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Album: Pretenders
Avg rating:
7.3

Your rating:
Total ratings: 1208









Released: 1980
Length: 2:58
Plays (last 30 days): 0
Kid what changed your mood
You've gone all sad so I feel sad too
I think I know some things we never outgrow
You think it's wrong
I can tell you do
How can I explain
When you don't want me to

Kid my only kid
You look so small you've gone so quiet
I know you know what I'm about
I won't deny it
But you forgive though you don't understand
You've turned your head
You've dropped by hand

All my sorrow, all my blues
All my sorrow

Shut the light, go away
Full of grace, you cover your face

Kid gracious kid
Your eyes are blue but you won't cry
I know angry tears are too dear
You won't let them go
Comments (103)add comment
 chuck.b.meyers wrote:

I believe I read that this song deals with a young boy finding out what his Mom did for a living (a prostitute)...lyrics take on a whole new meaning



True or not, it's undeniable that as much as Chrissie is the epitome of a badass rocker - her songs are full of emotional lyrics. Kinda like how Cat Stevens has that gruff voice, but writes about deep important ideas.
"
I said 'officer Obie, i don't think i can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on',

he said...

'shut up, kid'
"

Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant
One of the great LPs in rock history. And definitely one of the greatest debuts. KICKS ASS.
When I am feeling bad-ass, on top of the world, rebellious cool. with-it, on fire and I feel as though nothing in the world can stop me.....

I'm really pretending I am Chrissie Hynde 
Summer of 1981, stayed in Chamonix, France, climbing as much as we could for the season. All of the Americans and Brits hung out at the Bar National. It was right next to the post office so we could get our "Post Restant" letters from home. Owned by Maurice, who put up with us for our money, and the two waitresses were his daughters, who also put up with us. Brass in Pocket was on regular rotation on somebody's` boom box. Great summer, great climbing, and only almost died once=great stories and memories. Cheers! (Sorry for the spelling)
 maboleth wrote:
I'm a simple man, I see Pretenders I click sucko barfo. 
 

Then go listen to iHeartRadio 
As debut albums go, I always thought this was pretty much unbeatable.  Track after track of edgy, thoughtful, gritty, clean & dirty music.  Fantastic.
I'm a simple man, I see Pretenders I click sucko barfo. 
My God this song .... On an album that really consisted of one standout after another, this one still manages to hit the mark.
 chuck.b.meyers wrote:
I believe I read that this song deals with a young boy finding out what his Mom did for a living (a prostitute)...lyrics take on a whole new meaning
 
Wow. 
 justin4kick wrote:
Soundtrack of a period in life I would love to relive.  
 
Certainly be interesting to revisit for an evening or two but not sure I'd survive a full 2nd time around.

Bought this record in 79 in London. London was a very great city, with punk, jamaican people ,music at every corner, man could drink beer in the street and left glass outside... , it's one of the first i bought, i was 16 years old and all my life to come. Great to hear it now, 40 years after.
I believe I read that this song deals with a young boy finding out what his Mom did for a living (a prostitute)...lyrics take on a whole new meaning
Chrissie Hynde bekommt von mir immer mindestens eine 8 für die besondere Stimme
O_o_O_o_O_o_O_o
Stop Your Sobbing, followed by Kid then Brass In Pocket.  What a run for the first three Pretenders singles - almost unsurpassable by any pop group.  All fantastic records though BIP, arguably the weakest of the trip, was their breakthrough No.1 in the UK. Kid is one of those records that uplifts your spirits every time you hear it. Just magnificent.
 Proclivities wrote:
 I think Nick Lowe produced one or two tunes on this album, not this one though.
 
Yeah, Nick produced the debut single "Stop Your Sobbing", which was used on the 1st album.

Famed U.K. producer Chris Thomas helmed the other eleven songs on the debut.

Legend has it that Nick dumped out early because he thought this band was D.O.A.
She's got a lot in common with Cat Stevens. A gruff voice with heartfelt, surprisingly emotive lyrics. Have you read them? This would make an excellent pair with Father & Son.

