THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - PRETTY PUNKS WITH X-RAY SPEX AND THE PRETENDERS. DOUBLE DOWN!! DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS podcast

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THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - PRETTY PUNKS WITH X-RAY SPEX AND THE PRETENDERS. DOUBLE DOWN!!

5d ago 12:09

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Love comes in many forms - sometimes confrontational. Today’s episode is a paean to a couple of dominating dames that lit up the punk scene in the late 70s. Johnny Rotten once stated that the only person that actually frightened him was the gone too soon, Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex. That product of a Somali father and a British mother railed against consumerist culture, and her band’s career might have been short lived, but their single, Oh Bondage, Up Yours! with it’s bleating saxophone cavalry charge, blown by band mate Lora Logic, was a battle cry to aspiring Riot Grrls everywhere.

The other indomitable mistress we wish to spotlight, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, is still rocking 50 years later. This survivor from America’s Midwest by way of England, - this vegetarian restauranteur/punk legend, who fronted one of the most thrilling acts of the era, scored multiple hits across the pop spectrum, including this classic, Middle of the Road.

X-RAY SPEX

Marianne Joan Elliot-Said died prematurely at age 53, but she lived abundantly, migrating through several personae. Early on, she was a hippie, sleeping in crash pads and nearly dying from sepsis, which she contracted from stepping on a rusty nail while bathing in a stream. Later, inspired by seeing the Sex Pistols, she had found her calling. Choosing her moniker from the Yellow Pages, wearing braces on her teeth and Day-Glo outfits, she became a sensation.

Like a comet, she streaked across the pop firmament and burnt out quickly, being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1978. She pursued a gentler and jazzier sound for her subsequent solo recordings, and in ’83 became a Hare Krishna and a vegetarian. In February 2011 she revealed that she had been treated for breast cancer that had spread to her spine and lungs. She died later that year, yet in her short life she accomplished the nearly impossible: cultural immortality.

THE PRETENDERS

The guitar signature, driven by Robbie McIntosh on 1983’s Middle of the Road by The Pretenders creates an irresistible force, defining a clear road map for singer, Chrissie Hynde. It feels like she’s behind the wheel, with the high beams on, going 120, roaring through the Ohio night, around the bend of a Rust Belt highway. She was already 33, and a single mother, as she tells us in the song. With one fist held high, she assures us that she’ll be a survivor, and there’s no shame in that.

She’s listed by Rolling Stone as 114 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of all time, and at 74, she’s still going strong - still driving that muscle car of rock. This woman has ageless style and charisma. She is also a citizen of Great Britain, having moved there initially in ’73, and almost marrying Johnny Rotten, Sid vicious, and Ray Davies (she has a daughter by the Kink). After several misfires trying to start a band, her solo demo tape made it’s way to Dave Hill, the owner of Real Records who helped her put the original Pretenders line up together, and the rest, as they say is “Herstory”.

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