The Pretty Things & Phil May overview (1964-2020) "invented everything, credited with nothing." *

"October 26" should have been on Parachute! Toally Killer Track, after, "Summertime", my fave Post Parachute PT track.... so far!


Viva La Revolucion!!!

 

Parachute - track by track

11) She's a Lover​

Spoiler: Lyrics

She takes the moon and stars
To wear as her disguise.
Then catching cosmic rays
She uses them for eyes.
She's a lover
And you know she's coming through
She's a lover
And you know she's coming through
With warm breezes
She will wipe away the sigh.
In the green folds of her skirt
A tired traveller lies,
She's a lover and you know she's coming through ...
There below the grey stone walls
Behind the hill she waits for you.
Painted on a field of corn
Strange messages she leaves for you.
She sheds her summer dress
Fearing it displeases you
Amid the white silk melting forest
Where she flew.
She's a lover
And you know she's coming through ...
Across the wooded plains
The wild geese have fled.
Beneath the splintered stones
Her anger seeps through red.
She's a lover and you know she's coming through ...

I remember listening to this band for the first time on that 2 CD Psychedelic Years collection and this may have been my favorite. At the heart it is sort of a microcosm of the entire album, having the uptempo busy beat rock with a killer riff and a lovely melody, then a nice little quiet acoustic interlude in the middle with full harmonies reminiscent of the earlier Good Mr. Square type songs, a nice punctuated guitar solo reminiscent of The Beatles taking turns on The End, then back into the rock with the riff digging in even more, and then top it all off with that jazzy chord from the end of the James Bond theme. Usually one of my 3 favorites on this album. Is it really Wally singing? Wow, he did good with the falsetto. And to think I used to consider this one of my favorite Phil May vocals!!!

Lyrically I can't help but see this as a feverish sex dream with mother nature herself. Now it could be our city boy Romeo getting back with his girl and with nature all in one subject. I love the messages painted on fields of corn part in how she communicates through crop circles, then later strips off her summer dress (which could just be the leaves falling.) I love the imagery here. Also, I can't help think that this is the only truly positive song on the entire album. Elsewhere the lovers are being driven apart, and then we have the debauchery of the middle section and I can't say what is left is happy.

 

She’s A Lover is one of my big Pretties faves, much better than Sickle Clowns. Another one of them great twisted rockers they excelled at as it grinds along then halts with a blast of those harmonies before going into that great instrumental break where they change the tempo. Hard to decide which vocal part I prefer - Wally’s verses or Povey’s choruses (how high does Povey go with his utterings of the title?). It’s also very interesting how they change the harmonies at the end, giving them a slightly sour tone which fits in beautifully with the lyrical story and yes, that discordant final chord brings it well and truly home.

Wonderful stuff.

 

Revisiting Parachute at this time I guess is perhaps the best time to express a personal opinion...

With utmost huge respect to Brian Pendleton and John Stax, their leaving the band resulted in Waller and Povey joining and with it, the band going in a completely different direction to astonishing effect. Their bluesy roots would remain in much smaller doses but what they brought to the band was so transforming and elevating. Parachute allows us to enjoy those amazing harmonies they did with Phil to much better effect than on SF Sorrow and plays a huge part in making Parachute the special album it was and remains. Credit must also be given to Norman Smith for taking the chance with them and adding his unique touches and flair which Phil, Dick, Wally, Jon and Skipper all have granted him the honour of being the Pretties' 6th member. Twink's thoughts on Norman aren't known and Pete Tolson would be critical of him but he was absolutely the right man, the George Martin figure to them... and he sure learnt from George himself!

Brian and John left during low times for them as people and it would take both of them time to readjust to life outside the Pretties and in there, there is sadness and whilst the Pretties continued their bad luck with EMI never paying them, bungling the US side of their affairs and more questionable management decisions all of which led to the loss of Dick Taylor then Wally Waller, their EMI era was an incredible period of creativity for which we remain thankful.

 

She's A Lover is one of my favorites on the album.