Kid, what changed your mood
You've gone all sad, so I feel sad too
I think I know some things we never outgrow
You think it's wrong
I can tell you do
How can I explain
When you don't want me to

Kid, my only kid
You look so small, you've gone so quiet
I know you know what I'm about
I won't deny it
But you forgive though you don't understand
You've turned your head
You've dropped my hand

All my sorrow, all my blues
All my sorrow

Shut the light, go away
Full of grace, you cover your face

Kid, gracious kid
Your eyes are blue but you won't cry
I know, angry tears are too dear
You won't let them go
Such a great album. Pure, perfect POP
 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
I'm too lazy but I always meant to do some sort of mashup of Kid with Cruel to be Kind. The drums have something in common I think would work... 

I think Nick Lowe produced one or two tunes on this album, not this one though.
 justin4kick wrote:
Soundtrack of a period in life I would love to relive.  

 
Ditto
The Pretenders' live version of Kid on The Isle of View album is just as good as this one in a completely different way.

Well worth a listen.
Soundtrack of a period in life I would love to relive.  

What a great album !!!
I just finished Chrissie's book "Reckless - My Life As A Pretender" and, as I didn't know much about them I got quite a few insights into her and the band. RIP James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon.


 ScottishWillie wrote:

Lived in a big house in Carlisle, there was no furniture and no heating. But I had this on stereo and a new significant other.  At a distance of almost 40 years the flood of memories triggered by this song are not about my squalid, 'working poor' existence but are mostly about a bohemian and romantic life.

I hold myself lucky that my subconscious tends to remember things this way round. 



 
"CLINK!!!"  cheers young man, that's a splendid remembrance, many more!



             Phenomenal debut Album. Was 19 and brought it with me to Seattle, (on cassette) from NYC January of 1980.
                     Incredible Band. Pete Farndon (bass) and James Honeyman-Scott were just too good to be true ~

{#Crown}


 
Lived in a big house in Carlisle, there was no furniture and no heating. But I had this on my stereo and a new significant other.  At a distance of almost 40 years the flood of memories triggered by this song are not about my squalid, 'working poor' existence but are mostly about a bohemian and romantic life.

I hold myself lucky that my subconscious tends to remember things this way round. 

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
I'm too lazy but I always meant to do some sort of mashup of Kid with Cruel to be Kind. The drums have something in common I think would work...

 

 
Hmmmm {#Think}
I loved it since the first time I ever heard it. WABX (Detroit) played this album repeatedly through one entire afternoon upon its release because it "was just so cool."  
Fine LP filled with fine memories living on Redondo Beach Esplanade 
 Sjaaks wrote:
Oh no_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_, not the Pretende_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_rs.
 
E_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_xa_a_a_A_a_actl_y_y_y!
Powe pop a-go-go! This following Starry Eyes by The Records - sublime!
Usual hate key changes, but the one in the middle of this song is sublime {#Cool}
I'm too lazy but I always meant to do some sort of mashup of Kid with Cruel to be Kind. The drums have something in common I think would work...

 
 Cynaera wrote:
 I'd love it if Chrissie would come back with a really close replica of the original Pretenders. It wouldn't replace the long-lamented Honeyman-Scott and Farndon, but....
 

This album was the soundtrack for the early 80s for me and I thought Chrissie would never reach these heights again but I have to say Stockholm comes very very close. 


{#Good-vibes}  I lurve the Pretenders.
Nice segue from Starry Eyes
Oh no_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_o_, not the Pretende_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_e_rs.
 
 
I guess it's a hate-it-or-love-it kind of thing...     
{#Meditate}
 lemmoth wrote:

Love this album but also put Learning to Crawl right up there with it, better than Pretender's II IMHO.  Also more recent highlight was Breaking Up the Concrete.  You should check it out.
 
