Chrissie Hynde explains how jazz was her biggest inspiration
Chrissie Hynde was always more than just a punk. The Pretenders leader arrived in England before the punk boom had even begun, flying out of America from Ohio in 1973. Thanks to her job working for Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood at SEX, the pair’s clothing store, Hynde saw the explosion of punk happen in real-time, even as she struggled to find a band herself.
By the time The Pretenders eventually formed, Hynde had enough experience and knowledge to avoid the typical trappings of punk. Instead, The Pretenders were on the cutting edge of the next genre to be spun off from punk: new wave. For Hynde, straying from the rigid ideals of punk wasn’t difficult, considering how one of her favourite genres was the polar opposite of punk.
“You know, I love jazz,” Hynde told Guitar.com in 2015, “But I’m more of a rock person. Mose Allison had more of an influence on English songwriters than anyone – The Kinks and The Who wouldn’t have existed without Mose Allison. You would never have had ‘My Generation’ or ‘You Really Got Me’ without Mose Allison.”
“I don’t think there is anyone who has surpassed Mose as far as an influence,” Hynde said. “There was a man with a piano and a glass of water. He never got too big; he was never a household name. He influenced all the greats and kept his profile really low, and he consistently made amazing records. To me, that’s a hero. Doing his thing and keeping it underground. That sums it up for me. He would never consider himself to be rock ’n’ roll, but he is. He’s very true to himself.”
Hynde wasn’t afraid to make her opinions on jazz known. “I’ll put my cards on the table: jazz is a more sophisticated, more elevated and a more pure form of music than rock ’n’ roll,” she claimed. “The jazz culture was getting dumbed down, and when rock ’n’ roll took over, everything was going in that direction.”
Hynde, a proudly outspoken voice, saw a similar trend taking over jazz that is currently taking over rock music. Whereas the original intentions of the genre are getting blunted and muted, a whole new crop of stars has taken over and tried to take the music to a different and less appropriate space.
“Even jazz musicians got involved in it. It’s turning around now, and pure jazz is going to reign – at least, I’d like to think so,” she added. “I have a feeling because it’s got real thin on the ground and real shitty in the last few years – you know, the little girls in their underwear thing. I love the ‘glam’ of rock ’n’ roll – the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and it’s a lot of fun – and that’s where my thing rests.”
“But as far as the bigger picture goes, the influence of jazz and so forth, I think everything’s going to get a little better, and we’ll forget all this talent show bullshit,” she concluded. “And I’m going to play the guitar properly before I die – that’s my one goal.”
Check out ‘Brass in Pocket’ down below.