 

In the span of only 2 albums The Pretties released an incredible 1-2 punch that fell on deaf ears. I know a great many people only like the early years, but for me Wally was involved in 4 of my 5 top Pretties albums. Harmonies, songwriting, atmosphere, lyrical meaning, so much stuff improved for me once Jon and Wally joined in. Then things certainly changed once Wally left the band, but we will get there eventually. And special credit to Norman, if he didn't see the potential in the band then we wouldn't have S.F. Sorrow and Parachute at all.

 

I also forgot to mention Abbey Road Studios as well as again, all the main Pretties cite that as their spiritual home with Dick Taylor saying that when we're all gone, their spirits will be found at Abbey Road. As far as I know, their entire EMI works were recorded at Abbey Road with the sole exception of Defecting Grey and possibly Mr Evasion. As is often the case, the magic occurred thanks to the combination of factors - fresh new blood from Povey and Waller, Norman Smith signing them to and producing them for EMI, recording at Abbey Road, a major spell and increase in quality of their songwriting, those harmonies, the band's willingness to move on, experiment and fine tune their ideas, their "social activities", the changing times into psychedelia and the emerging rock movement...

It was a stunning second phase with the Fontana era being the first and Emotions acting as an awkward bridge between the two. Pete Tolson's arrival would bridge them into their third phase.

 

Pretty Things, The - Live At The BBC - Repertoire Records

They have finally released the track listing for the new Pretty Things Live at the BBC cd 6 cd release. I read they are pushing for an April release. There will also be a 3 lp distillation release.

CD 1
1. Big Boss Man (Saturday Club, 10/64)
2. Don’t Bring Me Down (Saturday Club, 10/64)
3. Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (Saturday Club, 10/64)
4. Road Runner (Saturday Club, 10/64)
5. Big City (Saturday Club, 10/64)
6. Don’t Bring Me Down (Beat Room, 24/12/64)
7. Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (Beat Room, 24/12/64)
8. Johnny B. Goode (Beat Room, 24/12/64)
9. We’ll Be Together (Saturday Club, 9/2/65)
10. Road Runner (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
11. Sitting All Alone (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
12. Big City (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
13. Buzz The Jerk (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
14. Raining In My Heart (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
15. Buzz The Jerk (Saturday Club, 3/1/66)
16. Midnight To Six Man (Saturday Club, 3/1/66)
17. LSD (Saturday Club, 3/1/66)
18. Midnight To Six Man (A Whole Scene Going, 12/1/66)
19. Sitting All Alone (Saturday Club, 5/66)
20. LSD (Saturday Club, 5/66)
21. Midnight To Six Man (Saturday Club, 5/66)
22. Buzz The Jerk (Saturday Club, 5/66)
23. Turn My Head (Top Gear, 3/12/67)
24. Walking Through My Dreams (Top Gear, 3/12/67)
25. Defecting Grey (Top Gear, 3/12/67 – unabridged, no voiceover)
26. Talking About The Good Times (Top Gear, 3/12/67)
27. SF Sorrow Is Born (Top Gear, 17/11/68)


CD 2
1. She Says Good Morning (Top Gear, 17/11/68)
2. Balloon Burning (Top Gear, 17/11/68)
3. Old Man Going (Top Gear, 17/11/68)
4. Spring (Top Gear, 25/5/69)
5. Send You With Loving (Top Gear, 25/5/69 – unabridged, no voiceover)
6. The Loneliest Person (Top Gear, 25/5/69)
7. Alexander (Top Gear, 25/5/69)
8. Marilyn (Top Gear, 25/5/69)
9. Blue Serge Blues (John Peel Sunday Concert, 14/6/70)
10. She’s A Lover + intro (John Peel Sunday Concert, 14/6/70)
11. In The Square + intro (John Peel Sunday Concert, 14/6/70)
12. The Letter (John Peel Sunday Concert, 14/6/70)
13. Rain (John Peel Sunday Concert, 14/6/70)
14. Sickle Clowns + intro (John Peel Sunday Concert, 14/6/70)
15. Old Man Going (John Peel Sunday Concert, 14/6/70)
16. She’s A Lover (Sounds of the 70s, 6/7/70)
17. Sickle Clowns (Sounds of the 70s, 6/7/70)
18. Trailer ad for Pretties on Sounds of the 70s, 11/8/70
19. Cries From The Midnight Circus (Sounds of the 70s, 11/9/70)
20. Sickle Clowns (Sounds of the 70s, 11/9/70)
21. Cries From The Midnight Circus (Sounds of the 70s, 11/9/70)
CD 3

