Brass in Pocket - The Pretenders

'Got brass in pocket' is the first line of the third single by the Pretenders that topped the charts in January 1980 and was their first real success. Quite what the line is doing there is not immediately clear. Apparently co-writer Chrissie Hynde overheard someone use the phrase at a concert they did in Wakefield. The song seems to be describing that burst of confidence some get when they want to impress someone they themselves are drawn to. Indeed, Hynde has said that it is about cockiness. It is as likely to be about impressiing someone of the opposite sex as impressing an audience at a concert. Hynde has stated that it is nothing to do with feminism. It apparently began as a guitar progression from the late Honeyman-Scott to which Hynde added the lyrics. She thought it was trying to be MoTown but failing. Many of the lyrics are not immediately clear. Brass is northern slang for money. 'Got bottle, I'm gonna use it' is using the word bottle as in Cockney rhyming slang (bottle and glass ie ass or more appropriately here sass). 'Detroit leaning' is American slang for driving a vehicle with one hand. New skank is cannabis and reet is a nod to a trope by comic artist Robert Crumb. Hynde tends to sing a little off key and she particularly did not like her voice on this song at first but came round. The bouncing tune fits the lyrics well. The persona could offend if it was more aggressive but one is willing to accept that the singer really is special somehow and deserves some attention. She is going to use, she says, her arms, her legs, her style, het sidestep, her fingers and (and this is the give away) her imagination. The fact she's winking at us should not be missed either. Showing off is a sin but maybe in a song one can be forgiven for it.

2000 Miles - The Pretenders

To its credit, the 1983 Pretenders single 2000 Miles does not immediately sound like a Christmas song, although there is a choir effect and some bell like instrumentation. It does mention the word Christmas more than once, however, along with snow and children, and seems to be dealing with one of the perennial Christmas issues - being separated from a loved one over the otherwise happiest of seasons. The song does not quite give it away, but it was apparently written in memory of founder member and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, who had died the previous June aged only 25. If this is so, then the song is dealing with an even bigger perennial issue, bereavement at Christmas time. It offers no real solution but simply observes that the loved one is gone 2000 miles or whatever, which is indeed very far. Inevitably, the one left behind says "I miss you" as they think of the dead person, wherever they go. Happiness goes on all around and the bereaved one even joins in to some extent but the nearest they get to seeing the one they would really like to see is in a dream. The snow works well as a metaphor as while diamonds sparkle in it, it does get colder rather than warmer in winter and there are frozen and silent nights. A slow number, full of wonderfully jangling guitars, it somehow manages to sound optimistic despite the loss.