Althouse: "Okay, I'm not here to embolden anyone," says Chrissie Hynde, encouraged by the NPR interviewer to think of "Brass In Pocket" as "emboldening" women.

October 6, 2015

"Okay, I'm not here to embolden anyone," says Chrissie Hynde, encouraged by the NPR interviewer to think of "Brass In Pocket" as "emboldening" women.

"I don't understand why there's — You know what, I don't care what a lot of people want. You know? I'd rather say, just don't buy the f****** book, then, if I've offended someone. Don't listen to my records. Cause I'm only telling you my story, I'm not here trying to advise anyone or tell anyone what to do or tell anyone what to think, and I'm not here as a spokesperson for anyone. I'm just telling my story. So the fact that I've been — you know, it's almost like a lynch mob."

59 comments:

Chris N said...: Back on the NPR chain gang...; 10/6/15, 7:05 PM
Mark said...: Some people should not do book tours.; 10/6/15, 7:09 PM
Carnifex said...: I'm going to take her advice and not buy the fucking book.; 10/6/15, 7:12 PM
rehajm said...: She's not on the team, cat ladies...; 10/6/15, 7:22 PM
Robert Cook said...: Right on, Chrissie!; 10/6/15, 7:25 PM
Carol said...: Ehh, she makes a poor feminist. She's got nothing to be resentful about.; 10/6/15, 7:26 PM
John Cunningham said...: Chrissie handed the cr#p right back to the NPR stooge who was having the vapors and demanng that Hynde go thru a thought purification ritual. Gotta hand it to hynde!!; 10/6/15, 7:33 PM
Bill said...: Maybe "Brass in Pocket" empowered the beta-male interviewer.; 10/6/15, 7:43 PM
traditionalguy said...: She's a winner in my book. Give em hell Chrissie.

She is a free person from the generation that called things by their real names.; 10/6/15, 7:44 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Young and feral makes for a good Rocker Chick.

Old and feral makes for a Bag Lady.

I am Laslo.; 10/6/15, 7:51 PM
Michael said...: She just isn't going along, is she? Well done rocker lady, well done.; 10/6/15, 7:52 PM
Michael K said...: I wonder of that interviewer saw "Almost Famous ?"; 10/6/15, 7:58 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: I used to think she was just on her period a lot, but now that excuse is biologically dried up.

Chrissie Hynde: 'Shrill' and 'Feisty', turned up all the way to Eleven.

I am Laslo.; 10/6/15, 8:29 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Again, let me reiterate - Ms. Hynde has more wisdom and experience in her right pinkie, than the entire Women's Studies Department at Bryn Mawr; 10/6/15, 8:41 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: A picture of Chrissie Hynde topless.

Well, close enough.

I am Laslo.; 10/6/15, 8:42 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: I'll cut Chrissie Hynde some slack when she makes me a bacon sandwich.

I am Laslo.; 10/6/15, 8:59 PM
madAsHell said...: She's Carly Fiorina with a singing voice.

It's a candy store. Which one do I eat first?; 10/6/15, 9:13 PM
Lyle said...: We are all responsible for the people we hang out with. Hanging out with people who talk about raping and killing may get you into some trouble, or raped, or killed. Freedom!; 10/6/15, 9:17 PM
Paddy O said...: Do we have to give consent in order to be emboldened?; 10/6/15, 9:25 PM
cassandra lite said...: A week after 9/11, she refused to perform as part of a benefit concert in the KLOS radio (L.A.) studio until they removed the American flag. They did. Fuck her and the misery she rode in on.; 10/6/15, 9:46 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: A spine!; 10/6/15, 10:03 PM
Achilles said...: She used to be on the team. She isn't on the team anymore. The serpent is eating itself.

This is an issue with fascists. They don't let you stay on the team if you don't toe the line. Step off the reservation and you are treated pooorly; 10/6/15, 10:04 PM
Todd Roberson said...: I think Chrissie has the right idea ... (I'm just a skank who sings songs, etc.).

