Customer Reviews

Get the Picture

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The good cop/bad cop image that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had in the 1960s may have been a tad contrived. The Beatles weren't the clean cut lads they might have seemed and the Stones certainly played up to the Bad Boys Of Pop reputation they had that oiled the publicity machine so well. They had risen from a pool of bands playing blues and Bo Diddley covers, bands like the Downliners Sect, the Cops 'n' Robbers, the Bo Street Runners and the Pretty Things.

When it came to bad publicity, the Pretty Things had it in spades, and were rarely out of the headlines for their rock 'n' roll crimes. They were badder than the others and their music was rawer, wilder, bluesier and more crudely recorded. Most of them shared a house and lived the rock lifestyle of excess to the full.

Their second album, Get The Picture?, came out only a few months after their self-titled debut, and showed a laudable unwillingness to compromise, though it also showed they had not stood still musically in the intervening months of grueling round-world touring (they seemed to have left the drummer behind in New Zealand) as there was now a light and shade to the group sound and signs of experimentation.

It also featured more of their own material, which included not only ravers like Buzz The Jerk, but also lighter folk-influenced songs like London Town and the excellent Can't Stand The Pain, on which Dick Taylor's guitar stands out. The covers include a great rough and ready rendition of Slim Harpo's Rainin' In My Heart, Ray Charles' version of I Had A Dream and the Cops 'n' Robbers' own But You'll Never Do It Babe. Their hit version of Cry To Me, written by Bert Berns for Betty Harris but best known at the time in Solomon Burke's cover is also featured. The Stones had recorded the song around the same time for Out Of Our Heads, so a direct comparison can be made.

This reissue has been given the re-master treatment, and now includes all the extra tracks added to the contemporary EPs Rainin' In My Heart and The Pretty Things On Film, plus the raw soul power 1966 single Come See Me, adapted from the northern soul version by JJ Jackson.

The Pretty Things On Film featured 4 songs from the soundtrack of LSD, a Chaplinesque short directed by Caterina Arvat and Anthony West, described on the EP sleeve as "sixteen minutes of chase, laughter and many brilliant club scenes", and included their all-stops-out recent classic single Midnight To Six Man ("he might be gone first but is he going anywhere?"), recorded apparently between midnight and six at IBC Studios, and featuring the tinkling piano of Nicky Hopkins and Margo from Goldie and the Gingerbreads on organ. It stalled surprisingly at number 46 in the UK charts but was included on Nuggets II.

If you want one Pretty Things album in your collection, this is probably the one to go for

The Pretty Things second album sees the band transitioning from straight-ahead British blues to mid-1960s psychedelia. A great album full of crunching guitars and Phil May's gritty vocals. This package adds six bonus tracks (including LSD and Midnight to Six Man) and some vintage promo videos. A good purchase for fans of the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds and Animals.

Gritty, nasty mid-60s Brit-rock. Imagine Decca era Stones and Them involved in a full out brawl. Back Beats galore! Painfully wrenched pentatonic rave-ups. Marred only slightly by the drummer's perchant for dissappearing for days and leaving studio players to fill in. Guaranteed to completely annoy roommates if played more than once a day.

I have to admit being slightly disappointed by this cd. I had expected utter greatness and found only sporadic greatness. Still it is a classic bit of dirty r+b, with suitably raunchy guitar and at times lyrics worthy of the soundscapes. My favorite song would have to be "Can't Stand the Pain", which has the late night fractured feel one expects from the best of this genre. Excellent bonus cuts, including the thrown off but fascinating "L.S.D." There is also some archival footage for your computer, that reminds one that however strong the music they were slightly challenged in the charismatic singer category (which may explain why they weren't as big as they surely should have been). Well worth a purchase, though I still prefer SF Sorrow...

If you remember how much of a stink the Rolling Stones created in the U.S. in 1964 and 1965, you will be amazed at the Pretty Things. Their music is propelled by Dick Taylor's busy amphetamine-driven guitar, Phil May's slobberingly exaggerated vocals (surely the daddy of all heavy metal singers) and Viv Prince's similarly unrestrained drumming (Prince has the distinction of being kicked out of the Hell's Angels for being too wild). And all of it is recorded in a gloriously slapdash murk that would have done Lou Reed or Iggy Pop proud.

This collection shows the band at that all-too-brief moment when they had sufficiently honed their skills to author a batch of excellent original songs including their two most classic singles "Come See Me" and "Midnight to Six Man," just prior to the beginning of the fatal personnel changes that turned the group into a much less engaging psychedelic outfit.

If you savour albums such as "The Who Sings My Generation," then this release is for you.

Following the explosive first set,PRETTY THINGS,it's hard to believe their second is even better--but BELIEVE IT!Going with the unusual trend at the time of writing their own tunes,May and Co. prove themselves to be more than up to the task.Nearly every tune works here from the title tune to the ko signature song,MIDNIGHT TO SIX MAN.Adding their hit British single,the thunderous COME SEE ME,the Pretties display a deft mix of Stones raunch with a Beatlesque sense of melody--get it now!

This old group really has a great sound and somthing to listen to when you like to relax.

I bought this when it first came out at the time the Beatles and the Stones were at the top the Pretty Things could have been there but they had a bad time . But I liked their music this was the raw Pretty Things they changed as time went on. This is their first and it is a classic sixties album.

I docked this one a star, taken on its own (see my review of "The Pretty Things" for comments on these two albums as a single-set issue in 1975), only because the material isn't quite the equal of their first album selections. But there's nothing wrong with the delivery by any means; in places, it's a little more scabrous than the first album, which is saying something if you've heard how raw that set was (and remains). Throw in a few traces of a nascent but smartly controlled and contextually appropriate psychedelia, and you've got the last of the real Pretty Things in your hands with this set, from Phil May's howling vocals to Dick Taylor's scratchy, blues-drenched guitar, to the splattering breastbone punch of the rhythm section. What came next should have been considered a punishable crime: the band shifted personnel and direction, taking the full dive into the psychedelic waters and going a few fathoms beyond to what would soon enough be called "prog rock". ("S.F. Sorrow" might have been thought daring in 1967 but, today, all it seems is an exercise in self-consciousness which probably began as an intriguing idea. If you can imagine, say, Nolan Ryan in prime heat shifting gears from power pitcher to junkballer, you have an excellent idea of just how drastically - and ill-advisedly, in the long run - the Pretties shifted gears.) Get the picture?