Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Precious (Regent Park Demo)*
2. Stop Your Sobbing
3. The Wait (Single Version)
4. Kid
5. Tattooed Love Boys
6. Mystery Achievement
7. Brass In Pocket
8. Porcelain
9. Talk Of The Town (U.K. Single Version)
10. Message Of Love
11. Cuban Slide
12. What You Gonna Do About It
13. The Adultress
14. Bad Boys Get Spanked
15. I Go To Sleep
16. Day After Day
17. The English Roses
18. Time The Avenger
19. Watching The Clothes (Denmark Street Demo)*
20. Show Me

Disc 2:

1. Back On The Chain Gang
2. Thumbelina
3. Thin Line Between Love And Hate
4. My City Was Gone
5. Middle Of The Road
6. Tequila*
7. 2000 Miles
8. When I Change My Life (Alternate Version)*8.
9. My Baby
10. Worlds Within Worlds*
11. Don’t Get Me Wrong
12. Hymn To Her
13. Tradition Of Love
14. Room Full Of Mirrors
15. Reconsider Me*
16. Hold A Candle To This (Alternate Version)*
17. Windows Of The World
18. Never Do That
19. No Guarantee
20. Not A Second Time

Disc 3:

1. Sense Of Purpose
2. Downtown (Akron)
3. How Do I Miss You
4. Bold As Love
5. When Will I See You
6. Hollywood Perfume
7. Night In My Veins
8. 977
9. All My Dreams
10. Angel Of The Morning (Original Version)*
11. Money Talk
12. Rebel Rock Me
13. I’ll Stand By You
14. Every Mothers’ Son (Demo)*
15. Love Colours
16. Private Life (Live)
17. Lovers Of Today (Live)
18. Creep (Live)
19. Criminal (Live)
20. Revolution (Live)

Disc 4:

1. Everyday Is Like Sunday
2. Human (Class Mix)
3. Popstar
4. Back Down*
5. California*
6. The Needle And The Damage Done
7. From The Heart Down (Alternate Version)*
8. Who’s Who
9. Biker
10. Nails In The Road
11. Legalize Me
12. The Homecoming (Live)*
13. Up The Neck (Live)*
14. Fools Must Die (Live)*
15. Nothing Breaks Like A Heart
16. Lie To Me
17. Complex Person
18. You Know Who Your Friends Are
19. I Should Of
20. The Losing

Disc 5:

1. Talk Of The Town
2. The Adultress
3. The Wait
4. Hollywood Perfume
5. Brass In Pocket
6. 977
7. Never Do That
8. Thumbelina
9. 2000 Miles
10. Night In My Veins
11. My City Was Gone
12. Tattooed Love Boys
13. Middle Of The Road
14. Don’t Get Me Wrong
15. Criminal
16. Room Full Of Mirrors
17. Louie, Louie
18. Stop Your Sobbing
19. Tattooed Love Boys/Up The Neck

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62272 in Music
• Released on: 2006-03-14
• Number of discs: 5
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered

Album Description
On "Brass in Pocket," one of the pretenders earliest singles-and their first to chart in the U.S., scoring #14 in Billboard-Chrissie Hynde sings, "I'm special, so special, I gotta have some of your attention, give it to me." Formed in London in '78 with Hynde, James Honeyman Scott, Martin Chambers, and Pete Farndon, the band received massive attention for that hit and other stellar songs from their 1980 self-titled debut album. Via impeccable musicianship and Hynde's charismatic persona-equal parts cool swagger, tough-but vulnerable lyrics and vocals, and idiosyncratic rhythm guitar-the Pretenders reinvented the concept of a woman in rock 'n' roll and became one of the most popular and distinctive acts in the world. Chrissie Hynde's singular presence has never ceased to build on their artistic legacy, chronicled now for the first time in Pirate Radio.

Amazon.com
Holding the Pretenders' Pirate Radio box set in your hand, you may be tempted to ask: What took you so long? Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, the Pretenders' impact on popular music goes without saying, and for a quarter century Chrissie Hynde has remained one of the smartest, sassiest, sexiest, and shaggiest women in rock. So this in-depth collection seems, if not overdue, at least a long time in coming.