I just wish 1) Rhianna, Beyoncé and other such nincompoops would heed her advice and limit they themselves to singing songs and displaying their phat butts instead of lecturing us with their political observations and 2) Chrissie would be a little more circumspect in her comments and not resort to such tasteless and abrasive comments to drive home her otherwise reasonable position.

Note that #2 might help with #1, Chrissie.; 10/6/15, 10:15 PM
Unknown said...: Iirc she was never 'on the team'. She was cited by feminists simply for being a female in rock, but her attitude was never particularly pro-female.; 10/6/15, 10:47 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Humorless feminists are the Puritans of the modern era. Yuck - just please go away and let us be.; 10/6/15, 10:50 PM
Will Cate said...: I'm a real sucker for rock'n'roll memoirs. I've read 'em all, and I Kindled the Chrissie book and read it in one sitting. It isn't exactly an autobiography, in fact, the story ends abruptly after her two original bandmates in The Pretenders OD'd, so there's absolutely nothing at all in it about the entire rest of her life (her romance with Ray Davies, etc).

But she's strait-up honest about everything she went through. She made some great records, and totally lived the rock'n'roll life, for better and worse. Good for her.; 10/6/15, 10:53 PM
Mountain Maven said...: NPR prissies and Hynde, love that prog on prog takedown.; 10/6/15, 10:54 PM
Mark said...: Gotta love the conservatives cheering Hynde on.

It's almost like they forgot her statements after 9/11, like "Let's get rid of all the economic (expletive) this country represents! Bring it on, I hope the Muslims win!"

Gotta love conservative tunnel vision, picking their champions based on attitude not content.; 10/7/15, 5:56 AM
Robert Cook said...: "A week after 9/11, she refused to perform as part of a benefit concert in the KLOS radio (L.A.) studio until they removed the American flag. They did. Fuck her and the misery she rode in on."

So? Since when are we supposed to revere the flag? Any flag--including ours--is nothing more than the brand logo for the country it represents...a glorified Mercedes Benz hood ornament or Budweiser t-shirt. This is why certain religions proscribe image-making--(it's one of the Ten Commandments)--humans tend to fixate on the image--the representation or symbol--to the exclusion of considering the thing itself, as if the symbol were the thing itself, meaningful in its own right. It is idolatry.

If the American Flag represents anything, it certainly represents the right to not have to salute it, bow down before it, or otherwise display abject obeisance to it.; 10/7/15, 6:50 AM
tim maguire said...: I was going to write, "Chrissy Hynde does know how interviews work, doesn't she?" Then I thought it would work better if I said she "knows how promotional tours work."

Then a light went off.

Yes, she does know how promotional tours work.; 10/7/15, 6:53 AM
Nichevo said...: Robert, we really need a biography on you, to understand how you became a male Crazy Cat Lady. Show us on the doll where America touched you, Bobby.; 10/7/15, 7:22 AM
tim in vermont said...: Hippopotamuses scare the shit out of crocodiles. Hippos know this and keep the crocodiles in line. Supposedly, I have heard, they nudge their defenseless babies into the way of crocodiles and if any crocodile makes a move on one, they punish the shit out of that croc and make an example of it. Keeps the crocs respectful and so they know their place.

I get the feeling that this is what feminists are trying to do with men with these slut walks and by suggesting that a beautiful young girl has every right to walk around a park drunk, in her underwear (she does) and carries no responsibility for whatever might happen (Ohh kayyy...) They want to demonstrate complete cultural mastery.; 10/7/15, 7:30 AM
tim in vermont said...: Robert clearly hates America, one of the few countries on this planet that will tolerate his public declarations on the subject.

Imagine if he said something similar about his revered Soviet Russia as a citizen, or in Cuba, the worker's paradise he wishes America could become.; 10/7/15, 7:35 AM
tim maguire said...: Robert Cook said...If the American Flag represents anything, it certainly represents the right to not have to salute it, bow down before it, or otherwise display abject obeisance to it.