CD 3
1. Cold Stone (Top Gear, 15/5/71)
2. Stone Hearted Mama (Top Gear, 15/5/71)
3. Summertime (Sounds of the 70s, 29/6/71)
4. Cries From The Midnight Circus (Sounds of the 70s, 29/6/71)
5. Slow Beginnings (Sounds of the 70s, 29/6/71)
6. Summertime (Radio Flashes, 14/8/71)
7. Slow Beginnings (Radio Flashes, 14/8/71)
8. Stone Hearted Mama (Radio Flashes, 14/8/71)
9. Cold Stone (Radio Flashes, 14/8/71)
10. Circus Mind (Radio Flashes, 14/8/71)
11. Onion Soup (Top Gear, 25/7/72)
12. Love Is Good (Top Gear, 25/7/72)
13. Spider Woman (Top Gear, 15/8/72)
14. Rosalyn (Top Gear, 15/8/72)
15. All Night Sailor (Top Gear, 15/8/72)
16. Havana Bound (Sounds of the 70s, 30/10/72)
17. Religion’s Dead (Sounds of the 70s, 30/10/72)


CD 4
1. Road Runner (Sounds of the 70s, 30/10/72)
2. Peter / Rip Off Train (Sounds of the 70s, 30/10/72)
3. Sweet Orphan Lady (‘Radio One session 1971’– likely 1972)
4. Love Is Good (‘Radio One session 1971’– likely 1972)
5. Religion’s Dead (In Concert, 15/2/73)
6. Havana Bound (In Concert, 15/2/73)
7. Love Is Good (In Concert, 15/2/73)
8. Onion Soup (In Concert, 15/2/73)
9. Route 66 (In Concert, 15/2/73)
10. Peter / Rip Off Train (Sounds of the 70s, 27/8/73)
11. Atlanta (Sounds of the 70s, 27/8/73)
12. Onion Soup / Another Bowl (Sounds of the 70s, 27/8/73)
13. Route 66 (Sounds of the 70s, 27/8/73)
14. Singapore Silk Torpedo (John Peel Show, 17/12/74)

CD 5
1. Religion’s Dead (In Concert, 9/8/73)
2. Havana Bound (In Concert, 9/8/73)
3. Love Is Good (In Concert, 9/8/73)
4. Onion Soup (In Concert, 9/8/73)
5. Route 66 (In Concert, 9/8/73)
6. Old Man Going (In Concert, 12/74)
7. Living Without You (In Concert, 12/74)
8. Joey (In Concert, 12/74)
9. Belfast Cowboys (In Concert, 12/74)
10. It’s Been So Long (In Concert, 12/74)
11. Bridge Of God (In Concert, 12/74)
12. Come Home Momma (In Concert, 12/74)
13. Singapore Silk Torpedo (In Concert, 12/74)
14. Not Only But Also (John Peel, 24/7/75)
15. Big City (John Peel, 24/7/75)

CD 6
1. Belfast Cowboys / Bruise In The Sky (John Peel, 24/7/75)
2. Dream / Joey (John Peel, 24/7/75)
3. Come See Me + interview (Mark Lamarr, R2 28/3/09)
4. The Beat Goes On (Mark Lamarr, R2 28/3/09)
5. Rosalyn (Mark Lamarr, R2 28/3/09)
6. SF Sorrow Is Born (Mark Lamarr, R2 28/3/09)
7. LSD / Old Man Going (Mark Lamarr, R2 28/3/09)
8. Can’t Judge A Book By Looking At The Cover (Marc Riley, BBC6 17/7/18)
9. Mr Evasion (Marc Riley, BBC6 17/7/18)
10. Rosalyn (Marc Riley, BBC6 17/7/18) 3:09
11. The Same Sun (Marc Riley, BBC6 17/7/18)
12. She Says Good Morning (Marc Riley, BBC6 17/7/18)
13. Midnight To Six Man (Gideon Coe, BBC6 c.7/18)

