Brass In Pocket is The Pretenders’ biggest hit and one of their most beloved songs. One person who is known for not liking it, however, is its writer.
Chrissie Hynde had the idea for the song and set about writing it, but did not like how it turned out. In the end she did not want to record it, downright refused to release it, and told producer Chris Thomas that this would only happen “over my dead body.”
Obviously, something changed. Brass In Pocket was not just released, but ended up being the band’s breakthrough song, their third single, and is included on their self-titled debut album.
Lead singer Chrissie Hynde grew up in Akron, Ohio and was actually an art student at Kent State University in 1970 during the time when four students were killed by members of the US National Guard.
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Her time at art school had satiated a post-high school curiosity in theory, but in practice, she felt she had to relocate if her musical ambitions were going to happen.
“I was never too interested in high school,” Hynde reflected in a 1980 conversation with Rolling Stone. “I mean, I never went to a dance, I never went out on a date, I never went steady. It became pretty awful for me. Except, of course, I could go see bands, and that was the kick. I used to go to Cleveland just to see any band. So I was in love a lot of the time, but mostly with guys in bands that I had never met. For me, knowing that Brian Jones was out there, and later that Iggy Pop was out there, made it kind of hard for me to get too interested in the guys that were around me. I had, uh, bigger things in mind.”
These “bigger things” became well within reach after Hynde left for England in 1973, where she established herself in London’s blooming punk scene as a journalist for the weekly music paper NME. She later worked at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s clothes store, and was involved with an early version of The Sex Pistols. From there, she played in other (short-lived) bands such as Masters of the Backside (the other members being Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, and Rat Scabies, who went on to form The Damned) and the Moors Murderers (alongside Steve Strange (Visage), Topper Headon (The Clash), Vince Ely (Psychedelic Furs) and Mark Ryan (Adam and the Ants)). In spite of all the musical talent she surrounded herself with, she failed to find a regular or equal partnership in the bands she joined.
The Pretenders formed in March 1978 after Dave Hill at Anchor Records heard some demos of Hynde’s music. He supported her forming a new and more permanent band, which in the end featured James Honeyman-Scott on guitar, Pete Farndon on bass, and Martin Chambers on drums. They started gigging and putting together ideas for songs.
Brass In Pocket is unquestioningly the big song from this time. The song was inspired by a phrase which ended up ging the song its title. There is of course a story behind that too.
This goes back to the band’s very first gig, supporting The Strangeways. As the story was told at the time, the bands were hanging out together in the communal dressing room. Chrissie Hynde wanted to know whose trousers were sprawled over the back of a chair. One of The Strangeways, said: “I’ll have them if there’s any brass in the pockets.”
The Strangeway who used the phrase in question was their vocalist and guitarist Ada Wilson. While Hynde did not know the term at first, she quickly found out that “brass” is a Northern slang term for money. She fell in love with the expression and was inspired to write the song.
A few variants of this story have emerged over the years, although the gist of it has more or less stayed the same. In the sleeve notes for their 2006 Pirate Radio box set, Hynde gives us what might be the most definitive version: “We supported a band on our label called Strangeways, on tour in the north of England,” Hynde wrote. “We had dinner afterwards, and one of their guys leaned across the table and said to another, ‘Did you take my trousers to the dry cleaners? Was there any brass in the pocket?’ It was a turn of phrase that describes someone who is doing alright financially. If I’d imagined it was going to be such a hit, I might have been a little less abstract.”
James Honeyman-Scott wrote the single’s catchy riff. “He was playing that in the studio, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s awesome,’” Hynde recalled. “I just happened to have a little tape recorder, and I taped it. That’s the one time I did that. I wish I’d done it more.”
Many interpret Brass In Pocket as a ‘girl power’ song, but Chrissie Hynde sang it from the perspective of a guy, and it’s anything but empowering. She told Louder Sound: “When people say that there’s this strong female persona driving the song, it drives me fucking crazy! The ‘girl’ thing seems to be real important for other people but I’m mystified by it.”
Hynde added that she considers the song very tongue-in-cheek, thus the line, “I’m winking at you.”
I got brass in a pocket
I got bottle, I’m gonna use it
Intention, I feel inventive
Gonna make you, make you, make you noticeGot motion, restrained emotion
Been driving, Detroit leaning
No reason, just seems so pleasing
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice
Hynde rarely explains what her songs are about, but she let on with this one in a 1980 interview with Sounds. “It’s very lightweight pop type of song, nothing heavy about it,” she said. “It’s along the lines of the guy who is feeling very insecure, not about pulling a girl but, say, trying to be accepted by the guys down the pub. It’s a front he’s putting up. It’s like buying a pair of new boots and you feel great but then you get home and see you spots in the mirror. Or take a couple of Dexies [common name for Dexamphetamine, a stimulant drug] and you’re in gear for the evening but on the train home it’s different.”