That's true. But why would someone object to a symbol of that? Sure, she can, but we can draw conclusions from her doing so. (Don't forget, Mr. Cook, the post you are responding to was not about her not saluting it, it was to her demand that it be removed.); 10/7/15, 7:54 AM
tim maguire said...: tim in vermont said...Robert clearly hates America, one of the few countries on this planet that will tolerate his public declarations on the subject.

Many liberals have concluded from the fact that America gets the most criticism that America deserves the most criticism, apparently not considering that America gets the most criticism because it's one of the safest countries to criticize.; 10/7/15, 7:56 AM
MadisonMan said...: Hippopotamuses scare the shit out of crocodiles

Not just crocodiles. I've never looked forward to running into one in the wild.; 10/7/15, 8:01 AM
Scott said...: Read the comments to the interview, from the cognescenti trying to out-snotty each other. It's pathetic.

I wonder how much she has made from having "My City Was Gone" played every weekday on The Rush Limbaugh Show...; 10/7/15, 8:17 AM
Bill Peschel said...: Unlike some people on this thread, I'm perfectly capable of holding two views about a person in my head at the same time.

I respect Hynde as an artist. Loved her songs, attitude, and honesty.

Hate her politics and support of antisemitism. She's not that bright.

Not hard at all.; 10/7/15, 8:26 AM
Scott said...: Oh. Wikipedia knows everything.; 10/7/15, 8:27 AM
Scott said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/7/15, 8:29 AM
Scott said...: I am holding only one view in my head about Chrissie Hynde. Indifference.; 10/7/15, 8:29 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Robert, we really need a biography on you, to understand how you became a male Crazy Cat Lady."

I was born in the mid-west, grew up in the south, raised in a happy, loving family by church-going Episcopal Republican parents who taught their kids to be polite, honest, ethical, and kind.

Everything I am and all the views I have issue from that.; 10/7/15, 8:33 AM
Known Unknown said...: "So? Since when are we supposed to revere the flag? Any flag--including ours--is nothing more than the brand logo for the country it represents...a glorified Mercedes Benz hood ornament or Budweiser t-shirt."

It's not, if you look to the principles upon which the nation was founded and leave behind the failures of fallible humanity of those who call themselves Americans. However, I have ambivalence about the flag. I love this country and what it stands for (again, ideas, not people) but I do think we should be free enough to ignore, trample, burn and tear down the flag. I think it's a strength that we allow true dissent. I've never been a huge fan of authority, and those who have a "bow down and take it" attitude from their position of power (R or D or whatever) will never be those getting my votes.; 10/7/15, 8:57 AM
Known Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/7/15, 9:08 AM
I Callahan said...: So? Since when are we supposed to revere the flag? Any flag--including ours--is nothing more than the brand logo for the country it represents

If that were the case, it shouldn't have mattered to her whether the flag was there or not. Obviously, she believes someone reveres the flag, and those were the people to whom she made that statement.

It's the symbol that embodies the very country you grew up in and live in. I think that's a bit more important than, say, the Ford blue oval.; 10/7/15, 9:11 AM
Nichevo said...: But what turned you traitor? Oh, none dare call it treason, but we're not blind, Bob. You only wish you had something to sell out and someone to sell it to.; 10/7/15, 9:11 AM
Robert Cook said...: "But what turned you traitor?"

Oh, but I didn't. I remain true to the principles I was raised with. Even though my parents didn't agree with the views I developed as I grew older, my views spring directly from the ethics they taught me.; 10/7/15, 9:42 AM
Nichevo said...: Ok, now explain that, if you please. I see "the country isn't just to my liking, so the hell with it." What do you see?; 10/7/15, 9:48 AM
Scott said...: Comfortable beliefs.; 10/7/15, 10:05 AM
Scott said...: This is a country where it's easy to be an armchair revolutionary.; 10/7/15, 10:05 AM
jr565 said...: Is it almost like a lynch mob? Is it? Tell us something we didn't know. You've just been bitten by reality because your side turned on you. We've known this for the longest time. And is in fact one reason why we oppose the left.; 10/7/15, 10:12 AM
jr565 said...: Robert Cook wrote:
"If the American Flag represents anything, it certainly represents the right to not have to salute it, bow down before it, or otherwise display abject obeisance to it."

