The only three albums Chrissie Hynde carried from America when she left home
The 1970s was a decade in which everything changed – socially, politically and, of course, musically. As the vibrancy of the peace and love era gave way to an angry new generation, the likes of Iggy Pop and Patti Smith started giving a voice to the disenfranchised youth of the world. In the grand scheme of things, though, the early punk rock movement existed in the margins. So, as a young Chrissie Hynde looked out upon the monotonous surroundings of Akron, Ohio, it became clear that the punk revolution was never going to reach the suburbs. It was time to move.
It did not take Hynde very long to grow out of the confines of Akron. The quiet suburbia of Midwestern America did not seem to fit the young musician’s growing interest in hippie counterculture and LSD. As the first seeds of punk were planted within the industrial surroundings of Detroit and the concrete jungle of New York, Hynde began to take notice. Quickly, though, it became apparent that she could not establish a counterculture revolution within the sleepy city, so she set her sights on the blossoming grassroots scene of London.
There surely must have been a point, as Hynde was flying high above the tumultuous landscape of the Atlantic Ocean, that she thought – even momentarily, ‘What am I doing?’. At the age of only 22, she had uprooted her whole life and relocated to an entirely different continent, all her worldly possessions contained within a suitcase. Almost on purpose, Hynde only brought three LPs with her when she left Ohio: Fun House and Raw Power by The Stooges, along with White Light/White Heat by The Velvet Underground.
These choices might seem non-consequential, but they acted as the manifesto for Hynde’s time in London. Choosing those three records was a signifier that the old life was over, and it was time to tear down the cultural institutions of the past. It did not matter how helpless Hynde felt within the big city of London because she had Iggy Pop and Lou Reed as her guiding voice. These albums would also form the basis of Hynde’s own journey into the punk rock revolution.
Thanks to her artistic background, Hynde quickly managed to score an architecture job in London, which will surely cause annoyance for current architecture students in the modern age. From that point on, the musician would move between various roles, including a job as an NME journalist and, later, in a retail role at Vivienne Westwood’s ‘SEX’ shop. It became apparent, though, that Hynde’s talents were being underutilised within these odd jobs; the world of music was where she belonged.
Viv Albertine, the legendary guitarist for The Slits, affirmed in her memoir Clothes, Music, Boys that, “nobody wanted to be in a band with [Chrissie Hynde], she’s too good”. While Albertine may have used that as a bit of a throwaway line, there does seem to be some truth behind it. In a few short months, Hynde had auditioned for the group that would become 999, had tried to start a group with Mick Jones, who would later form The Clash and was kicked out of Masters of the Backside, who would go on to become The Damned. She was even fired by Johnny Moped…twice.
Eventually, as you will all know, Hynde eventually got her break in 1978 with the formation of The Pretenders. Although the first wave of punk had largely died out by the time The Pretenders came about, that didn’t stop Hynde from achieving the musical excellence she had been striving for since the beginning of the decade. She remains with the group to this day, having built legions of loyal fans from her early days as one of the few prominent women in the UK’s punk scene.