She also told The Guardian: “‘Detroit leaning’ is an expression I heard that was used to describe the way someone leans back in their car seat with one wrist on the wheel, an affected way of driving.”
Brass is not the only British slang you will find in the lyrics. There’s also “got bottle” (have courage), “skank” (move your body side to side), and “reet” (righteous).
It usually doesn’t show up in printed lyrics, but at the end of the song, Hynde coos the line, “Oh and the way you walk.” She says that’s an important part of the song; it’s her telling the insecure peacock that she approves of his offering.
The song does not employ a chorus in the traditional sense. Beyond the bridge lyrics where Hynde sings “I’m special,” the song relies on Honeyman-Scott’s riff to provide a section which works as a chorus emotionally in terms of giving the song a similar lift.
We can thank the band’s producer for making sure the song was recorded and released. The Pretenders came to Chris Thomas’ attention when he saw them at The Marquee Club in London. He recalls in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh: “I especially liked Brass In Pocket. I went backstage to tell Chrissie. However Chrissie told me she didn’t really like it. I insisted it was going to be a hit and if she didn’t want to record it she should send it over to the producer Willie Mitchell and it would make her a fortune.”
“I did not like it at first,” Hynde told American Songwriter in 2019. “I said that would go out over my dead body. That was my famous quote.”
Chrissie Hynde was convinced by the producer to give the song an attempt, and even to release it in spite of considerable resistance. In the end the producer was proven right – it became a big hit for the band. This didn’t alter its writer’s view of it for the better. In fact, she only came to detest it when it became a huge UK hit. “I hated it!” she told Creem in 1981. “It was a phenomenon that evades me completely. I was honestly very disappointed it was such a big hit – I was embarrassed by it.”
Part of her problem with the song was that she felt it didn’t know what type of song it wanted to be. Hynde said, “I thought it sounded like it was trying to be a Motown song, but it didn’t quite make it for me.”
To her credit, Hynde knew fans loved the song, so she’s held her nose and played it at concerts, and eventually stopped slagging it off in the press.
Once the band had been talked into releasing it as a single, there had to be a music video. You can imagine how much Hynde enjoyed filming that one. In the video, directed by Mark Robinson, Chrissie Hynde plays a waitress, implying that “brass” was the change she got from tips. Hynde had actually worked as a waitress in the US before moving to London.
In the video when James Honeymoon-Scott points to the “daily special” tag on the cafe menu, the lyrics hit “I’m special, so special.” Pure cheese, but funny!
Gonna use my arms, gonna use my legs
Gonna use my style, gonna use my sidestep
Gonna use my fingers, gonna use my, my, my
Imagination‘Cause I gonna make you see
There’s nobody else here, no one like me
I’m special (special)
So special (special)
I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me
Brass In Pocket was released in November 1979 as the third single from their first album, and became the breakout hit. It hit the top of the UK charts in January 1980, where it stayed at #1 for two weeks, ringing in the 1980s. It bridged the decades – relased in the 1970s, a hit in the 1980s.
This made the timing for the release of the self-titled first album very good. It was also released in January 1980, and also went to #1. In the UK, the first month of the new decade was owned by The Pretenders.
In America, it took a while for the group to get noticed. Brass In Pocket was the first single there, going to #14 in May 1980. It got a resurgence when MTV went on the air in August 1981. Most American acts didn’t make videos, so they had to lean heavily on imports. The Pretenders were a tasty selection because of Hynde, a female American rock singer with great camera presence. Its music video was the seventh video aired on MTV on its launch on 1 August 1981. They would however try to focus on the band’s video for Message of Love after that. It was a relatively new song, released just a few months earlier, but it never became a hit in America. They ended up sticking with Brass In Pocket, which took off even though it had been out as a single for over a year.
Thanks in large part to the video, the album got a boost in sales. In August 1982 it was certified Platinum for sales of over 1 million in America. Chrissie Hynde waiting tables became a defining image from their early era.
So, how does Hynde feel about Brass In Pocket today?
The song has remained in Pretenders setlists throughout their career, and lo and behold, eventually her stance on the song softened! In a conversation with Louder in 2020, she admitted “I enjoy singing it these days. If someone wants to hear it, it’s always a pleasure. And my new band likes playing it, too. But the best thing about the song is that it always reminds me of Jimmy Scott. He was a fantastic guitar player. He was only 25 when we lost him.”
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