At 81 tracks, Pirate Radio will satisfy die-hard fans with more fully remastered big hits and deep cuts than the earlier Singles and Greatest Hits compilations, as well as some previously unreleased gems--covers of "Angel of the Morning" and Warren Zevon's "Reconsider Me" are both standouts. The career-spanning live DVD is also a treat, with many performances featuring the original lineup. Add in a 60-page booklet jammed with chronological liner notes and reflections from band members, and you've got a powerful package. What's striking is how coherent this set sounds throughout all four discs, largely due to Hynde's unmistakable voice: From the punk swagger of their immortal 1979 debut to the reggae-informed sounds of 2003's Loose Screw, and after more personnel changes than Spinal Tap's percussion section, it all sounds like no one other than the Pretenders. --Ben Heege

Customer Reviews

Excellent overview of a rock 'n' roll survivor 4 1/2 stars
The Pretenders catalog has needed to be upgraded for CD for a long time. They finally get their due with this sprawling but terrific boxed set. Although it is flawed (giving equal weight to all versions of the band doesn't do the band or Chrissie Hynde's songs justice. The first three albums are essential while later ones can be a bit hit or miss), these minor flaws are more than made up for by the collection of rarities included as well as the DVD performance of the band.

Disc 1 opens with songs recorded for their first two albums as the main focus. Their first album is well represented although some classic songs are overlooked. The rarities are terrific including the demo for "Precious", the single version of "The Wait" and a rare demo of "Watching the Clothes Go Round" which would eventually show up on the retooled line up's third album. "Cuban Slide" has always been a favorite of mine and this is only its second appearance on CD to the best of my knowledge (it appeared on a UK budget priced compilation a couple of years ago). The sound quality is stellar.

Disc 2 opens with the terrific ode to survival "Back on the Chain Gang" and goes through the highlights of their third album including "My City Was Gone" and "2000 Miles". We get an alternate version of "When I Change My Life" as well as "Worlds Within Worlds". We also get the cr?me of the crop from the fourth and fifth albums. This disc closes out with a superb cover of The Beatles' "Not a Second Time".

Disc 3 continues on with the stronger tracks from the fifth album by which point The Pretenders was Hynde and a group of session musicians. The sixth album found a solid band beyond Hynde including Adam Seymour (one of the songwriters and guitarist for the short lived English band The Katydids) original drummer Martin Chambers back in the fold after being dismissed and/or leaving with the band's fourth album. We also get a nice solid group of rarities/unreleased tracks including a cover of "Angel in the Morning" (which was a big hit for Juice Newton), "Every Mother's Son" a previously unreleased demo, "Private Life", "Revolution" (not The Beatles song) and "Lovers of Today" live.

Disc 4 takes us through to the band's last recordings for Warner Brothers/Sire and includes material from their post-Sire Cds as well. The last disc 5 is a DVD of the band performing their hits live and lip synching throughout the years. It's a nice companion piece to the CD. The booklet has great rare photos from throughout the band's career. As to another reviewers concerns about these rarities/unreleased tracks being re-released as part of their original albums upgraded, that's more than likely going to happen as that is exactly what Rhino did with the Talking Heads set from a couple of years ago. The good news is that this is a strong compilation of material and does have the highlights of the band's later, weaker albums as well as their stronger ones. If you can hold out wait for the re-releases so you can pick which ones you'd like to buy and then supplement them with a greatest hits package for the highlights of the lesser albums.

Pretenders In A Box
Pirate Radio is a sprawling four disk box set (with a DVD also included) that has all the major hits plus rarities, demos and oddities expected from such a release. The music on the first two disks is classic stuff but the set wavers in the last two disks because it pays equal attention to all aspects of the band's career. That's not to say it is bad music, it pales to the band's glory days from 1979-1984. But the 1990's version of the band, which is still good, gets equal representation as the band's first two lineups which were among the greatest groups of the late 70's and mid 80's. The DVD contains live television performances and seeing the original lineup perform classics like "Tattooed Love Boys" and "Stop Your Sobbing" is well worth the viewing.

FINALLY!
It takes record companies and/or bands so very long to condense a body of work into its greatest offerings. Not many go for these large disc sets, but they have proved to be well worthwhile in the long haul (see e.g. Tom Petty's "Rewind" and Stevie Windwood's similar box set).

If for nothing else, buy this for the distinctive mix of "Precious" --- Chrissie Hynde at her snarling, pissed off best --- "Porcelain" and the phenomenal "Cuban Slide." How these last two missed making the cut on at least one of their first three LPs beats me, but I've been waiting YEARS to find them on disc --- they were released on an EP that I believe was originally sold in the UK to promote their first LP.

Well worth the expense, not only for a good overview of the band through its many transitions and phases, but also for the rare cuts that prove they are/were one of the most important bands bridging punk rock to alternative music in the 1980s. Moreover, for you fans of distinctive female vocals and solo female artists, almost all owe a great deal to Chrissie Hynde for blazing a scorching path for their success.