The Pretty Things (Official Thread)

[joe]

Re: The Pretty Things

No, not at all.

You pretty much said it yourself. For me, it is how the band made the transition and expanded from thier sound of thier first three albums to S.F. Sorrow. Quite a significant shift and contrast in musical direction and sound.

With S.F. Sorrow I hear the Beatle-esque sound similar to that of Sgt. Pepper, the experimental sounds of early Pink Floyd, yet still retaining some what of a blues base combined with psych that I can hear is almost "heavy" and even elements of folk.

What more could I ask for. This album captures all the sounds of that era. An elephant walking on water.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: The Pretty Things

Cool! I hear a combination of all those bands when I hear older bands but I think on my part it's my lack of depth (not a dislike though of) with 60's music and I probably will associate a lot of bands with groups from that era I find most familiar!

 

[joe]

Re: The Pretty Things

I can understand that Soot. It's not much different for me on some of the music of the 90's and 2000's. I think to have an appreciation for a band or a piece of music, some of the criteria is that of the development and history of the particular artist and genre, the era and the region where and when the music was produced, influences and the influenced of that particular artist, amongst many other factors.

So, for me, research on an artist is very important. Knowing what I stated above does have a big part on my "take" on a piece of music. I think most of us do.

 

[joe]

Re: The Pretty Things

The Pretty Things s/t debut was released in 1965 and sounds raw as an open wound. Filthy, garage punk driven R&B and blues, this album without a doubt would of made anyone at the time they heard it have the hair stand up on the back of thier neck. Just nasty.

The album features originals as well as cover versions of some of Bo Diddley's tunes like "Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut" and "Roadrunner" in which the Pretties chew on it and spit it out. Raw and rude.

The album reached #6 on the UK charts in 1965. Along with the Sonic's from Seattle debut "Here Are The Sonics" from 1965 as well, are a forerunner to punk.

 

[Truckin]

Re: The Pretty Things

 

[Sweaty]

Re: The Pretty Things

I like the Pretty Things, missed them some years ago and never seen them live, would love that pleasure.

 

[joe]

Re: The Pretty Things

The Pretty Things sophmore release Get The Picture? from late 1965 shows the bands confidence in thier own songwriting mostly from the May/Taylor team. A slight improvement over thier first album, again the Pretties place the emphasis on crudeness, spontaniety, and sexual brutality of dark sneering garage rock.

The 2000 remastered reissue on CD from Snapper includes six fantastic bonus tracks in which Truckin posted one of them above. A few of these tracks are drug related in theme and for that year most bands didn't touch the drug subject what so ever.

 

[joe]

Re: The Pretty Things

1967's release, Emotions saw the band leave thier raunchy R&B sound of the first two albums and experiment with orchestral arrangements. Some of the tracks are over powered by the horns and strings and remove the focus from the band, though on the other hand some songs do work well the orchestration. Emotions does somewhat set the compass for S.F. Sorrow though there would be a few singles after this release that were the foundations of the first opera.

 

[joe]

Re: The Pretty Things

The Pretty Things switched labels from Fontana to Columbia after the release of Emotions in 1967. The band released two singles for thier new label in late '67 and early '68. The first was "Defecting Grey"/"Mr. Evasion" that show the Pretties expanding more into psychedelia, especially the heavy psych "Defecting Grey", a classic psych gem.

"Talkin' About The Good Times" experiments with eastern influences as well with a mellotron. Psych at it's best.

This sound and experimentation was to be basis for thier ground breaking rock opera, S.F. Sorrow, later in 1968.

 

[joe]

Re: The Pretty Things

A psychedelic masterpiece. A five star album. A classic. Gold. I can't say enough good things about this album. Ranks up there with Sgt. Peppers, Love's Forever Changes and The Zombies Odyssey And Oracle IMO. Simply magnificent. A must listen to any who are a fan of psychedelic music from the 60's.

S.F. Sorrow is a story about a English "everyday joe" and his trials and tribulations from birth to death. The first rock opera and a big influence and the idea from which Pete Townsend came up with Tommy. Not only an influence on him but also many artists as The Pretties helped connect and transform rock from the typical blues base sound of the mid 60's and psychedelia to a more complex, experimental and stereo reproduction that was at the forefront of that time.

Everything is pretty much contained on this album; blues, folk, psych, eastern musical touches, multi-instrumentation, vocal harmonies, mood and ambience changes, experimental and state of the art production. Perfection.