Disc 6 Extras:
14. Defecting Grey (Top Gear, 3/12/67)
15. Send You With Loving (Top Gear, 25/5/69)
16. Cries From The Midnight Circus (Sound of the 70s, 11/9/70)
17. In The Square (David Symonds / Sounds of the 70s, 6/7/70)
18. The Letter (David Symonds / Sounds of the 70s, 6/7/70)
19. Rain (David Symonds / Sounds of the 70s, 6/7/70)
20. Defecting Grey (John Peel Show, 5/2/73)

LP Track listing

LP One The R&B Era

Side 1
1. Big Boss Man (Saturday Club, 10/64)
2. Don’t Bring Me Down [Edit] (Saturday Club, 10/64)
3. Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (Saturday Club, 10/64)
4. Road Runner (Saturday Club, 10/64)
5. Big City (Saturday Club, 10/64)
6. Don’t Bring Me Down (Beat Room, 24/12/64)
7. Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut (Beat Room, 24/12/64)
8. Johnny B. Goode (Beat Room, 24/12/64)
Side 2
1. We’ll Be Together (Saturday Club, 9/2/65)
2. Sitting All Alone (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
3. Big City (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
4. Buzz The Jerk (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
5. Raining In My Heart (Saturday Club, 10/10/65)
6. LSD (Saturday Club, 5/66)
7. Midnight To Six Man (Saturday Club, 5/66)
8. Buzz The Jerk (Saturday Club, 5/66)
9. Rosalyn (Mark Lamarr, Radio 2 28/3/09)
Approx total playing time: 40.04

LP TWO THE PSYCHEDELIC ERA

Side 3
1. Turn My Head (Top Gear, 3/12/67)
2. Walking Through My Dreams (Top Gear, 3/12/67)
3. Defecting Grey (Top Gear, 3/12/67)
4. SF Sorrow Is Born (Top Gear, 17/11/68)
5. She Says Good Morning (Top Gear, 17/11/68)
6. Balloon Burning (Top Gear, 17/11/68)
Side 4
1. Old Man Going (Top Gear, 17/11/68)
2. The Loneliest Person (Top Gear, 25/5/69)
3. Spring (Top Gear, 25/5/69)
4. LSD / Old Man Going [Edit] (Mark Lamarr, Radio 2 28/3/09)
5. Mr Evasion (Marc Riley, BBC6 17/7/18)
6. She Says Good Morning (Marc Riley, BBC6 17/7/18)
Approx total playing time: 40.25

LP THREE THE HARD ROCK ERA

Side 5
1. She’s A Lover (Sounds of the 70s, 6/7/70)
2. Sickle Clowns (Sounds of the 70s, 6/7/70)
3. Cries From The Midnight Circus (Sounds of the 70s, 11/9/70)
4. Blue Serge Blues (John Peel Sunday Concert, 14/6/70)
5. Summertime (Sounds of the 70s, 29/6/71)
Side 6
1. Cold Stone (Top Gear, 15/5/71)
2. Stone Hearted Mama (Top Gear, 15/5/71)
3. Spider Woman (Top Gear, 15/8/72)
4. Religion’s Dead [Edit] (Sounds of the 70s, 30/10/72)
5. Circus Mind (Radio Flashes, 14/8/71)
Approx total playing time: 40.56

 

Parachute - track by track

11) What's the Use
​

Spoiler: Lyrics

We gave you our love
We gave you our love
As we bent to do wrong.
Your smile was the wind
Your smile was the wind
As it swept us along.
Why can't you understand
That we can't build to lines of a plan.
What's the use, what's the use .....

This album starts with 6 songs that last less than 11 minutes altogether and then carries on for 5 tracks that take up over 24 minutes of time. After the past 5 epics and rockers it was time to return to that beginning again, back to the nucleus so to speak. What's the Use is a very strange song. The opening piano could be put on repeat and serve as the background to yoga sessions. Pretty and soothing. Then we come in with those glorious harmonies and a 12 strings folk rock kinda guitar, then as it builds to what one would think is the chorus the song gives up. The title is What's the Use, and that is literally what the song is saying about even trying to be a full fledged song. I'm not sure what the "lines of a plan" are, whether it is a message to their higher ups or maybe for the generation as a whole, but here we get back to those sub-2 minute songs. On a side note, I remember watching a full documentary where it seemed they only licensed this song for use so you had to hear it constantly as they went about interviewing band members.

