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

Can't say I completely agree with you, but most of their albums that I've heard are pretty damn good. From their beginning to Balboa Island. That's extremely rare.

 

Anyone know how far they got with the planned recordings for a final studio album with the full band?
Pretty sure I saw a provisional album title at one point.

 

Here's another one from the guy who posted the video from the Bilzen Festival. This is two songs and another cut short from the Pretties performance at the Copenhagen Beat Festival in 1970. I have to say that the quality is pretty stunning - they play the full Blue Serge Blues, She's a Lover and the beginning of the Rain trilogy in this 11 minute excerpt.
Want to know the fun part? He wants 200 euros for the full 48 minute show.

 

Just bought a Promotional DJ copy of Silk Torpedo in great condition vinyl for $4.50 at a flea market. The sticker suggests playing Dream/Joey and Atlanta with no mention of the lead off single Is it Only Love? Curious.

Also got somewhat ratty copies of Between the Buttons and Alice Cooper Goes to Hell for $4 each.

 

Bargain of the year

 

I could use some help with a lyric for the B-side Blue Serge Blues. I've listened repeatedly to the studio and three live versions and can't figure it out. Of course Phil ad-libbed an additional verse for one of the live versions but it's completely buried in the music.

It’s a hard road running back
It’s a lifelong search for me
There are large black shadows reaching down
There’s another blood stained me
You lock me now and you’re just (?)
And then you watch me burn
It’s a hard road running on back
It’s a long time search for me
It’s a fuzzy world of navy serge
The patrol car blues for me
You lock me now and you’re just (?)
And then you watch me burn
To me you say you let the bear in
But it’s a mouth of pain I see
From the metal throat heavy sentence passed
The chair line waits for me
Lock me now and you’re just (?)
And then you watch me burn

 

I listened to both the single and BBC version and they both seems to be:

You lock me now (down?) in your justice

 

Justice! That's the word I wasn't hearing. Yep, it's 'You lock me now in your justice.' Thanks!

 

Here's one more. I can't understand the first word(s) of the last verse of Cold Stone. I asked Wally, who confirmed the rest of the lyrics, but he couldn't remember what it is. Phil used to change the lyrics around live and on the BBC versions and none of those match up.

Beneath the sky you're burning
White liquid at your feet
Dispersed through the darkness
Look so obsolete
When the walls are falling
Now that you are free
Will you pin your hopes on life?
Don't pin them on me
We're goin' down slow
We're in a hole
Two-fingered peace
No rest for me
Beneath the sky you're flyin'
Grey mucous in your throat
Chased by the bloodstained weasel
Just might be a stoat
Through the velvet forest
White witnesses at hand
Old brave soldier was so grey
Don't you understand?
We're goin' down slow
We're in a hole
Two-fingered peace
No rest for me
This world is just cold stone
This world is just cold stone
This world is just cold stone
(?) sees you runnin’
Moving with great speed
While just around the corner
Truth’s about to leave
The lady begs forgiveness
For what she hadn’t done
Old grey sweetheart was so sad
The fight has just begun
We're goin' down slow
We're in a hole
Two-fingered peace
No rest for me
This world is just cold stone
This world is just cold stone
This world is just cold stone

 

Tough to hear in the studio version but in the BBC version it sounds like "hear the sound you're running."

I also had a doozy earlier in the thread trying to figure out some of the words to I Could Not Believe My Eyes, which I truly want to know because it is a funny (and fairly rare) cock rocker. I think the added allure to Phil May is that the lyrics are often quite clever, poetic and even profound, but they were often masked in the Louie Louie tradition. I'm sure this goes back to their biggest hit which contains many possible prude baiting interpretations and gender switches. I'd sure love to find one live version where he sings "and I laid her on the ground."

 

Another great thing about being a Pretty Things fanboy is that every point of influence has not been unearthed. If you love The Beatles then surely every aspect of their influence of rock has been pursued and written about to that point we are only left with the patently ridiculous assertions to pursue. But without that huge fanbase, in 2022 someone can dig around in the repertoire of The Pretty Things and come up with something not talked about and more or less true. It is at this point I present the wikipedia description of Gothic Rock:

According to music journalist Simon Reynolds, standard musical fixtures of gothic rock include "scything guitar patterns, high-pitched basslines that often usurped the melodic role [and] beats that were either hypnotically dirgelike or tom-tom heavy and 'tribal'". Reynolds described the vocal style as consisting of "deep, droning alloys of Jim Morrison and Leonard Cohen". Several acts used drum machines downplaying the rhythm's backbeat.

