Pretenders "Learning To Crawl" LP (1983)

Details: The Pretenders' third studio album "Learning To Crawl" released on Sire. Allied Press. A transformational album for the Pretenders in a number of ways (changing of band members/mourning/motherhood and growth/pressing forward).

Description: "Learning to Crawl is the third studio album by British-American rock band The Pretenders. It was released on 11 January 1984 after a hiatus during which band members James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon died of drug overdoses.

After Farndon's dismissal from the band and Honeyman-Scott's death, Chrissie Hynde and Martin Chambers initially recruited Rockpile's Billy Bremner and Big Country's Tony Butler to fill in a caretaker line-up of the band in 1982. Bremner played guitar and Butler played bass on the band's September 1982 single "Back on the Chain Gang/My City Was Gone", both sides of which were later included on Learning to Crawl. As the album sessions got under way, Bremner, Graham Parker's bass player Andrew Bodnar, and Paul Carrack (formerly of Squeeze, Ace and Roxy Music) played guitar, bass and piano respectively for the track "Thin Line Between Love and Hate".

Finally, Robbie McIntosh (guitar) and Malcolm Foster (bass) were recruited to join Hynde and Chambers, and the band was now officially a quartet. It was this line-up that recorded the rest of the tracks featured on Learning to Crawl.

The November 1983 single "2000 Miles/Fast or Slow (The Law's the Law)" was the newly reconstituted foursome's first release, followed shortly by the full Learning to Crawl album in January 1984.

The album's title of "Learning to Crawl" was given in honor of Chrissie Hynde's then-infant daughter, Natalie Rae Hynde. She was learning to crawl at the time that Chrissie was trying to determine a title for the album."

Grade: VG+ (Cover) / NM (Record)

TRACK LISTING SIDE A:

A1. Middle Of The Road
A2. Back On The Chain Gang
A3. Time The Avenger
A4. Watching The Clothes
A5. Show Me

TRACK LISTING SIDE B:

B1. Thumbelina
B2. My City Was Gone
B3. Thin Line Between Love And Hate
B4. I Hurt You
B5. 2000 Miles