Chrissie Hynde, Leader of the Band
“Now, let me assure you that, technically speaking, however you want to look at it, this was all my doing and I take full responsibility.”
— Chrissie Hynde could be talking about her whole life in that one sentence.
Everyone had that album: the Pretenders first. Pictured: a line up — sulky Chrissie Hynde in a ketchup-coloured jacket with the three male members of the band in black, variously posing. There she is, just one of the band — and at the same time, so startlingly different.
Hynde was no floaty hippie chick, like the women in Fleetwood Mac or even Grace Slick; she wasn’t an arthouse poet like Patti Smith or Joni Mitchell. She was street-hard, cool, charismatic, already post-punk — and subtly, the leader of the pack. She was so special.
Note the early 80s typography
Chrissie Hynde, with her swagger, her beautiful, flexible contralto and instinctive, precise musicality was, and still is, the heart of The Pretenders.
Hynde has just published a memoir, Reckless, about her escape from safe, suburban Akron, Ohio, her years scrabbling around the edges of the music scene, and her eventual success with The Pretenders. She knew everyone in punk-era London: from the Clash to the Damned. She was mates with Sid but not Nancy; Vivienne and Malcolm; Steve Strange, Brian Eno. She had a daughter with The Kinks’ Ray Davies in the early 80s. Punk? Anyone with attitude could pick up a guitar and shout. The problem for Hynde, according to Viv Albertine of The Slits, was that she was too talented. No one wanted to play with her. No wonder.
“I knew I loved singing, but it took me a long time to feel like I owned it. But I knew it owned me and always had.” — NN in Pisces opposite Venus, Mercury, Sun in Virgo
That debut album, which came out in 1980, was pretty perfect. Great songwriting, great music and so tight. Precious, Kid, Brass in Pocket: they sound as fresh now as they did then; the result maybe of Hynde’s having to wait nine long years to get her band together, slumming in squats and dead-end jobs in London and briefly Paris, singing a little. Jupiter, bringer of gifts, had finally reached her Sun in 1980. But within two years of that album — and after a second practically perfect LP — two out of four Pretenders were dead, killed by drugs. Transiting Pluto was crossing Hynde’s ascendant in those years. She came into her power, but was being so close to that source what killed her friends? Uranus switched on her Scorpio Moon when Pretenders was released too. It was all systems go.
Those deaths might have stopped some people in their tracks, but Hynde powered on, reforming the band within months. Pluto was now in her first house by transit. The Pretenders rose from the dead, and in fact, although the line up changed and morphed, always with Hynde at its heart, the band kept playing — for the next 35 years give or take a few breaks. Their most recent gig was in December. Hynde has just produced her first solo album Stockholm, but she still sounds like she’s singing with a band.
“By no means am I a great musician — I get away with it. … I’m just more of a good bandleader. Knowing what everyone’s good at doing, trying to put it together. Every band needs one. The word “democracy” is used, but that’s just to pacify everyone — someone has to steer the thing. It’s like a lion tamer: You can’t let them go in there and maul a gazelle — that’s not entertainment.” Self-deprecating Virgo Sun, Cardinal Libra Rising, bold Jupiter in Aries
Hynde is clearly a musicians’ musician too. She’s worked with Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Neneh Cherry, Cher, Nick Cave, Morrissey, Neil Young, country singer Faith Hill, etcetera, etcetera …
Data from astrodatabank
It’s no surprise to see that Chrissie Hynde has the Moon in Scorpio. She’s a survivor alright. She’s been raped, wasted and looked at the world from the gutter. She’s seen her comrades in music destroyed by drugs. But she emerged from all that with two babies, her mind intact and the career she’d always wanted. She is tough. The Pretenders first single was Stop Your Sobbing, a song about someone who just wants the other person to shut up and quit whining. American Hynde has a very British stiff upper lip – maybe that why she lives in London.
“Any experience is better than no experience.” — Jupiter in Aries
Of course, she also has Jupiter in the 6th house in Aries. She grows from direct personal experience, and through work. And it’s that direct personal experience that we hear in her voice and in her songs. You can hear that Hynde has been there and done that. That Jupiter squares non-conformist Uranus, the highest planet in the chart, and together these two create a pattern with the Moon. Uranus in Cancer: motherhood changed her; she’s an unusual sort of mother, but so passionate and committed with that Scorpio Moon.
Hynde came close to being killed as a young woman on a couple of occasions which she details in her memoir. Both times she was high (or low) on drugs and both times she walked into extreme danger. Her sense of safety wasn’t there (Jupiter in Aries (stupidly brave)) and her boundaries weren’t either (Saturn in the 12th). She was saved by her Scorpio Moon, and perhaps by Pallas Athena on the IC. On some level, she needed to sacrifice herself (NN in Pisces). This sacrifice may have made her into the artist (NN in the 5th) she is today.
