| Product Summary | | Label: RHINO / WEA | | UPC: 00081227327026 | | Release Date: 3/14/2006 | | Buy.com Sku: 202195292 | | Item#: M2UFU3 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25050 | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Precious - (Regent Park Demo) ~ The Pretenders |  | | 2. Stop Your Sobbing ~ The Pretenders | | | 3. Wait, The - (Single Version) ~ The Pretenders | | | 4. Kid ~ The Pretenders | | | 5. Tattooed Love Boys ~ The Pretenders | | | 6. Mystery Achievement ~ The Pretenders | | | 7. Brass In Pocket ~ The Pretenders | | | 8. Porcelain ~ The Pretenders | | | 9. Talk Of The Town ~ The Pretenders | | | 10. Message Of Love ~ The Pretenders | | | 11. Cuban Slide ~ The Pretenders | | | 12. What You Gonna Do About It ~ The Pretenders | | | 13. Adultress, The ~ The Pretenders | | | 14. Bad Boys Get Spanked ~ The Pretenders | | | 15. I Go To Sleep ~ The Pretenders | | | 16. Day After Day ~ The Pretenders | | | 17. Birds Of Paradise ~ The Pretenders | | | 18. English Roses, The ~ The Pretenders | | | 19. Time The Avenger ~ The Pretenders | | | 20. Watching The Clothes - (Denmark Street Demo) ~ The Pretenders | | | 21. Show Me ~ The Pretenders | | Disc 2
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Back On The Chain Gang ~ The Pretenders | | | 2. Thumbelina ~ The Pretenders | | | 3. Thin Line Between Love And Hate ~ The Pretenders | | | 4. My City Was Gone ~ The Pretenders | | | 5. Middle Of The Road ~ The Pretenders | | | 6. Tequila ~ The Pretenders | | | 7. 2000 Miles ~ The Pretenders | | | 8. When I Change My Life - (alternate take) ~ The Pretenders | | | 9. My Baby ~ The Pretenders | | | 10. Worlds Within Worlds ~ The Pretenders | | | 11. Don't Get Me Wrong ~ The Pretenders | | | 12. Hymn To Her ~ The Pretenders | | | 13. Tradition Of Love ~ The Pretenders | | | 14. Room Full Of Mirrors ~ The Pretenders | | | 15. Reconsider Me ~ The Pretenders | | | 16. Hold A Candle To This - (alternate take) ~ The Pretenders | | | 17. Windows Of The World ~ The Pretenders | | | 18. Never Do That ~ The Pretenders | | | 19. No Guarantee ~ The Pretenders | | | 20. Not a Second Time ~ The Pretenders | | Disc 3
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Sense Of Purpose ~ The Pretenders | | | 2. Downtown (Akron) ~ The Pretenders | | | 3. How Do I Miss You ~ The Pretenders | | | 4. Bold As Love ~ The Pretenders | | | 5. When Will I See You ~ The Pretenders | | | 6. Hollywood Perfume ~ The Pretenders | | | 7. Night In My Veins ~ The Pretenders | | | 8. 977 ~ The Pretenders | | | 9. All My Dreams ~ The Pretenders | | | 10. Angel Of The Morning - (Original Version) ~ The Pretenders | | | 11. Money Talk ~ The Pretenders | | | 12. Rebel Rock Me ~ The Pretenders | | | 13. I'll Stand By You ~ The Pretenders | | | 14. Every Mothers' Son - (Demo) ~ The Pretenders | | | 15. Love Colours ~ The Pretenders | | | 16. Private Life - (live) ~ The Pretenders | | | 17. Lovers Of Today - (live) ~ The Pretenders | | | 18. Creep - (live) ~ The Pretenders | | | 19. Criminal - (live) ~ The Pretenders | | | 20. Revolution - (live) ~ The Pretenders | |
On "Brass in Pocket," one of the Pretenders earliest singles-and their first to chart in the U.S., scoring #14 in Billboard-Chrissie Hynde sings, "I'm special, so special, I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me." Formed in London in '78 with Hynde, James Honeyman Scott, Martin Chambers, and Pete Farndon, the band received massive attention for that hit and other stellar songs from their 1980 self-titled debut album. Via impeccable musicianship and Hynde's charismatic persona-equal parts cool swagger, tough-but vulnerable lyrics and vocals, and idiosyncratic rhythm guitar-the Pretenders reinvented the concept of a woman in rock 'n' roll and became one of the most popular and distinctive acts in the world. Chrissie Hynde's singular presence has never ceased to build on their artistic legacy, chronicled now for the first time in Pirate Radio.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | The Pretenders: Chrissie Hynde (vocals, guitar); James Honeyman-Scott, Robbie McIntosh (guitar, background vocals); Adam Seymour (guitar); Malcolm Foster, Pete Farndon (bass guitar, background vocals); T.M. Stevens, Andy Hobson (bass guitar); Martin Chambers (drums, background vocals). | | Additional personnel: Johnny Marr , Billy Bremner (guitar); Paul Carrack (piano, background vocals); Bernie Worrell (keyboards); Pretty Tony (bass guitar). | | The Pretenders are a band that's easy to take for granted, yet every time one of their excellent singles--and there are lots of them--hits the radio, the response is invariably, "Oh my God, I love this song." When you begin to peel back the layers of the band itself--the alternately jangly and punchy guitars, the hard-as-nails rhythm section, and Chrissie Hynde's impeccable songcraft and unbelievably sensual alto--it's easy to make a case for the Pretenders as one of the best American rock bands of the post-'60s pop landscape. | | PIRATE RADIO, the comprehensive, long overdue Pretenders box set, helps support that case. Spread out over four CDs are studio recordings, demos, live material, and alternate versions recorded between 1979 and 2005. In addition to the obvious inclusions ("Brass in Pocket;" "Back on the Chain Gang"), the full range of the Pretenders is represented, from rip-it-up rockers ("Precious") to gorgeous balladry ("2000 Miles"). And, finally, a bonus DVD of television appearances makes the case complete. | | To say that Warner/Rhino/Sire's 2006 four-CD, one-DVD box set Pirate Radio is for the die-hard Pretenders fan may be stating the obvious -- after all, career-spanning multi-disc sets heavy on rarities are by definition for diehards. But