RFI: Pretty Things

Anybody else out there think that Parachute is vastly superior to SF Sorrow?

there are a lot of wrong people in the world.

I like Parachute more than SF Sorrow, but I wouldn't call it "vastly" better.

I like parts of Parachute more than parts of SF Sorrow, and vice versa.

got the unreleased pretty things/philippe debarge album yesterday. some very cool stuff on it, but the band definitely kept their best material for parachute which they would record the next year. still, this is the prettys post-sf sorrow and pre-parachute (but also post-dick taylor) and hearing 4 or 5 may/waller songs that i've never heard (along with a couple of re-worked electric banana tunes and some stuff they used to do live and which you can hear on bbc sessions) recorded during that period is enough to keep me excited for awhile. and french dude philippe does a credible enough job on vocals. they had the luxury of a cool modern studio and lots of time and money for this album, which is cool, but part of me actually likes the quickness/cheapness of the banana/dewolfe tracks better. they were crazier and they may have been dashed off in record time, but they are just so exciting in a way that these tracks aren't. still, this has my vote for reissue/excavation of the year! so far...

what he said. it sounds soooooooooo much better than the mp3s that were floating around a few years back!

Ashamed to admit I'm not that familiar with their stuff, but I should be seeing 'em do SF Sorrow live at Easter.

really enjoying this

They were great live - a particular highlight was seeing the guitarist cracking out amazing lead breaks while nonchalantly chatting to one of the backup singers over his shoulder.

triptriptriptriptriptriptriptriptrippinnnn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXbD5EuUFu8

I heard a song from SF Sorrow playing as muzak at Powell's books today. (not a muzak version but y'know)

It was "She Says Good Morning".

first time listening to s.f. sorrow, this is awesome

dude! i remember that feeling!

can't believe i slept on this band so long

'parachute' and 'emotions' too. fuck

this comp

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/1906b06da2e30debc0e3fd85a69ae6de/78483.jpg

awesome start to finish. also there's a "the fontana years" comp that shares some tunes with this one that is really really storming

"this comp" refers to "the ep collection...plus"

img didn't work out

and now it appears. nevermind.

can't see it :3

There are times when Parachute can't be beat - and those times usually fall in February or March. Bleak grey days are built for melancholy British psyche.

But the neanderthal in me loves the punk R&B stomping Pretty Things best.

Been rocking my Vintage Years 2lp in the last week.
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/6544507eec81e9181430dfc7069f856e/105516.jpg
LOVE these fucking Sire Vintage Years sets. The Troggs one is indispensable.
But you're right about Parachute. Will have to spin that soon.

i downloaded s f sorrow after reading this thread and although i like it fine my stepfather is totally in love with it. thanks on his behalf yall.

It's funny how divisive SF Sorrow is, some people really hate it.
I wish I hadn't lost my copy of the Mono Snapper reissue, I prefer that mix to the stereo one. I think an old roommate stole it or something.

I liked SF right off the bat - Parachute was more of a grower but it's the one I ended up listening to more over the years.

Parachute took me forever to get into, S.F. Sorrow I liked from day one. I got into the early stuff after those two, I p. much celebrate their entire catalog.

"The Troggs one is indispensable."

for real. sounds so great and its just one amazing song after another.

i guess i don't get the not getting parachute thing. especially if you like sf sorrow. and i really don't get not liking sf sorrow. that just seems crazy to me. but parachute to me is just as fun to listen to as sorrow. they're both great. i first heard them when i bought the rare earth twofer of both albums years ago, so maybe that has something to do with how i feel. i played one and then the other and my life kinda changed. i needed MORE like it immediately. haven't looked back since.

I dunno - it's all dependent on the listener I guess - I heard the earlier stuff first and I have to admit I was a bit of a garage-rock "I hate the beatles" knucklehead for awhile there so probably wasn't the coolest listener out there when I first heard the psychedelic records. SF Sorrow seemed like it had more hooks, more (relatively) straight-ahead rock n roll to it whereas Parachute is a bit sadder, older, and proggier. In any case, both records helped me on the journey away from knuckleheadedness and for that I thank them.

Just hearing Emotions for the first time and I'm really digging it. Parts of it sound like Between the Buttons era Stones or the Kinks. The Sun is stunningly beautiful...

I had no idea that this band kept going. Released an album in 2007! How is the post-Parachute stuff (all NINE albums of it)?

Page signed them up to Swan Song for a couple albums in the mid-Seventies, Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye, may have had something to do with wanting to compete for the audience Status Quo was drawing.

I like the latter of the two more. Savage Eye has two great songs, Remember That Boy and It's Only Rock 'n' Roll.

That 2007 album _Balboa Island_ is pretty good actually. They still play pretty regularly, & at a London show last year they said they were going to be going to the US & doing their SF Sorrow show this year (although things don't always run to plan in the world of the Pretties, & I've heard nothing more about this since).

I rather liked the Swan Song releases, pretty much all the way through. The one after that [circa 1979] was kinda crappy, and I also think Balboa Island is a decent record.

listening to S.F. Sorrow & Parachute for the last couple of days...man those were two awesome LPs! Sorrow is prolley top 10 of the decade at least...

I need the Electric Banana stuff, the stray tracks I've heard here and there are awesome.