Ohhhh - I've heard some stuff from Breaking Up the Concrete, and it's awesome! Hard, harsh, trite, and true. So typical of Chrissie and the ghosts of the Pretenders. I know it isn't fair to compare the new band with the original. Things change. People change. Ideas and ideals change. I think I'll embrace the Pretenders as they were in the beginning, and apart from what might have been some soul-searching in the middle of the mess, I'll embrace them as they are now - a new band, with their roots where they always were - in brutal truth, sharp observation of the world around them, and a glimpse into the tenderness that can still be found, if one looks in the right place at just the right moment.

And that read just like a critical review... GUH.  Shutting up now. {#Doh}    
 Cynaera wrote:

Totally agree.  I wish drugs hadn't taken their toll - this is one band that could have withstood the test of time with no effort - they just melded.  I love the early Pretenders stuff... I miss them.  I'd love it if Chrissie would come back with a really close replica of the original Pretenders. It wouldn't replace the long-lamented Honeyman-Scott and Farndon, but....

Oh, crap.  I just miss the old days of "Up the Neck," "Tattooed Love Boys," and this one.....

 
Love this album but also put Learning to Crawl right up there with it, better than Pretender's II IMHO.  Also more recent highlight was Breaking Up the Concrete.  You should check it out.  AMG on Learning to Crawl:

Hynde was forced by circumstance to reinvent the Pretenders for their third album, 1984's Learning to Crawl, but if the new edition of the group lacked some of the spark of the band that made the first two LPs, through sheer force of will Hynde created a masterpiece. While Hynde hardly held back in her emotionally potent songwriting in the Pretenders' early work, on Learning to Crawl there's a gravity to her lyrics that blended with her tough but wiry melodic sense and streetwise intelligence to create a set of truly remarkable tunes. "Back on the Chain Gang" is a touching tribute to her fallen comrades that still sounds bitterly rueful, "Middle of the Road" is a furious rocker that explores the emotional and physical toll of a musician's life, "Time the Avenger" is a taut, literate examination of a businessman's adulterous relationship, "My City Was Gone" deals with the economic and cultural decay of the Midwest in a manner both pithy and genuinely heartfelt, and "2000 Miles" is a Christmas number that demonstrates Hynde can be warm without getting sappy.

 treatment_bound wrote:
31 years later, and I pretty much adore everything on this album EXCEPT "Brass in Pocket", which we are all sick of by now.  Thanks RP, for keeping the rest of this masterpiece alive.
 
Agree with you EXCEPT your EXCEPT - some of us are not sick of Brass in Pocket, or Mystery Achievment, since we don't listen to terrestial radio and only hear them when we want to hear them and as a surprise on the most eclectic rock radio station in the world, RP.

 LowPhreak wrote:
This entire album is an A#1 rock classic. Love it. 'Pretenders II' also.

Makes you wonder what Pretenders might have done had Honeyman-Scott and Farndon stayed around.
 
It rocks end to end, that's for sure. 

And a lot in the middle, too. 
31 years later, and I pretty much adore everything on this album EXCEPT "Brass in Pocket", which we are all sick of by now.  Thanks RP, for keeping the rest of this masterpiece alive.
 Cynaera wrote:
Oh, crap.  I just miss the old days of "Up the Neck," "Tattooed Love Boys," and this one.....
 

I echo your sentiments. It's amazing to listen to the Pretenders now and compare them to what's currently popular. They still sound as fresh as ever and walk all over a lot of the stuff that is being pushed as "edgy." Go to the source...
 LowPhreak wrote:
This entire album is an A#1 rock classic. Love it. 'Pretenders II' also.

Makes you wonder what Pretenders might have done had Honeyman-Scott and Farndon stayed around.

 
Totally agree.  I wish drugs hadn't taken their toll - this is one band that could have withstood the test of time with no effort - they just melded.  I love the early Pretenders stuff... I miss them.  I'd love it if Chrissie would come back with a really close replica of the original Pretenders. It wouldn't replace the long-lamented Honeyman-Scott and Farndon, but....