die-hard Pretenders fans are different than other die-hard fans, since they can be easily split into two separate camps: those who followed Chrissie Hynde throughout her career, and those who lost interest somewhere after 1983's Learning to Crawl, the triumphant third album that proved Hynde was above all a survivor. After that, Pretenders records were notoriously hit-or-miss affairs, sometimes holding together a little better than others, but patchy enough to whittle down their audience to just the dedicated, while still indicating that a killer comp could be pieced together from these records. | | Is Pirate Radio that comp? No, not really. It has almost all of their charting singles and many of their best album tracks, but it's not a lean collection of nothing but the best from the Pretenders; it has too many rarities and treats each portion of their career too evenhandedly to be that. By the end of the first disc, Pirate Radio has already dipped into Learning to Crawl, and well over half the collection is devoted to music released from 1990 on -- an era that had two solid albums (1994's Last of the Independents and 2002's Loose Screw) and one strong one (1999's Viva el Amor), plus a popular if subdued live album (1995's Isle of View). This era was certainly good, but in no way matched the intensity of their first five years as a band, particularly in its first incarnation when Hynde was in a gang with guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers. The first disc bears this out through its rarities, where the original 1978 demo of "Precious" is nearly as tough as the one on the group's peerless debut, while the Nick Lowe-produced single version of "The Wait" has a reckless energy. | | Even songs that seemed like throwaways at the time have aged into mini-masterpieces: there are the two songs that had been stranded on the 1981 Extended Play EP -- the tense, dramatic "Porcelain" and the infectious "Cuban Slide" -- plus a dynamic take on the Small Faces' "What You Gonna Do About It." All three enhance the reputation of the original Pretenders while filling out corners in their history, something that can't quite be said about the deluge of rarities that follows over the next three discs. Not that the 13 previously unreleased cuts and six stray songs (mostly from B-sides and tribute singles) are bad by any means -- there are quite a few gems in this batch, particularly the terrific country tune "Tequila" (dating from the first days of the band, but cut during Learning to Crawl), the searching outtake "When I Change My Life," and a bunch of covers, including takes on the Beatles' "Not a Second Time," Warren Zevon's "Reconsider Me," Radiohead's "Creep," and Merrilee Rush's "Angel of the Morning." But as the box shifts into second gear halfway through the second disc, it stops being a set that holds appeal to both camps of Pretenders fans and becomes the province of those who have faithfully followed Hynde throughout her ups and down. | | For those fans, Pirate Radio is pretty much an unqualified delight. It rounds up the best of the uncollected songs, it presents an accurate and thorough history, it sounds terrific, it has great and comprehensive notes from Ben Edmonds (along with some track-by-track comments from Hynde), and the DVD is filled with thrilling television performances (eight of the 19 clips on the disc are from the original lineup, plus there are two from the Learning to Crawl group), which is alone worth the price of the set for the truly devoted. And ultimately that's who Pirate Radio is for -- for fans who love Hynde, warts and all. It's for the fans who believe that, despite (or perhaps because of) the peaks and valleys, she is indeed how Nick Lowe describes her: "she's still the same girl we were all in love with nearly 30 years ago...and Chrissie's still the coolest girl in the world." For those who agree with Basher, Pirate Radio is proof that their love has not been in vain. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine |
Producer: Bill Inglot (Compilation) |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | The Pretenders - Pirate Radio - Music By: Peter Chakerian - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 2/10/2007 6:57 PM | | Quintessential collection celebrates Pretenders' heyday and brusque, vulnerable frontwoman Hynde, who set male-dominated music industry on its ear. Chrissie Hynde is a pioneer. After she got her foot in the male-dominated music industry door (during the original English punk movement), she kicked that door in squarely and decisively for female rockers all over the globe....read the full review |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 03/14/2006 | | Original Release Date : 2006 | | Catalog ID : 73270 | | Label : Rhino Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 4 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00081227327026 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (p.71)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "From a punky 1978 'Precious' demo to adventurous LOOSE SCREW cuts from 2002, Hynde radiates both erotic vigor and uncommon sensitivity."Uncut (p.120)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's a surprise that such a vagabond, itinerant existence lead to a group that would prove a model of classic consistency for the best part of three decades." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.124)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "Chrissie Hynde is the quality control. With her scabrously soulful voice and punchy songwriting, she ensured her band survived several line-up changes and the tragic death of two original members..." |
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