Yeah it's about time they reissue the EB stuff again. Parachute has totally grown on me over the years, but apparently the new issue may either have original demos (if they can find them) or, cough, rerecordings of those demos and some of the songs from the album?

I have located a copy of The Electric Banana: The Seventies in a used shop.
Is it worth thirty-five bones, though? I love Love LOVE the Pretties up through Parachute, think the stuff after that is very spotty, though. I did notice that Dick Taylor is NOT on the record.
Any opinions?

i never listened to these dudes much before and haven't been listening to much old psych stuff recently but i'm jamming sf sorrow right now and i'm digging it

Always liked SF Sorrow but then grew to love Parachute. Now Parachute and a '68-'71 singles comp are all I own/feel the need to have.

I really like the album they did with the French playboy Philippe Debarge, who put them up & paid them to record an album with him. Picked up the cleaned-up reissue from a couple of years ago. As you’d expect, the vocals aren’t the strongest but Phil May & the others sing harmony on quite a bit of it, and the band themselves are on fire, great versions of ‘Alexander’ and ‘It’ll never be me’ as well.

Also, I only realised recently the Pretty Things are on the 'Dawn of the Dead' soundtrack! The part near the beginning where the hillbillies are shooting the zombies

^^That's one of their "Electric Banana" library recordings!

Snapper repackaged the first two Pretties albums + bonus tracks in a little bound set a couple years ago that retails stateside for about $12 and is worth every penny.

SF Sorrow feels epochal to me, like it just feels like the zenith of large swaths of the art-school blues rock acid psych trajectory that made up a huge portion of classic rock.

Like it's amazing that classic rock stations aren't just bumping Good Morning or Trust or I See You on the reg

Some Social Media Maven I've Never Heard Of Did A Sorta SFW Shoot For Playboy, And This Happened...

https://images.contentbody.com/7a1UB77tW8Usso2QeicC2g/embeds/13/w695_h576

Surprised nobody mentioned Get The Picture by name since it's a great lp. First one that's mainly them writing and seems like a snapshot of the time.
Do love the roughness of 1st lp and all the stuff up to Parachute. Would love a physical copy of the box set.

&if people are into the 1st 2lps, the Dutch band Q65 are worth seeking out.

Doing a "farewell" concert in London next week with David Gilmour and Van Morrison guesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YYIc2RSf9Y
1966

and a 1970 appearance on German tv that I just saw being circulated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_FvlfVDFRU

LATE PASS PLZ

https://www.discogs.com/The-Pretty-Things-Real-Pretty/release/1587217

so great

I imagine at least one member of the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 was a big fan of "Balloons Burning"

october 26 is all time for me

and parachute a pretty incredible example of a band making a killer LP after the loss of a key contributor

https://youtu.be/KkwoYWFuN6A

Stooges, before Stooges.

Pretty Things are ao fucking underrated.

budo jeru wrote this on thread In your view, who were the greatest rock band of all time? on board I Love Music on Mar 1, 2018

it's the pretty things

sick video, thanks for sharing !

You welcome.

How can a band, who was quite mediocre before 67 and pretty awful after 1970, made such a great, versatile music between 67-70, including singles and the Electric Banana stuff?

HI DERE!

Good question.

I don't agree with that pre 67 thing 1st lp is great as are next 2 even with the added strings on the 3rd.
Love that first lp and I thought it was a major influence on a lot of US and Dutch garage stuff. Probably antipodean too.
Get The Picture seems to catch the atmosphere of the mid 60s quite wonderfully and Emotions has songs on.it I love. Especially The Sun.

yes

"mediocre before 67" is a weird take for a band that gave us "rosalyn" in 19 fucking 64

Christ, Dick Taylor's playing on "Why" is in the same league with Steve Howe's playing on Tomorrow's version.

are you referring to live hyde park '68 or live in amsterdam '69 ? haven't heard either, those recordings are hard to come by, or perhaps you're referring to something else

"mediocre before 67" is a weird take for a band that gave us "rosalyn" in 19 fucking 64

are you referring to live hyde park '68 or live in amsterdam '69 ? haven't heard either, those recordings are hard to come by, or perhaps you're referring to something else

― budo jeru

this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9G9fKq6i90

it was linked on the sidebar of the "reincarnation" vid. so the pretty things never recorded "reincarnation"? that's a shame, it's a good number!

Wally Waller was one of their secret weapons during 67-70. his songwriting and husky voice are great. Sounds somewhat like David Gilmour.

https://www.uncut.co.uk/news/pretty-things-frontman-phil-may-has-died-aged-75-126634/

dang, RIP phil

Oh no! RIP Phil, such a cool frontman.

aw hell, RIP Phil May

Ah damn. I was really looking forward to this new acoustic project that Mark St. John talked about in the regular PT column in Ugly Things -- but very glad they were able to do the Final Bow shows.

Bike accident..

Wt
R.I.P

Talented man, great band.
The man with the thousand voices.

Aw shit

I think they were the best 60s-era band I’ve ever seen live - small club, didn’t take anything for granted, worked hard to put on a brilliant show

much as I love Dick Taylor I think the era when he stepped away from the band is my favourite? Parachute rules, and October 26 is just a brilliant brilliant single, what a vocal and what a vocalist

RIP

midnight to eternity man