Oh, crap.  I just miss the old days of "Up the Neck," "Tattooed Love Boys," and this one.....

 nate917 wrote:

Then I'm glad you heard it here, because you certainly won't hear it there.

 
Whyever not?

This entire album is an A#1 rock classic. Love it. 'Pretenders II' also.

Makes you wonder what Pretenders might have done had Honeyman-Scott and Farndon stayed around.

1980 this came out....man Im getting old.   Great tune then and now
 mandolin wrote:
...for some reason, this song sounds christmassey to my ears...
 
It's chords and melody are fleetingly reminiscent of a few classic, instrumental tunes: "Telstar", "Perfidia", "Theme From A Summer Place" - which was probably intentional.  I'm not sure about why you hear a Christmas sound though, but I do hear a distinct Fender® sound in the solo.


 mandolin wrote:
...for some reason, this song sounds christmassey to my ears...
 
Maybe it's that lush, gorgeous, ringing guitar solo... Dang, I love the early Pretenders stuff SO much! {#Dancingbanana_2}{#Sunny}
Oh, man - what memories this song brings back! I was living in Ventura, CA with my boyfriend and his whole family in a tiny little house. I'd never even heard of The Pretenders until BF's younger brother Christian played "Up the Neck," and I was hooked. Left that life and those people and never looked back (well, until now...), but I carried the early music of Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders in my heart.  To this day, I can't hear "Mystery Achievement" without dancing...
 horstman wrote:
This sounds like good music for the waiting room in heaven. Don't ask me why.
 
Then I'm glad you heard it here, because you certainly won't hear it there.

 ezzyme wrote:
Really, it's a 15
 
{#Cheers}

Really, it's a 15
This sounds just as good as it always has. That's the mark of a classic.
...for some reason, this song sounds christmassey to my ears...
This sounds like good music for the waiting room in heaven. Don't ask me why.
Oh, classic, classic.  Love it.
One of the best rock albums ever, in my opinion. When it came out, we (me and my circle of friends) were just amazed at the quality of the tracks on this album. I still am. {#Clap}
 miahfost wrote:

She had a relationship with Pete Farndon, the bass player. He died of a heroin overdose in the bathtub. One year before his death, the guitarist James Honeyman Scott died of a heart attack due to cocaine intolerance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Farndon
 
Thanks for the information Miafost.  Hope you and TravelRat (here on RP) are doing well in the former soviet union...

 chyk5 wrote:

Love this song. I think this was the only track on the 1st album not written by Chrissy. If memory serves, Ray Davies wrote it.




chyk5,

Nice retort on the Rush cut today.  Believe me, I hear them all the time, whether my ears are plugged or not, and I'm not even trying to listen for them.  And I'm not dissing the fact that you like them, I'm just a little sad they crop up on RP occasionally.

I just had to fire back on your Pretenders comment here .  Ray Davies wrote Stop Your Sobbing (it was on the first Kinks album), and Hynde either wrote or co-wrote every other song on Pretenders except Space Invader.



 Tim_in_N_FL wrote:

Amen...hail to Chrissie!  Love early Pretenders work, especially.  So sad re: the guitar player losses in this band, however.  Wasn't she married (or seriously involved with) one of these fellows?
 
She had a relationship with Pete Farndon, the bass player. He died of a heroin overdose in the bathtub. One year before his death, the guitarist James Honeyman Scott died of a heart attack due to cocaine intolerance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Farndon


This is Chrissie at peak form.
I got a free ticket to the Pretenders (opening act, Iggy Pop) in 1986—awesome.
 gopre wrote:
James Honeyman Scott, how we miss you. That's three dead guitarists in a row: Joe, Johnny, James.
 
Sort of a Spinal Tap kind of thing

Love this song. I think this was the only track on the 1st album not written by Chrissy. If memory serves, Ray Davies wrote it.



 dixiedeb wrote:
Chrissie is pure cool.
 
