The Pretty Things

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The Pretty Things (1965)

The Pretty Things were one of the longest running English rock bands. In the mid-1960s, with their heavy music and a dark image, they were considered one of the most conspicuous bands of their time. The Pretty Things also wrote rock history in 1968 - as the originator of what is probably the first rock opera S. F. Sorrow .

history

Phil May and Skip Alan of Pretty Things in a 1999 appearance
Dick Taylor, Phil May, Jack Greenwood, George Woosey and Frank Holland in the Downtown Blues Club (Hamburg) on ​​April 7th 2017

The band The Pretty Things was founded in 1963 by guitarist Dick Taylor , previously bassist with the Rolling Stones , and singer Phil May in London . Their band name borrowed from the musicians the song Pretty Thing by Bo Diddley .

Excessive stage shows, hard rhythm and blues and a dark image quickly made the band known. Like many other British bands at the time, the group made use of influential blues performers such as Howlin 'Wolf and Chuck Berry . Pretty Things soon started writing their own pieces. The band initially caused a stir with their appearance. The first self-titled LP and lewd Don't Bring Me Down made it into the top ten in the UK . The song was banned in the USA . Other singles like Honey I Need and Rosalyn also sold well. It was said that the Rolling Stones would look like a "tea party in the rectory" compared to the Pretty Things. Singer Phil May was considered the man with the longest hair in Europe. The second record Get The Picture? only contained smaller single hits with Cry To Me and Rainin 'In My Heart . When psychedelic rock became fashionable in 1967 , the band members began to come and go in confusion. The record company Fontana enriched the music with effects and arrangements for the next record Emotions against the will of the band, so that the Pretty Things were hardly recognizable. As a result, the Pretty Things lost the acceptance of many of their followers.

After moving to Columbia Records , the band worked with producer Norman Smith , who was also in charge of Pink Floyd in the studio at the time. Among other things, Pretty Things released the single Defecting Gray in 1967 , which is now considered a striking example of psychedelic rock. The song is a kind of mini-opera in which several completely different melodies merge. A sitar , backward-running tapes and other effects also alienate the work. These and other singles did not achieve any significant sales figures either.

In 1968, the Pretty Things probably became the first rock band to create a rock opera called SF Sorrow . Now a cult classic of the flower power era, the record was another commercial failure. To this day, S. F. Sorrow is often compared to Tommy from The Who . It is also sometimes claimed that the composer Pete Townshend copied part of the Pretty Things work that had appeared a few months earlier.

In order to make ends meet financially, the band recorded several albums with film soundtracks under the name Electric Banana . They were also seen as themselves in the 1969 film What's Good For The Goose by Menahem Golan .

Dick Taylor left the band temporarily after the failure and was briefly producer and member of the spacer rocker Hawkwind . The only remaining founding member Phil May created another critically acclaimed album with some new musicians: Parachute . Although Rolling Stone voted it the LP of 1970 , this record also went largely unnoticed by buyers. Parachute revealed the various abilities of the multi-instrumentalist Wally Waller , who composed a considerable part of the material and also appeared several times as the lead singer. Waller also produced Barclay James Harvest's first albums at this time .

Despite the renewed commercial failure, the Pretty Things did not give up. A new album was started, but it was never released. Individual songs of it were released on singles and can also be heard on the sampler The Pretty Things - Singles As & Bs .

The next released album Freeway Madness from 1972 found only a few buyers, so that the Pretty Things broke up. In 1974, Led Zeppelin's musicians, who were friends, offered a contract on their Swan Song label. This was followed by the lavishly produced albums Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye , which reached chart listings in the USA and made it possible for the band to tour there for the first time . Musical differences and drug problems prevented a constant career this time too, and the Pretty Things fell apart again. In 1980, this time with returning guitarist Dick Taylor almost in the original line-up, Cross Talk was released. This time, too, benevolent reviews did not result in significant sales.

In the following years there have been tours and recordings by May and Taylor with changing appearance as Pretty Things, including Blues - Sessions with Chicago musicians and former Yardbirds -Drummer Jim McCarty under the name Pretty Things-Yardbird Blues Band (produced by George Paulus for his St. George label) as well as new recordings of their old successes with German musicians.

In 1998 the Pretty Things made a name for themselves again with the first full live performance of their masterpiece SF Sorrow under the title Ressurection at the legendary Abbey Road Studios . The spectacle was broadcast on the Internet and well-known stars such as Arthur Brown and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour took part.

Although the photo was taken in 1968, the cover of the maxi CD All Light Up caused a stir in 1999 because it shows keyboardist Jon Povey lighting a joint back then . The title track pays homage to the 1960s both in terms of sound and text . In 1999 another Pretty Things album was released with Rage Before Beauty , in 2007 the band released the CD Balboa Island , 2015 The Sweet Pretty Things (Are In Bed Now, Of Course) . Former members Wally Waller, Skip Allen, Peter Tolson and Jon Povey released a completely revised version of the Pretty Things album Parachute as Parachute Reborn in 2012 under the name The xPTs .

In 2018 guitarist Dick Taylor announced a significant curtailment of the band's activities. He cited the poor health of singer Phil May as the main reason. On May 15, 2020, May died of complications after hip surgery that he had to undergo after a bicycle accident .

Although the Pretty Things were never able to build on their early successes in the 1960s in commercial terms, they exerted considerable influence on other musicians. Robert Plant , who later became Led Zeppelin singer, studied Phil May's stage show as a still unknown visitor to Pretty Things performances. David Bowie , an avowed fan of the band, covered two Pretty Things hits, Rosalyn and Don't Bring Me Down , for his 1973 album Pinups . The style and demeanor of the first Pretty Things drummer Vivian Prince , who joined the Hells Angels after leaving the band and a few unsuccessful attempts as a soloist , had an unmistakable influence on the eccentric Keith Moon of The Who . The scandalous appearance of the band in the early days also served as a model for many punk bands in the late 1970s .

