Song of the Day 11/12: The Pretenders, “Brass in Pocket”

Another entry on my Greatest Songs by Women ballot, this was the hit that ushered in the ’80s – in Great Britain, at least. It was the third single off the Pretenders’ debut album, released in fall 1979, and it hit No. 1 in UK when the new year began, making it the first No. 1 of the ’80s.

It’s also the song that introduced the Pretenders to band leader Chrissie Hynde’s native U.S. Though it only got to No. 14 on the Hot 100 when first released, its promotional video, a common marketing device in the UK, gave it an advantage when MTV debuted in August 1981 – the video channel played twice on its first day of operation alone. The album went platinum in 1982.

The song started with the guitar riff by James Honeyman-Scott. Hynde told American Songwriter, “He was playing that in the studio and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s awesome.’ And I just happened to have a little tape recorder and I taped it.” Her lyrics are filled with a blend of British and American slang – “brass” is a Northern term for money, “bottle” is Cockney rhyming slang for ass, “Detroit lean” is driving leaned back with just one wrist on the wheel.

The opaque phrases added some mystery to her vocals, which for many years she hated. “I didn’t like my voice on it. I was kind of a new singer, and listening to my voice made me kind of cringe.” One critic called the song “an anthem of empowerment that isn’t even conscious of any other way to feel,” but her delivery, by turns tough and tender, reflects the conflicted feelings behind the confident lyrics. Hynde told American Songwriter,

You’re supposed to be kind of cocky and sure of yourself. You’re not supposed to go on stage and say, “I’m small and I have no confidence and think I’m a shit.” Because you just can’t do that on stage. … Probably you don’t have much confidence, and you do think you’re a little piece of shit, or else you wouldn’t have gotten a rock band together in the first place.

The nature of the stage – where you are already seven feet higher than everyone and they have to look up at you – you have to use that to your advantage. And so, hence, “Brass in Pocket” is, I guess, a big lie.