Gothic rock typically deals with dark themes addressed through lyrics and the music's atmosphere. The poetic sensibilities of the genre led gothic rock lyrics to exhibit literary romanticism, morbidity, existentialism, religious symbolism, or supernatural mysticism. Gothic rock is an offshoot of post-punk and, according to AllMusic, "took the cold synthesizers and processed guitars of post-punk and used them to construct foreboding, sorrowful, often epic soundscapes." Early gothic rock had introspective or personal lyrics, but according to AllMusic, "its poetic sensibilities soon led to a taste for literary romanticism, morbidity, religious symbolism, and/or supernatural mysticism."
​

Elsewhere it is mentioned that it was an offshoot from Glam Rock, which The Pretty Things (not arguably) have a huge hand in and were even immortalized for it in the Glam Rock anthem by David Bowie. So did The Pretty Things create something that is Gothic Rock, and does that have more bearing than previous examples? The page mentions All Tomorrow's Parties as a first, which has many hallmarks. However, consider this from one year later:



Doesn't this fit the Gothic Rock morbid lyrics, dirge-like tom heavy tribal drums and melodic high pitched melodic bass-lines better than All Tomorrow's Parties? I suppose the lead vocal isn't a low drone (I can see a Gothic cover with the voice dropped an octave), but there is a significant low vocal drone on the rising "ooooh." Then you have the fact this song is on the most existential and sorrowful album of the 1960's. After this thread was technically finished with the last album accounted for, it is crazy how many "firsts" in other threads I can attach to this band. At one point I considered the title of this thread to be a slightly trolling obnoxious "every time you bump it a Beatles fanboy gets a wedgie" but it appears more and more that it is the truth.

I am curious to anyone here, if The Pretty Things have some sort of claim to the creation of Heavy Metal, which song is the best evidence?

 

Best I can do -

Tanked off and ready like a head on a spike
This canyon lady’s ready to burn
Shines like a neon sign, the Las Vegas kind
You’ll find her down the whiskey down on Hollywood & Vine
She (has? hits?) every rocker that arrives on the coast
And how she makes those bass players dream
With the shortest of skirts and brother it hurts
If she dips a little lower you’ll cream
ICNBMY
ICNBMY
Well this girl could show you ? in the shade
She specializes in those lost arts
She has the strangest (queues? cues?) and incredible views
She turned the city fathers onto photographic art
Wouldn’t sign a contract down at Metro or Fox
They said it broke the old geezer’s heart
Not since Harlow or Turner have they had a big burner
He offered her the juiciest part
ICNBMY
ICNBMY
None of my talents (Helped? Held?) my balance, I was overwhelmed
?
They say she never (labelled?) the rent
So if you’re thinking of cash your gesture’s not rash
You’re planning for the future then your money’s well spent
Tanked up and ready like a head on a spike
The canyon lady ready to burn
Shines like a neon sign, the Las Vegas kind
You’ll find her at the whiskey down on Hollywood & Vine
ICNBMY
ICNBMY

 

Yes I think Death definitely qualifies as Goth regardless of the lead vocal.
And no, Dave Davies pretty much wrapped up the heavy metal creation title when he sliced his amp speakers for You Really Got Me. He'll be happy to tell you so, too.
But Cold Stone is certainly metal.

 

As long as we're doing lyrics, does this look right to you?

Summertime

Bluebirds and blackbirds get in my hair
All my tomorrows I think they have been rare
Summer’s coming through there’s no hay upon the field
Soon I’ll be with you and we’ll know how it feels
Summertime
Bleachers and sad flags upon a field of green
Slow bands and road bands like you have never seen
Summer’s coming through there’s no hay upon the field
Those times and our times and some are fit to kill
Summertime
Count the bluebirds in the sky
Don’t count too soon
Count the bluebirds with your eye
White hearts and light hearts and some that faded view
Switch with the seasons to feelings that are new
Summer’s coming through there’s no hay upon the field
I’ll soon be with you and we’ll know how it feels
Summertime

 

Not since Harlow or Turner have they had a big burner

Ooh, that is a revelation. As for Summertime this is what I hear in the studio version:

Bluebirds and blackbirds are gathered in my head
All Martin's Marvels I think they have been read (I think I have this line wrong because the BBC lyrics sound like yours, shame, I prefer this lyric)
Summer’s coming through there’s no hay upon the field
Soon I’ll be with you and we’ll know how it feels
Summertime
Blue cheers and sad flags upon a field of green
Slow bands and road bands like you have never seen
Summer’s coming through there’s no hay upon the field
Those times and our times and some are fit to kill (funny how both BBC negate this line)
Summertime
Count the bluebirds in the sky
Don’t count too soon
Count the bluebirds with your eye
White hearts and light hearts and some that fade in view
Switch with the seasons to feelings that are new
Summer’s coming through there’s no hay upon the field
I’ll soon be with you and we’ll know how it feels
Summertime

 

He sings it that way during the 1964 Blokker Festival performance, the 1998 Coney Island High performance that I saw, Bimbo's 1999 in San Francisco, the Yale 1999 in Vancouver and a bunch of other in my collection. .

 

Just listened to Blokker and I hear it, although "my feet are on the ground" sounds so close to it. I'm thinking of doing a video about Phil May as a pioneer in baiting censorship, especially in LGBTQ circles. I already have the BBC "I'm in love with your little girl and your little boy's in love with me" although his voice somewhat disappears midway.

