I Think About You Daily

“I Think About You Daily” is the name of The Pretenders new single. My friend Brian, an avid music lover and concert-goer, asked me what I thought of it. He knows how I feel about Chrissie. I was embarrassed to say I hadn’t heard it. Yet.

Sometimes I fall out of touch. I stop paying attention. I turn off the music. I don’t know if that’s such a bad thing because when I return, my senses are heightened. 

So I listened to “I Think About You Daily” the following morning when I was in the kitchen making soup. I enjoy listening to music when I cook. Or when I run. Or when I’m gardening (and sadly killing all my plants). I like listening peripherally vs. staring at it. I was peeling my third carrot when I realized, “Expletive, she did it again.” Chrissie Hynde goes on and off the radar but she always comes back in stellar fashion. 

‘Daily’ is a 6 minute Lucinda Williams-esque drunk text with major 7ths about the passage of time and the people (or person) we leave behind. 

The kids are not gonna get it (nor should they be expected to). It won’t get algorithm’d over from Spotify because it mirrors their listening behavior. But I’m pretty sure Chrissie won’t care. She’s into telling it like she is…always has been. Plus, she’s older. Less to lose. Less to prove. Then again…she never really grew up entirely. I think that’s the secret. She still crushes and regrets and loves again for the first time.  

Time is like a hammer

It comes slow then comes fast

And things that are too delicate

Are never gonna last…

So let it go and move on down

That's my advice to me

But I never could take good advice

It was not my cup of tea

I have to live with knowing

You never knew how much

I saw you like a rock

I couldn't move or touch

Ouch. Sooo good.  

My husband receives letters now and then from an x-girlfriend. She’s never stopped thinking about him daily, I suppose 😳. Everyone thinks about somebody from their past every day. And you’re probably someone who somebody else thinks about. It’s Universal. And the more time gone by, the more days there have been. And thus, a song. 

Then she hits us with another single — the put-the-top-down and “Let The Sun Come In,” reminding us that she hasn’t gone soft. (Most artists do long before they’re 71 (years young).

We don't have to get fat, we don't have to get old

We don't have information that we have to withhold

Free as the bikers back when they were thin

We don't have to fade to black 

Let the sun come in

Thank you! There are some wonderful aspects to becoming more comfortable in our collagen-lacking skin. Chrissie is an artist that grows with me. Speaks my mind. Sometimes better than I speak it myself. 

She doesn’t stop either. She’s Relentless (the aptly titled album pre-release) — always dropping singles, EPS, collabs. During lockdown she recorded Standing In The Doorway — a tribute to her friend and influence Bob Dylan. She can go from leather jacket to pearls without blinking — like on a JAZZ album of romantic classics with the Beach Boys’ “Caroline, No” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “I Get Along Without You Very Well.” In 2014 I was obsessed “Dark Sunglasses.” But for some reason it’s grayed out on Spotify and red-flagged on Apple — "‘no longer available in the US!’ Why the hell not? Can anyone shed some light? Now I want to hear it more than ever. Like something you’re told you can’t have. I just texted Brain. He found it on YouTube. 😎

I hear people of a certain age swear there’s nothing to listen to anymore. I disagree. You just have to dig deeper than a Hits 1 playlist. (Although, “As It Was”!) 

I was thrilled to finally meet the woman backstage at the Hollywood Bowl after she rocked out with the Philharmonic. (I like her better with a band but I have to give her credit for being game.) She offered up the reason why she cut my song “Human On The Inside” some years back: She said it sounded more like the Pretenders at the time than the stuff she was writing. Honestly, I could have retired right there. 

But I can’t. I’m still having too much fun. I just hope I’m as inspired and prolific when I’m 71. 

That’s where I got the vest from!

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