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE UK UK US US
1965 The Pretty Things DE34 (2 weeks)
DE
UK6 (10 weeks)
UK
-
1970 Parachute - UK43 (2 weeks)
UK
-
1974 Silk torpedo - - US104 (9 weeks)
US
1976 Savage Eye - - US163 (6 weeks)
US

More albums

  • 1965: Get The Picture?
  • 1967: Emotions
  • 1968: SF Sorrow
  • 1972: Freeway Madness
  • 1980: Cross Talk
  • 1987: Out Of The Island
  • 1999: ... Rage Before Beauty
  • 2007: Balboa Island
  • 2015: The Sweet Pretty Things (Are In Bed Now, Of Course)

Live albums

  • 1978: Live
  • 1984: Live At The Heartbreak Hotel
  • 1992: On Air
  • 1998: Resurrection (SF Sorrow)
  • 2003: The BBC Sessions
  • 2006: 40th Anniversary - Live In Brighton
  • 2014: Live at the 100 Club
  • 2014: Live at Rockpalast
  • 2015: Live at the BBC
  • 2016: Live at the BBC
  • 2018: BBC 1964-1967
  • 2018: Singapore Silk Torpedo Live At The BBC & Other Broadcasts
  • 2018: Live at the BBC Paris Theater - 1974
  • 2019: The Final Bow

Compilations

  • 1975: Greatest Hits 1964–1967
  • 1976: Real Pretty
  • 1976: The Vintage Years
  • 1977: The Singles As & Bs
  • 1982: 1967-1971
  • 1984: Let Me Hear the Choir Sing
  • 1985: Closed Restaurant Blues
  • 1986: Cries From the Midnight Circus - The Best of 1968–1971
  • 1990: Electric Banana
  • 1990: More Electric Banana
  • 1990: The Pretty Things Collection
  • 1991: Greatest Hits
  • 1992: Get a Buzz: The Best of the Fontana Years
  • 1994: Midnight to 6
  • 1995: Unrepentant - The Anthology
  • 1997: The EP Collection… Plus
  • 1998: Greatest Hits
  • 2000: Latest Writs The Best Of ... Greatest Hits
  • 2000: Midnight to Six Man
  • 2001: The Rhythm & Blues Years
  • 2001: The Psychedelic Years 1966-1970
  • 2002: Singles As & Bs
  • 2003: The Very Best of the Pretty Things
  • 2004: Still Unrepentant
  • 2004: Come See Me: The Very Best of the Pretty Things
  • 2004: Midnight to Six Man
  • 2008: Singles '64 -68
  • 2011: The Electric Banana Sessions
  • 2013: Introducing the Pretty Things
  • 2015: Bouquets From a Cloudy Sky
  • 2017: The French EPs 1964-69
  • 2017: Greatest Hits

Soundtracks

  • 1981: The Monster Club

EPs

  • 2000: All Light Up

Singles

year Title
album
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
UK UK
1964 Rosalyn
UK41 (5 weeks)
UK
Don't bring me down
UK10 (11 weeks)
UK
1965 Honey I need
UK13 (10 weeks)
UK
Cry To Me
UK28 (7 weeks)
UK
1966 Midnight To Six Man
UK46 (1 week)
UK
Come see me
UK43 (5 weeks)
UK
A House In The Country
UK50 (2 weeks)
UK

More singles

  • 1966: Progress
  • 1967: Children
  • 1967: Defecting Gray
  • 1967: Trippin '
  • 1968: Death of a Socialite
  • 1968: Talkin 'About the Good Times
  • 1968: Private Sorrow
  • 1969: Baron Saturday
  • 1970: The Good Mr. Square
  • 1970: October 26
  • 1971: Stone-Hearted Mama
  • 1972: Over the Moon
  • 1974: Is It Only Love
  • 1975: I'm Keeping ...
  • 1975: Joey
  • 1976: Sad Eye
  • 1976: Tonight
  • 1978: Do My Stuff
  • 1980: I'm Calling
  • 1980: Falling Again
  • 1984: Take Me Home
  • 1989: Eve of Destruction
  • 1999: All Light Up
  • 2012: Honey, I Need

more publishments

Electric banana

  • 1967: Electric Banana
  • 1968: More Electric Banana
  • 1969: Even More Electric Banana
  • 1970: Hot Licks
  • 1973: The Return Of The Electric Banana

Phil May And The Fallen Angels

  • 1978: same

The xPTs

  • 2012: Parachute Reborn

Guest Posts

  • 1997: Judgment Day (on the sampler Knights Of The Blues Table)

In addition, there is a very confusing number of samplers with a wide variety of compilations as well as numerous side projects of the individual band members.

Members

literature

Web links

Commons : The Pretty Things  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Audio samples

Individual evidence

  1. Alexis Petridis: 'We were reprobates': the Pretty Things on being loved by Bowie - and smoking a spliff with Norman Wisdom In: The Guardian, October 25, 2018.
  2. visitilife.com
  3. srf.ch
  4. richieunterberger.com
  5. officialcharts.com
  6. Alexis Petridis: The Pretty Things: SF Sorrow In: The Guardian, May 6, 2010.
  7. Ben Beaumont-Thomas: Phil May, frontman with the Pretty Things, dies aged 75. In: theguardian.com . May 15, 2020, accessed on May 16, 2020 .
  8. a b Chart sources: DE UK US