Pretenders – Brass in Pocket

Real Records, late 1979: stage nerve in three minutes

On 9 November 1979, Real Records released Brass in Pocket as the Pretenders’ third single, ahead of the January 1980 debut album Pretenders. Chrissie Hynde and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott wrote it; Chris Thomas produced. The band is Hynde (vocals, guitar), Honeyman-Scott (guitar), Pete Farndon (bass), and Martin Chambers (drums). The US pressings came on Sire.

The song began as a guitar figure Honeyman-Scott showed Hynde. She taped the part and wrote lyrics about the cockiness you need to walk on stage when you still feel small. The title came from an after-show dinner where she overheard someone ask about dry cleaning and « brass in pocket » – Northern English slang for money. « Bottle » in the lyric is Cockney rhyme for nerve. Hynde later said she was trying for a Motown feel that never quite arrived, which left the track in a lane of its own: new wave bounce with a soft, steady beat.

What you hear is Chambers’s weighty but soft groove, Farndon’s rounded bass, Honeyman-Scott’s clean guitar figures, and Hynde singing « I’m special » with a slow smile rather than a shout. Thomas keeps the mix uncluttered so the vocal swagger can sit without force. Hynde first disliked her voice on the take and told Thomas he could release it over her dead body; she later admitted the song served her well even if the vocal still made her cringe.