Amen...hail to Chrissie!  Love early Pretenders work, especially.  So sad re: the guitar player losses in this band, however.  Wasn't she married (or seriously involved with) one of these fellows?

This is OK but not the most exciting thing the Pretenders did in their first (and best) incarnation.  Personally I prefer most anything from the harder rocking first half of this album to most anything from the second half. 
OoooOooooooooh....not my favorite. lol
Why oh why do I not own any Pretenders?  *has to remedy that very quickly*  I've always liked them...
Nice voice and great licks.
prickelpit96 wrote:
Opener for U2 in Cologne 20 years ago. Since this time I've been a reliable Chrissie-fan.
Man, what I would give to have been at that show!
Honeyman-Scott's opening guitar riff on this is one of the tastiest in all of rock music.
apd wrote:
Anyone know what happened to Kid Jensen?
Still DJing, now with Capital Gold in London. You can have him back if you want...
Anyone know what happened to Kid Jensen?
gopre wrote:
James Honeyman Scott, how we miss you. That's three dead guitarists in a row: Joe, Johnny, James.
And one live one.
That vibrato is to kill for.. And Honeyman-Scotts playing. It's kinda sick that it's almost 26 years since he passed.
Opener for U2 in Cologne 20 years ago. Since this time I've been a reliable Chrissie-fan.
Props to Chrissie, stuck with the Pretenders iterations her entire career.
steeler wrote:
I remember a snippet from Rolling Stones Random NOtes many years ago after Chrissie was arrested at some club in Nashville for causing a disturbance. The item said something like: Said Hynde: "I don't like to be touched. They touched me."
It was at Tootsie's on 2d Avenue (Printer's Alley Area). She slugged a groupie who tried to put his/her arm around her. Slobbering drunks at Tootsie's are a hazard of the profession, male and female. Seems to me this was a female groupie, but I had had about 15 beers that night, so maybe I disremember.
Chrissie is Unique. One of a kind. Delicious!
Chrissie is pure cool.
James Honeyman Scott, how we miss you. That's three dead guitarists in a row: Joe, Johnny, James.
ScottishWillie wrote:
Me too!
Ditto. Truly a great song from one of my all time fave albums
Catalytic wrote:
Oh man I love this song. Brings back so many memories.
Me too
E_A_D_G wrote:
Saw the current iteration several months ago in DC. Martin as good as ever on the skins, Adam Seymour smoked on lead; new kid on bass. Ass was kicked, names were taken. Chrissie hasn't backed down an inch. Rock Goddess Supreme
I remember a snippet from Rolling Stones Random NOtes many years ago after Chrissie was arrested at some club in Nashville for causing a disturbance. The item said something like: Said Hynde: "I don't like to be touched. They touched me."
Saw the current iteration several months ago in DC. Martin as good as ever on the skins, Adam Seymour smoked on lead; new kid on bass. Ass was kicked, names were taken. Chrissie hasn't backed down an inch. Rock Goddess Supreme
Chrissie was (and is) an original. And she ROCKS
denmom wrote:
I'm supposed to be of the age where I like this band, but honestly I could never stand her voice...
Born in 1959, makes you 48. Yep, you should like it. But you might not remember me telling you this anyway. Ha ha
God what a voice.
denmom wrote:
I'm supposed to be of the age where I like this band, but honestly I could never stand her voice...
I'm supposed to be of the age where I don't like this band, but honestly I could always stand her voice ... !!! ... band's not bad either
Better than what I usually hear from them. Still not a fan though.
Brilliant track - Brilliant album. Brilliant band- pity J H Scott died so young.
One of my favorites from a great, great band. Love Chrissie's quavering voice.
I'm supposed to be of the age where I like this band, but honestly I could never stand her voice...
this was such a great album... just about every track.
Love this song but, because I heard it first, I prefer the Everything but the Girls version.
This song is nothing but a 10. Nothing but. Great guitar,great vibrato vocals.
Oh man I love this song. Brings back so many memories.