 

Nice. Alexander, Marilyn, Blue Serge Blues, Slow Beginnings, Sweet Orphan Lady, and all those 2018 songs make me glad I didn't go for the 2 CD disc a while back.

 

This will most likely be pricey as a 6 cd import and I believe the Super Deluxe Edition of The Who Sell Out is also due out in April. I have the 2 and 4 cd BBC sets already but the new set has quite a bit of missing material.

I wonder how the sound will be on the additional early material. The recently expanded Repertoire Yardbirds Live at BBC Revisited 3 cd set has some material added in lesser sound quality.

 

You trying to talk me out of it? I like the band enough to put up this thread and post constantly, knowing that which each post I am disrupting those busy Beatles threads on the first page. Do you think I get some sort of perverse pleasure out of constantly rubbing it in the faces of those Beat boy fanatics that their favorite (only) band didn't actually invent everything? No I hate it, I shrink in size with each post here knowing the attention could go towards a band that has sold tens of millions of albums, but I suffer through it anyway because I love The Pretty Things.

 

It sure is an odd song but one I like very much. Adore Povey's keyboard intro on this.

To me, it sounds like some kind of farewell to the 60's, a party is over type vibe, a resigned acknowedgement that good times were over and an uncertain future beckons... perhaps their way of saying that the whole flower power thing (which in part had that whole going back to nature and the country spirit) didn't work, and that the dreams that were promised were futile as all that's left is cold hard reality. Where else to turn? Wally and Phil stated that Parachute was a metaphor - you zoom towards the ground in the hope that the parachute will open... We all take it for granted that the parachute will open but this being the Pretties, there is a possibility it might NOT open!

 

The Pretty Things 1971

 

XPT turned a sub-2 minute song into a 6 minute epic with new lyrics.

 

Actually, I think you DO!... Or at least I know I do!

 

In other words, and in reference to the Pictured Life above: Without S. F. Sorrow, No Abbey Road. OR "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?"

 

theres nothing on Parachute even the expansive edition, that I dont like

same is true of S.F. Sorrow expansive ed.

 

Parachute - track by track

13) Parachute​

White ice towers, slow dissolving
Now fall.
Below savage moon
Iron cities soon to rust.
Warned first by the gathering shadows
They fled.
From wide vapor deserts
They turned turned towards the sea.
Pale worn the walking, pass
Through concrete glades.
Torn shadows, slashed silence
​

Country vs. city was the main theme of this album, and despite Phil May saying at one point he was a city boy and didn't agree with the mass exodus of hippies to farmland, throughout this album it was mostly the city that took a beating. Mostly simply because of Sickle Clowns. The main couple in the album remain somewhat unresolved, did they come together on She's a Lover, was he killed riding his motorcycle, or is he still sitting in the city holding the knife that is tearing his life apart? We don't know. But to end the album the band brings out the scope a bit, you could say they are detailing this current exodus of people to rural areas, but the lyrics above create images of a post-apocalyptic scene. You can just picture hoards of weary people walking by giant ruins of buildings that serve only as reminders of what civilization used to be. For anyone who has traveled through small towns decimated by the local Walmart, or just driven through areas of Detroit, that can be an eerie thing. What will happen when they make it to the sea? Is this the inspiration for Waterworld? Or is this a metaphor for de-evolution?

Apparently this is Jon Povey multi-tracked into a choir, and instrumentally this is very Pink Floyd in my opinion, especially after the drum beat sends it to a fitting instrumental leading toward that bewildering finale. So we finish with Parachute proper, any thoughts on the song or the album?

