Pretenders: Brass in Pocket

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Listening to Radiohead’s “Creep” and the singer’s wish to be “special” kept reminding me of Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders, their breakthrough hit of 1979. Bandleader Chrissie Hynde said that she was initially reluctant to have the song released: “When we recorded the song I wasn’t very happy with it and told my producer that he could release it over my dead body, but they eventually persuaded me. So I remember feeling a bit sheepish when it went to number one.” Scarlett Johansen repopularized the song in “Lost in Translation“.

Got brass in pocket
Got bottle, I’m gonna use it
Intention, I feel inventive
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice

Got motion, restrained emotion
Been driving, Detroit leaning
No reason, just seems so pleasing
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice

(chorus)

Gonna use my arms
Gonna use my legs
Gonna use my style
Gonna use my sidestep
Gonna use my fingers
Gonna use my, my, my imagination

Cause I’m gonna make you see
There’s nobody else here
No one like me
I’m special. so special
I gotta have some of your attention – give it to me

Got rhythm, I can’t miss a beat
Got new skank, its so reet
Got something, I’m winking at you
Gonna make you, make you, make you notice

(chorus)

cause I gonna make you see
There’s nobody else here
No one like me
I’m special, so special
I gotta have some of your attention
Give it to me

shank (n) – lower-class, trashy girl; also: a dance to ska or reggae music
reet (adj.) – good, proper, excellent, 1934 jazz slang, Amer.Eng. dial. pronunciation of right


learning english with songs 🙂 englischlernen mit liedern

Comments

2 Responses

  1. Both, the Radiohead song, and even more so “Brass in pocket” by the Prenders remind me of the song “Special” by garbage – and I’m quiet sure that this is no coincidence, as garbage’s singer Shirley Manson seems to be a fan of Chrissie Hynde. If the Pretender’s song sounds like a beginning, or a preface , the garbage version is an epilogue

    […]
    Do you have an opinion?
    A mind of your own?
    I thought you were special
    I thought you should know
    But I’ve run out of patience
    I’ve run out of comments
    I’m tired of the violence
    I couldn’t care less
    […]

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