The Pretty Things actually beat Pete Townshend and the Who to the punch, releasing SF Sorrow in 1968, acknowledged as the first rock opera. (The song was covered last year on 61/49, a surprisingly charged, if overlooked, album by the Romantics.)Īnd like the Who, the band sought to expand its musical scope. On songs like “Midnight to Six Man”, one of the band’s earliest attempts at songwriting, you can hear seeds of the American garage movement beginning to sprout, its chugging, Bo Diddley rhythm underscoring the sexual heat of the lyrics.
The Pretty Things attacked the blues and R&B, remaking it, altering it, making it theirs. Second, and perhaps more important, the Pretty Things were not interested in just trying to imitate American blues and soul, as some of their British cousins were doing. They were a group of disaffected art students from a middle class upbringing that jumped into the same kind of grungy, rhythm and blues niche in which Jagger and the boys swam (PT lead guitarist Dick Taylor had played with Keith Richards in a pre-Stones band). The Stones comparison is apt for two reasons: first, the band hailed from the same milieu as the Stones. At its best, the Pretty Things combined the irony of the Stones, the brashness of the Who and the swagger of the punk-rock movement that was to come years later, creating a sloppy, revved-up rock and roll that helped set the stage for much of what was to come later. The band started with a bang - a raggedy, rowdy rhythm and blues that would do the Rolling Stones proud - and then grew musically as styles changed during the ’60s. Lord until the sun goes down, 'till it goes down.The Pretty Things deserve a more prominent place in British rock-and-roll history than they seem to have won. It's all night pourin', pourin', pourin', Ran into a rainstorm, I ducked back into Novato. That's why if you please, I am on my bendin knees, Heard a voice al callin', Lord you was commin' after me. I had a feelin' I was fallin', fallin', fallin', Try to see what's goin' down, try to read between the lines That's why if you please, I am on my bendin' knees,īertha don't you come around here anymore.ĭressed myself in green, I went down unto the sea.
Run around the corner, corner, Lord run smack in to a tree. I had a run in, run around, and run down. I was all night running, running, Lord I wonder if you care, I had a hard run, runnin' from your window. I told Althea I'm a roving son, and I was born to be a bachelor.Īlthea told me, okay, that's fine, so now I'm trying to catch her.Ĭan't talk to you without talking to me, we're guilty of the same old thing.īeen talking alot about less and less and forgetting the love we bring. This space is getting hot, you know this space is getting hot. There are things you can replace, and others you cannot. Gonna want a bed to lay your head and a little sympathy.
When the smoke has cleared, she said, that's what she said to me. Loose with the truth, baby, it's your fire, but baby don't get burned. Honest to the point of recklessness, self-centered in the extreme.Īin't nobody messing with you, but you, your friends are getting most concerned. You may meet the fate on Ophelia, sleeping and penchence to dream. You may be a clown in the burying ground, or just another pretty face. You may be Saturday's child, all alone, moving with a tinge of grace. I told Althea that treachery was tearing me limb from limb.Īlthea told me better cool down boy, settle back, easy Jim. I told Althea I was feeling lost, lacking in some direction.Īlthea told me upon scrutiny that my back might need protection.
0 kommentar(er)
