Line #17 Music/ThePrettyThings


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pretty_things.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The 1964-65 lineup practices some self-promotion. Left to right: Viv Prince, Brian Pendleton, Phil May, John Stax, Dick Taylor.]]
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4	->''"The Pretty Things embody everything that is cool and exciting about the bands and the music of the ‘60s, and rock & roll in general. There was purity to everything they did -- they never seemed to be motivated by ego or a hunger for fame, they just sort of let things happen and didn’t care about the consequences. They’re still the same way, and that’s inspiring to me. There’s no compromise at all in their music, be it the early raw R&B records, the psychedelic stuff, or the more progressive records that followed. There were few other bands that could master all of those forms so definitively. There’s something about their image, their lifestyle, their attitude and their whole approach to creating music that I can identify with absolutely."''
5	-->-- '''Mike Stax''' of The Loons and Ugly Things magazine, from [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130510021607/http://www.newuntouchables.com/nutsmag/mike-stax-interview/ this 2012 interview]]
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7	The Pretty Things were an English rock and roll band based in UsefulNotes/{{London}}[[note]]the original members were all from the nearby Kent area[[/note]], who formed in 1963 and [[LongRunners remained active for well over 50 years]].
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9	Built around the core formed by lead singer Phil May and guitarist Dick Taylor, the Pretties began as a tough BluesRock outfit often compared with Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} (partially because Taylor was the Stones' first bassist), although they never achieved the level of fame and success that the Stones did. They signed with Creator/FontanaRecords in 1964, releasing two albums (their self-titled debut and ''Get the Picture?'') and several successful singles over the next two years in the UK. However, by 1966 the British R&B scene was decaying -- and so were the band's sales. The Pretties were anxious to leave Fontana, but they owed the company [[ContractualObligationProject one more album]]. The result, the 1967 release ''Emotions'', was the product of severe ExecutiveMeddling, as strings and horns were overdubbed onto the band's original recordings without their permission, leading to CreatorBacklash.
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11	By the end of the year, the Pretties had [[ChannelHop switched labels]] to Creator/{{EMI Columbia\|Records}} and evolved their style into PsychedelicRock. In 1968, they released their greatest work, ''Music/SFSorrow'', the first ever RockOpera -- yes, even before Music/TheWho's ''Music/{{Tommy}}''! It didn't sell well, although today it is [[VindicatedByHistory usually regarded as a groundbreaking work of art]]. The next album, 1970's ''Parachute'' (on Creator/{{EMI}}'s ProgressiveRock imprint Creator/{{Harvest\|Records}}), continued in the psychedelic/art rock vein and received rave reviews. It didn't sell either.
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13	Still failing to attain much popular success, the Pretties recorded a few more albums before disbanding in 1980; two of these, ''Silk Torpedo'' and ''Savage Eye'', were originally released on Music/LedZeppelin's Swan Song label and were their only albums to chart in America. They went on to reunite several times and release further critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums. May and Taylor toured with a new lineup until they retired from the road in 2018. Also, a group called [=xPT's=], consisting of several former Pretties (not including May or Taylor), released ''Parachute Reborn'' (a re-recording of ''Parachute'' with a couple of bonus tracks) in 2012.
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15	Phil May died in 2020, bringing an end to the long story of The Pretty Things. They leave behind a following who regard them (along with contemporaries like The Creation and Music/TheMove) as one of the great lost bands of UsefulNotes/TheBritishInvasion -- a group who were never as successful as they deserved to be, but stayed true to themselves throughout their long career.
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17	!!The Pretty Things' studio discography:
18	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum The Pretty Things]]'' (1965)
19	* ''Get the Picture?'' (1965)
20	* ''Emotions'' (1967)
21	* ''Music/SFSorrow'' (1968)
22	* ''Parachute'' (1970)
23	* ''Freeway Madness'' (1972)
24	* ''Silk Torpedo'' (1974)
25	* ''Savage Eye'' (1975)
26	* ''Cross Talk'' (1980)
27	* ''Rage Before Beauty'' (1999)
28	* ''Balboa Island'' (2007)
29	* ''The Sweet Pretty Things (Are In Bed Now, Of Course...)'' (2015)
30	* ''Bare As Bone, Bright As Blood'' (2020; their GrandFinale, a CoverAlbum released after May's death)
31	----
32	!!"Honey, need your tropin', all the time, all the time":
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34	* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Viv Prince, the Pretties' drummer on the earliest records, was even loonier than [[Music/TheWho Keith Moon]]. In fact, he became so erratic and unreliable that he was fired by the time ''Get the Picture?'' was released.
35	* DarkerAndEdgier: Just as Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}} were edgier than Music/TheBeatles, the Pretties were even edgier than the Stones.
36	* EmphasisOnTheWrongSyllable: The title of "Photographer" is sung "pho-to-GRAPH-er".
37	* GenreShift: From heavy blues to PsychedelicRock and art-rock.
38	* HeavyMetal: ''S.F. Sorrow'' included some proto-metal tracks, most notably "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg5t7T5_rR8&feature=kp Old Man Going]]", which may have been heavier than anything that came before.
39	* IAmTheBand: Phil May was the Pretties' only consistent member, although Dick Taylor, who left during TheSeventies but eventually returned, was in most of the lineups.
40	* RevolvingDoorBand: The Pretties went through many members, hardly surprising considering how long they were around.
41	* RockOpera: ''S.F. Sorrow'' was the UrExample.
42	* SomethingBlues: "Blue Serge Blues".
43	* StarvingArtist: "Photographer" is about one of these.
44	* TitledAfterTheSong: In this case, Music/BoDiddley's "Pretty Thing". Their CoverVersion ends with Phil May doing a ShoutOut: "We thank you, Bo, for the name".

Context Music / ThePrettyThings