Album Reviews

Chronically undervalued and unappreciated in America, The Pretty Things, like The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and so many other British Invasion bands began life as a blues based rock outfit, churning out short, raunchy, Bo Diddley-influenced numbers as this American debut demonstrates, and later veering off into uncharted musical waters. In the case of The Pretty Things, even their name is Bo Diddley derived. Unlike some Brit bands, these guys were anything but pretty in the beginning. They got prettier as time passed.

If you like the first Rolling Stones and Kinks albums and don’t know this, you’ll wonder why when you hear it. Perhaps part of the blame lies with American Fontana, a division of Mercury, which was a label more at home back then with classical music than with teen stuff (though in fairness The Troggs and Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders had a #1 hits with “Wild Thing” and “The Game of Love” on the label).

Whatever the reasons for their relative obscurity in America, The Pretty Things should be better known by Brit Invasion cognoscenti. This set of mostly covers is a great place to start if you like to hear mid-twenties UK types paying homage to their black blues heroes and doing a pretty damn good job of it!

What made the ‘60s and ‘70s special is listening to this basic, raw, primitive stuff and knowing that just a few years later, a revamped lineup (headed by chief instigator Phil May) would come up with SF Sorrow the first rock opera (yes, before Tommy). During the 1970’s they morphed into a CSN&Y-like harmonious akowstick band, releasing the ultra-tuneful Freeway Madness in 1973 (Warner Brothers BS 2680) and a year later into a kinda Mott The Hoople/glam rock/Elton Johnish thing on Swan Song with Silk Torpedo (Swan Song SS 8411). There’s one song on it that sounds like a Taupin/John song called “Atlanta” that has a lyric “kind of place that I could call home,” and what do you know? That’s where Elton John ended up moving. Go figure. It has a few excellent, almost classic tunes like "Joey" and "Is it Only Love That Lets You Down?"

You can’t go wrong starting here though, if you like that first Stones or Kinks album. Don’t expect great sound. There’s less distortion than on some early Kinks and Stones but electronically reprocessed murk inhibits the immediacy of what must have been a pretty clean recording. You’re not buying this for audiophile jollies in any case.