Pretenders - James Honeyman Scott

[longhouse]

A pleasant surprise, this. Great player / top band.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt6_fuVo0W0

[wints]

Yes, one of the better guitar players that came from the late 70's. Great band in the early days as well...

[scotty]

I love the pretenders.A thin line between love and hate is a fav of mine.Great band.

[manta]

I thought I've heard some RIC sound in the Pretenders tunes. I also think "Night in My Veins" has a RIC jangle (or should have). I'd love to see Hynde get together with Petty & the Heartbreakers a la Stevie Nicks and do that song with Campbell doing lead on one of his RIC 12s.

T

[chronictown]

Love that guy, died way too young. He was a major influence on Johnny Marr.

[shamustwin]

Oh, man one of my favorite bands ever, and one of their coolest songs. Thanks for that.

[tamborineman]

I thought I've heard some RIC sound in the Pretenders tunes. I also think "Night in My Veins" has a RIC jangle (or should have). I'd love to see Hynde get together with Petty & the Heartbreakers a la Stevie Nicks and do that song with Campbell doing lead on one of his RIC 12s.

T

Great idea Tim, Chrisse would be great with Campbell. Chain Gang and 2000 Miles come to mind as Ric 12 high points.

[walker]

I'm also a huge Pretenders fan, particularly their early stuff. Here's a story about a friend of mine who's Rick guitar was stolen and how it indirectly relates to James Honeyman-Scott.

A student of mine who ended up being a good friend played a burgundy-finish Rickedbacker 6-string - a gorgeous guitar, and it sounded sweet. He'd play it at lessons plugged into my old Ampeg amp and I'd play acoustic guitar along with him as I showed him the tunes. (His name was Jim Evans. He's the same guy that elicited my punk rock epiphany.) One day Jim showed up at the lesson without his guitar. "It got stolen." he said. My heart dropped and my eyes rolled back in my head. I felt so bad for him. Having your guitar stolen is a staple nightmare for any musician, like I need remind you. He told me about how someone had broken into his car and taken it. Although I felt like saying "STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!" to him for leaving it in his car in the first place, my empathy far outweighed my urge to dish a little tongue-in-cheek scolding. So we moped through lessons for quite a few weeks. He finally broke down and bought another Rickenbacker guitar, this one blonde and a slightly different model. But that was cool. It was gorgeous and sounded sweet too, as all Rickis do.

Then one day, with sort of a "You're not going to believe this..." look on his face, he had news once again. "I think I know where my old guitar is." Apparently the guy at the music store who sold Jim his new Ricki saw the burgundy guitar floating around in some insundry circle somewhere. Details sounded shady as to how well the music clerk might have known the guitar thief, but what mattered was that he was going to make an effort to get it back for Jim.

The next week Jim had it... the old burgundy Ricki that I'd grown fond of since it had been stolen. I was absolutely amazed that he even got it back. That's like a one-in-a-thousand longshot, getting back a guitar that's been stolen from you. Jim had brought his new blonde Ricki that day as well. In previous lessons, we had been working on the guitar solo from "Kid", so this week, we both plugged in and played along with Pretender's guitarist: the late James Honeyman-Scott. Jim had his burgundy guitar, and I played his blonde. All three of us playing this passage together just sent chills down my spine, it was so (*******) cool... one of those moments where all the elements within our little diorama converged in perfect resolve.

Here's the song & guitar solo for those who haven't heard it, or just want to hear it again:

[rickenbrother]

I've beard the "Chain Gang" was written as a tribute to James Honeyman Scott.

Pete Farndon with a 4001 on "Talk Of The Town":

[atomic_punk]

They have so many good songs from the original lineup...my personal favorite is "Mystery Achievement"...but Kid is a close second because of the wonderfully melodic solo. Just get those first two CD's and you will love them!

[digam11]

I think that may be one of 1st times I`ve seen Chrissie w/out a Tele in that first clip.

[BuddyDog]

Just digging up an old thread (the search function really does work!).

I have been listening a lot to the Pretenders, lately. Sure thought it sounded like a Ric with flatwounds, toasters on some of the songs and a 12 string on "Back On the Chain Gang" for the rythym.

[jps]

There was a recent Fretprints article in VG about the Pretenders, I'll have to look back and see what guitars were mentioned.

[Tommy]

Love that guy, died way too young. He was a major influence on Johnny Marr.

Marr has said that playing the solo to "Kid" was his warm up exercise for years.

[marc61]

I remember Honeyman Scott's widow selling the Ric guitar he got from Townsend (along with a note stating it was one of only two he didn't smash).

Sad but left a legacy of cool guitar licks