Even if it affords you that right, it doesn't make you less of an ahole when you are so disrespectful of it. It actually makes you even more of an ahole.; 10/7/15, 10:15 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Ok, now explain that, if you please. I see 'the country isn't just to my liking, so the hell with it.' What do you see?"

I think I've told you what I see at length in my comments here over time...and will do so again. Why try to rehash it right now, out of context?

(Oh, okay...in short, the promise of a democratic republic, always more ugly and less true than has been depicted in our history books, but with a herky-jerky forward development toward greater fairness and justice--fought for by the people, and never given by those in power--has been hi-jacked by amoral thieves and murderers whose project is to rule the rule and to take all the money and resources they can, from everyone, by whatever means necessary. My attitude is hardly "to hell with it." If it were, I wouldn't bother opening my mouth about it.); 10/7/15, 10:55 AM
Jason said...: The men who carried the flag up Mount Suribachi and the Marines and sailors engaged on Iwo Jima who saw it go up and knew what it meant could not be reached for comment.; 10/7/15, 10:55 AM
Jason said...: Cookie apparently never bothered to pay attention to the lyrics of the National Anthem or how it was written.

That won't stop the lefty from imagining himself to be superior and more enlightened to those who did, though.; 10/7/15, 10:58 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: This is a country where it's easy to be an armchair revolutionary.

Well said.; 10/7/15, 11:15 AM
Moneyrunner said...: Cookie is unhappy with people. I blame his parents.; 10/7/15, 12:22 PM
Unknown said...: NPR: heavily edited and misleading.; 10/7/15, 1:42 PM
Unknown said...: MC:

Seaman/Fireman Recruit:
I am the Flag of the United States of America. My name is OLDE GLORY.

I fly atop the world's tallest buildings I stand watch in America's Halls of Justice.

I fly majestically over Great Institutions of Learning.

I stand guard with the Greatest Military power in the World.

LOOK UP! and see ME!!!

Seaman/Fireman Apprentice:
I stand for Peace Honor Truth and Justice.

I stand for Freedom!!

I am confident I am arrogant I am proud.

When I am flown with my fellow banners, my head is held a little higher - my colors are a little truer

Seaman/Fireman:
I BOW TO NO ONE!

I am recognized all over the world.

I am worshipped - I am saluted - I am respected - I am Revered - I am loved - I am Feared!!

Petty Officer Third Class:
For more than 200 years, I have fought in Every battle of Every war;

Gettysburg, Shiloh, Appomattox, San Juan Hill, The Trenches of France, the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome, The Beaches of Normandy

Petty Officer Second Class:
the jungles of Guam, Okinawa, Tarawa, Korea, Vietnam and in the heat of the Persian Gulf and a score of other places.

Long forgotten by all, but those who were there with me.

I was there.

Petty Officer First Class:
I led my Sailors and Marines,

I followed them, I watch over them, they Love Me.

I was on a small hill on Iwo Jima.

I was dirty battle torn and tired but my Sailors and Marines Cheered Me!!!!

I WAS PROUD!

Chief Petty Officer:
I have been soiled burned torn and trampled on the streets of countries that I have helped to set Free.

It does not Hurt for I am invincible.

I have been soiled burned torn and trampled on the streets of my own country

And when it is done by those whom with I have served in battle. It HURTS!!!

But I shall Overcome for I am strong!!

Senior Chief Petty Officer:
I have slipped the surely bounds of earth and, from my vantage point on the moon,

I stand watch over the New Frontiers of Space.

I have been the silent witness to all of America's finest hours.

Master Chief Petty Officer:
But my finest hour comes when I am torn into strips,

To be used as bandages for my wounded comrades on the Field of Battle

When I fly half mast to Honor my Sailors and Marines

and when I lie in the trembling arms of a Grieving Mother - at the graveside of her fallen son or daughter

I am proud!

Retiree:
My Name is "Olde Glory" Long May I Wave Dea; 10/8/15, 12:37 AM