Her description of a sexual assault by a biker gang in Ohio when she was 21 caused a twitter storm last week. She was accused of “victim-blaming” because she said, “this was all my doing and I take full responsibility”. It’s interesting that she sees it that way, and fully in keeping with her chart. She chooses not to be annihilated by the event and takes control of it by taking responsibility. This is Saturn’s realm, and with her Saturn in the 12th, she may not be sure of who is responsible for what, or she may feel responsible for everything. Saturn is very strong in Libra, maybe too much. Her life has been about taking control and because she has such overpowering emotions, thanks to the Scorpio Moon and maybe that Jupiter-Neptune opposition, it’s critical.
“If something’s hassling me, I think, “I just don’t want that anymore.” … Once you’re in a hassle-free zone, everything’s pretty easy — until you get to old age, disease and death.” — Scorpio Moon
She was born with the Jupiter-Neptune opposition in Libra-Aries. As you’d expect from a musician, she has that Neptune rising. It’s also no surprise that she has great charisma with that Neptune in an energetic T-square. But it is a little distance from the ascendant, and one of the intriguing things about Hynde is the way that she is very public — up on the stage — but always hidden — the kohl-rimmed eyes behind the fringe. You can see her, but you can’t look into her soul. Her gaze, unveiled, might burn you.
Her first solo album
For some fans, Chrissie Hynde was, is and always will be the sexiest female rocker ever to strut the stage. Her sultry, cruel, passionate, vulnerable persona is part Scorpio Moon — and all Virgo Sun. Another Virgo singer with a ton of talent and a too-close relationship with drugs is the late Amy Winehouse. Of course, Hynde was lucky. She didn’t get famous until after her progressed lunar return, which is such a danger point for musicians.
Of course her sex appeal has that earthy Virgoan quality: mix that with the deep emotion of Scorpio Moon, and the good looks of Libra Rising. But despite being plain for anyone to see, hear and sense, Hynde’s sexuality is also cool and understated. She dresses like a rock star — trousers, singlet or waistcoat, hair – not a pornstar. She’s been in trouble for pointing out that a lot of female singers at the moment seem to feel they have to take all their clothes off to sell a record. With Mars in Leo, she’d find that pretty undignified.
When I heard an interview with Hynde earlier this year, I wondered how many planets she had in Aquarius. It was the way she talked about feeling most comfortable when she’s part of a band, most herself, and about how she’d spent most of her life single. These are Aquarian traits. The answer is that she has nothing in Aquarius, but she has Sun, Venus and Mercury in the 11th house, and Uranus is her highest planet. I don’t know her, so I heard the Uranus near the MC talking. And that is often the planet we see with Hynde. Her slightly androgynous look, her blokey talk. And whispering in the ear of that Uranus is Lilith, of course, the Dark Moon.
In some way, Hynde is an embodiment of Lilith, the independent, man-eater, and we hear that in her lyrics. Lilith is at an exact sextile to her poetic Venus in Virgo.
Unlike Lilith though, one suspects that motherhood has been good to Hynde, dragging her out of that tight ball of Virgoan anxiety and perfectionism. Her book ends like this: “I went on to have a lovely little family and found out that children really are the most joyful thing.” — NN in the 5th, conjunct Ceres, the asteroid of motherhood.
It’s interesting that she’s back in the limelight now. Saturn, the regulator, has just been oppressing her sensitive Moon (I wonder how she felt about all that victim-blaming stuff), Jupiter is about to transit her Virgo stellium, while Neptune is opposing it, particularly that Venus. This echoes the Neptune-Jupiter in her chart also. That could be kind of amazing, maybe a spiritual blossoming for the coolest Virgoan rocker.
I really admire her. When I read about her comment recently I thought it was really gutsy of her to say that because there’s a ring of truth to it. Sometimes when you play with fire there is always a chance that you may indeed get burned.
It occurred to me that she was also speaking as a mother. It’s good advice: don’t go off with the biker gang or get into stranger’s cars. Don’t take your safety for granted.
She’s very very Moon in Scorpio. Been waiting for you to do a Venus in Virgo special. We do sound boring and rather “held back” with that position but we are special none the less. Christina, the challenge is laid down ?
Yes…I have Venus in Virgo and get a bit fed up with the “uptight , maiden aunt ” image. Mind you I am an uptight maiden aunt. HAHAHAHA. Oh yes I have also been trying to reclaim the word “spinster” and make it positive.
I want to mention the wide conjunction of mars and Pluto in Leo in the 10th house. This arrangement, as I understand it, is relentless, sometimes ruthless, and is capable of resurrecting the self from encounters at the very edge of life – danger, often invited, jumping from the precipice, death, and often enduring {if they don’t die] experiences that might ruin most people. This Leo conjunction of power is in the sign of entertainment, show business, yet I wonder if all that Virgo, including Venus, is what saved her from self destruction and allowed her to refine herself and develop as an artist. It is also interesting that the South Node is in Virgo – the South Node being the past which demands to be further purified, and reconstructed, and refined through the portal of the NN. A great act of courage, a leap of faith, to refine all that Karma through the fifth house Pisces. also the Mars, Pluto deposit the Scorpio moon – another behind- the -scenes power house relationship, yet perhaps purified, refined and ordered by the finiky Venus in Virgo!
… yes well put. And that Mars-Pluto is so tremendously charismatic!