 

as stated previously, owned Parachute since the late '80s, but never "got it" so to speak... always thought it was the absence of Dick Taylor, but as I've revisited it a couple times over the last week and a half the other thing I'm really struck by is how much I miss Phil as the SOLE lead singer... I just don't like the other guys singing lead sometimes! Yes, I love the harmonies they did on SF Sorrow behind Phil, but for me the Pretties is all about Dick Taylor & Phil May... and this record suffers greatly from no Dick Taylor and with Phil being relegated to secondary status as lead singer... I'm afraid this record will never open up for me... I'll see you for Cross Talk, which for some weird reason is when I get back on the Pretties train...

 

strangely I never thought of Parachute as any kind of story or concept that way. I was always aware of the theme set by the painting but never consumed the songs and the album's music in that way.
never having been to the UK in my life, my only awareness is historical; e.g.- the bombed out cityscape of WWII, a scene embedded in the childhood memories of many of the British Invasion musicians. I listen to music without much attention to how songs tie together thematically, for that matter, I often don't even seek to tie together lines within a song necessarily.
I hear lyrics as individual phrases, like guitar licks, only made with vocal intonation instead. it can be hard to explain to anyone.
thanks to @finslaw and this thread I start to hear it differently. before it immersed me in a world largely of my imagination's own designs whereas now I see it through a different perspective

 

Honestly, I didn't see the magnitude of the theme until I had to look up the lyrics for each song here. I operate similar as you, and even on S.F. Sorrow I kinda knew the theme and plot but never dissected some of those lines. I always thought I See You was some surreal psych moment when it literally is him walking through town feeling lonely just like he does on the closer. Funny how the sound dictates things. I must say I think the band actually matured in songwriting with Parachute. Poetic, yes. But less consciously so than S.F. Sorrow.

 

Cross Talk is magnificent, and I like how it has the minimalism rock of the band's early years. However, I should mention that Hot Licks (1973) does something similar for me as well, and Phil sings all the tracks but one. If you prefer the rock side of the band without the overproduction (Swan Song years) I recommend it.

 

Parachute brings a classic album to a strange but memorable end. Luxurious multitracked Povey choirs and what follows does feel Floyd-esque in feel and then there’s that weird rising note into infinity... strange stuff.

As is known from earlier posts, I regard Parachute as a masterpiece, the pinnacle of the Phil May - Wally Waller partnership where they wrote so well and crafted this album which 51 years later still sounds great. It also acts as their farewell to the 60’s and looks forward to the new decade. No sooner was this album released there was turmoil again with Victor Unitt departing and Pete Tolson replacing him. Tolson would give them another dramatic shot in the arm and would be heard on the final two Harvest singles.

YardByrd’s view on Phil May and Dick Taylor being THE Pretty Things is interesting and I can definitely respect it because what the band became after Wally’s departure triggering the first - if brief - full break up of the band is a very different beast in spite of Wally playing a big part on Freeway Madness and the rest of the band remaining in place but something changed as I find the music less endearing so the remainder of the 70’s I just cannot enjoy in spite of giving it many chances and respecting that they turned in fine well played and well produced work. I just don’t enjoy the more commercial AOR leanings and I’m not overly enamoured with what Jack Green and Gordon Edwards would bring to the band. I know I’m not alone and there are many Pretties fans who bail out for the same era who return for Cross Talk whilst I'm also sure there are some who love the Swan Song era and nothing else! I also rate Pete Tolson very highly... incredible guitarist but I dunno... Parachute was a gem but I do think something was missing afterwards and Dick’s absence could well have contributed to that.

 

Imagine Keith leaving the Stones in the '70s because of his smack habit... no doubt Jagger coulda and woulda been able to keep the machine running, but it woulda lacked something... and I'm more of a Mick guy than a Keef guy (I don't buy his romantic gypsy persona at all)... it woulda probably been very slick, commerical and well oiled, which the Pretties Swan stuff is (albeit more hard rock than the dance, R&B, reggae etc. stuff Jagger was getting into in the '70s), but that's not something I am into (although I was gobsmacked by how great Havana Bound sounded when they began playing it live in the '90s, much better than the studio version)... anyhoo, that's how the Pretties strike me without Dick Taylor... the soul is missing although Phil is still the heart... that touch of the blues is gone and I yearn for it...