and most everything else, while keeping the general look. I called the band "Pretenders" instead of "The Pretenders" because that's what was written on the EP cover.