 

I think we should have a definitive set of lyrics for those songs which have not been included in the album materials. I'm not even going to attempt Spider Woman or Living Without You. But here's a few to continue with. Have fun.

Stone-Hearted Mama
Set my soul on fire
Bring me to my knees
Make me feel ashamed
Honey please
Don’t mean to love you
More with every scar upon my heart
Stone hearted mama you really make it hard on me
Knock me down with my car
Drive clean through a wall
Shut my eyes to that
Don’t mind at all
Just want to love you
More with every scar upon my heart
Stone-hearted mama you really make it hard on me
Bullwhip lash and bind me
Stone me when I’m wrong
Strap me to wild horses
I’ll be strong
Just want to love you
More with every scar upon my heart
Stone-hearted mama you really make it hard on me

October 26
So if we meet again
Then there’d be revolution
That’s all that it can be
If you find your own solution
Then that’s alright with me
If I wanted to could I depend on you my friend
So if we dream again
Then there’d be revolution
That’s all that it can be
If you find your own solution
Then that’s alright with me
If I wanted to could I depend on you my friend
So if we hope again
Then they’d be revolution
That’s all that it can be
If you find your own solution
Then that’s alright with me
Revolution
Got to be revolution
That’s all that it can be
Revolution

Circus Mind
As you burn there’s one thing left to learn
With your circus mind you really sank low
As you’ve lost they’re gonna count the cards
And for just one wrong you just have to go
Though you find in some dark time she’s dealt that card again
Will you still remember her tomorrow?
Though she’s flipped you on your back you know she’ll do it again
Will you wait right here for her in sorrow?
As you burn there’s nothing left to learn
With your circus mind you sank too low
Now you’ve lost there’s no more to cause
Life is gone you’ve got to go

Tonight
Tonight I want to fall in love
Tonight I want to be in love
I want to be with you tonight
Tonight I want to dance and sing
Tonight I’ll do most anything
I want to be with you tonight
Operator won’t you tell
My long distance girl
I love her so
And I can’t let her go
First it’s heaven now it’s hell
Just when I thought I had it down so well
I had it all down so well
Tonight I want to fall in love
Tonight I want to be in love
I want to be with you tonight
Tonight I want to be sincere
Tonight I want to make it clear
Tonight I want to be with you tonight
I want to call you up on the telephone
I want to call you up and find
You have something different on your mind
Tonight tonight
I want to get into tonight
Tonight I want to fall in love
Tonight I want to be in love
Tonight I want to be with you tonight
Oh yeah tonight

Turn My Head - The Sweet Pretty Things version is very different.
Turn my head and tell know why?
Turn my head back to the sky I know
This I know
Sit down bending on my knees
People is there nothing left to please
Nothing to please
Drive my car along the sidewalk
Turn my coffers? when the people talk
They talk too loud
Turn my mind away from pain
Change the colors of my thoughts again
Change them again
Few are crying with so many people dying
Hymns are sung by the people in the moon
What moon
Drive my car along the sidewalk
Turn my coffers? when the people talk
They talk too loud
Turn my mind away from pain
Change the colors of my thoughts again
Change them again
Few are crying with so many people dying
Hymns are sung by the people in the moon
What moon
What moon

 

"Private Harold Harris" by The Ian Campbell Folk Group

 

It is actually possible to like and enjoy the work of both bands.

 

Having not perused their recent set lists beforehand, my jaw hit the floor when they played it in Australia in 2018!

 

Yep, same with me, I was gobsmacked at how good some of the non-album b-sides were!

 

Jon admitted that Gordon played that tricky piano part in an interview many years later and that he'd been constantly practising it for 26 years. Quite nice of him really after Gordon had been So mean...... JP is the Macca/Brian Jones/Roy Wood multi instrumentalist of the band!!

 

Yes, Jon didn't start playing the Singapore Silk Torpedo intro until the 90's. It's fairly easy to pick out which keyboard parts Gordon and Jon played on Silk Torpedo & Savage Eye. Gordon examples - the Singapore Silk Torpedo intro of course, It's Been So Long, My Song, Theme for Michelle, Is It Only Love, etc. Jon played Dream - the intro to Joey, the intro to Under the Volcano, Bruise in the Sky, etc. Good rule of thumb - if it's acoustic piano it's probably Gordon, if it's electric it's probably Jon. But Gordon played some electric, too. If you watch the 1974 BBC and Beat Club shows you can get a good feel for it. Also, if you listen to good stereo Freeway Madness live shows (and the 1974 shows) they are often playing the same parts in unison on two electrics. As for Jon not being a talented and creative keyboard player, all you need to do to dispel that notion is listen to all his contributions on S.F.Sorrow, Parachute, Freeway Madness and the Electric Banana albums.

 

Simon Fox was also the drummer on the 1981 Cross Talk tour when Skip was indisposed and they had all the money stolen by the tour manager. I was very honoured and privileged to be able to play a couple of gigs with Simon a few years back here in Birmingham..... despite my face here I was having a great time