PRETTIES FOR YOU

R&B, LSD and beyond. Things as they used to be.

THE BLUES EXPLOSION The Pretty Things ★★★★ FONTANA, 1965

Keen to out-outrage allcomers, The Pretty Things’ brusque, brash debut is a raspy snarl that slapped the ’60s in the face. Their edgy energy pours into well-suited blues/R&B covers from their live set (three Bo Diddleys, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed, Tampa Red) plus mouthy originals such as Honey I Need, all attacked with ferocity by singer May, guitarist Dick Taylor and drummer Viv Prince.

WORKING-MAN’S PSYCH S.F. Sorrow ★★★★★ COLUMBIA/EMI, 1968

Total reinvention successfully completed. Setting aside the interminable debates – first rock opera? First concept LP? Proto-prog? – the Pretties stretch out on a birth-to-death episodic tale of Mr Sorrow, from school, factory, war, marriage, bereavement, religion to final loneliness. Strong harmonies, acoustic guitars, many FX. Sounds of its time, yet fresh (hear She Says Good Morning; I See You; Loneliest Person). With only the May-Taylor axis left from bluesier days, the band-composed Sorrow is a psych classic.

MILD & BITTER BOOGIE Freeway Madness ★★★★ WARNER BROS, 1972

While there’s no bad Pretty Things album per se, and their trio of post-revival albums all contain moments of vintage savagery, we revisit their undersung ’70s for this surprisingly masterly mix of mid-tempo, harmonised West-Coast-meets-Mott rock, toughened by Phil May attitude (notably on boogie bastard Havana Bound and fearlessly biting Religion’s Dead), while incumbent guitarist Pete Tolson sizzles on opener Love Is Good and proggy blueser Onion Soup.