This album title suggests an entity just beginning to find its way in the world, but Learning To Crawl was already the third LP released by The Pretenders. By that time, they had already established themselves as one of the sharpest, most distinctive bands on the planet.
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In actuality, the title couldn’t have been more apropos. The Pretenders, in a lot of ways, were starting over. Thanks to their indomitable leader, Chrissie Hynde, and some pinch-hitting musicians, many folks now believe it’s the band’s recorded high point.
Triumph From Tragedy
The first two Pretenders albums captured massive acclaim. Released in 1980 and 1981, the band proved that they were accomplished at everything from punk to new wave to 60s-flavored pop. In Chrissie Hynde, they boasted both a songwriter adept at all those styles and a singer who could bounce seamlessly back and forth between defiant attitude and genuine emotion.
But it all fell apart in a horrendous sequence of events. The first shoe to drop came when the band, fed up with bassist Pete Farndon’s drug use, called a meeting to fire him in June 1982. Then, just two days later, James Honeyman-Scott, the band’s lead guitarist and a key artistic driver on their first two albums, died of an overdose.
Hynde didn’t wait too long to rev The Pretenders back up. She enlisted guitarists Billy Bremner and Robbie McIntosh and bassist Tony Butler to join her and drummer Martin Chambers. That lineup recorded a tribute to Honeyman-Scott called “Back On The Chain Gang” just a month after his death. It became the band’s biggest pop hit to date.
With that success providing the impetus, The Pretenders headed back into the studio to make a full-length album. McIntosh stayed on while Malcolm Foster took on the bassist role. Chris Thomas returned to produce.
The black cloud hanging over the band didn’t quite depart, however. Less than a year after he was dismissed, Pete Farndon also died of an overdose in April 1983. The Pretenders’ Learning To Crawl arrived in January 1984. It’s an album almost a year-and-a-half in the making and a testament to Hynde and company’s resilience in the face of such calamity.
Revisiting the Music of ‘Learning To Crawl’
One wonders how soon Hynde would have started showing her songwriting versatility were it not for all the tumult within the band. Since she couldn’t help but respond to it all, Learning To Crawl naturally took on an elegiac tone for The Pretenders. Hynde was working out in song all that had happened.
“Back On The Chain Gang”, wistful and wise, sets the emotional tone. Billy Bremner’s tripping guitar and Hynde’s achy vocals form a lovely duet. You get the same kind of gut-punch feeling from the quasi-holiday song “2000 Miles” and the questing “Show Me”. These songs are as melodic and smart as 80s pop managed.
The softer touch on those songs contrasted with the toughness of which the band had already proven capable. “My City Was Gone” finds Hynde stalking suburban sprawl with a menacing sneer. “Middle Of The Road” snaps to attention time and again, thanks to Martin Chambers’ crackerjack drumming.
Learning To Crawl takes you on an emotional ride as Hynde steers the ship with confidence and candor. It turned into the biggest hit in the band’s history. And it sounded unified even as it was made in catch-as-catch-can fashion. The Pretenders suffered several blows that would have felled other bands, and crawled their way to brilliance.
Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns/Getty Images
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