Pretty Things

The Pretty Things (named after a Bo Diddley song) emerged from the London scene of the mid-Sixties, quickly earning a reputation as the "harder version of the Rolling Stones". After all, Dick Taylor (guitar and backing vocals in the band), besides having been Richards's Art School classmate, had briefly been a full-fledged member of the Stones before joining the Pretty Things. However, more than Taylor's whiplash guitar work, it was certainly frontman Phil May who set audiences alight and caused a stir with the vicious, brazen attitude he struck on stage. His provocative stage antics anticipated those of Jim Morrison and may even have inspired Jagger himself.

After a trio of more conventional rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll albums, which produced a few moderately successful singles, in 1967 the band veered decisively into psychedelia with "Emotions", an album that came together amid line-up changes, various upheavals and clashes with the production. The result, while far from negligible, fell short of what the band had wanted. But May and co. didn't give up. Buoyed by newfound internal cohesion and the hiring of producer Norman Smith (the same man behind "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" by Pink Floyd), they developed an ambitious project based on a story devised by May himself: a concept album entirely built around the bitter, dramatic saga of Sebastian F. Sorrow. In doing so, perhaps unwittingly, they created the first rock opera in history (although Zappa, for his part, had already pointed the way a year earlier with "Absolutely Free"). Pete Townshend himself would later reveal that he listened to "S.F. Sorrow" for four straight days before writing "Tommy".

The album thus opens with the birth of Sebastian ("S.F. Sorrow Is Born"), son of workers in the "factory of misery". The narration of the event is wrapped in a comforting acoustic haze reminiscent of the Who of "Sell Out", bitten by the black-tinged throb of the bass and warped by psychedelic detours. The vocal harmonies, in the style of the Beach Boys, round off a classy arrangement for an effective melody, sung with real emphasis by May.

The following "Bracelets of Fingers", a kind of acid-tinged little march, is the bleak postcard of an unhappy childhood. The opening choruses ("love, love, love"), still very Beach Boys-like, are just a false start, symbolizing the fleeting joy of Sebastian's childhood, soon overtaken by poverty and fear.

The discovery of love and getting high ("She Says Good Morning", ushered in by a jarring electric guitar arpeggio poised between Lennon's "She Said, She Said" and Barrett's "See Emily Play") is a sadly illusory epiphany, a prelude to the plunge into the abyss of war. "Private Sorrow" opens with a heavenly acoustic arpeggio and delicate flute accompaniment, but the balance is soon broken and the song turns into an unexpected, lurching anthem, driven by insistent drums and seduced by coy horns. It's an account of Sebastian's bewilderment, ruined by the economic crisis and drafted into His Majesty's army. Sebastian's is a surreal exercise in optimism, an escape from the pitiful scenes of war that have already extinguished his eyes but not his hope, yet the macabre coda of the track hints that nothing good lies ahead.

With the horrific conflict finally over, along comes the lure of the eternal "American dream": New York becomes the designated setting for a life full of serenity and pure tenderness, but the awakening from this idyll is abrupt and shocking: Sebastian's partner dies accidentally, trapped in the burning hot-air balloon of "Balloon Burning", a delirious gallop that spills into a genuine rhythmic maelstrom, cut through by a venomous guitar line (which perhaps foreshadows the style of Tom Verlaine). The following "Death", a slow, dark-hued piece with dulcimer and sitar, is the somber liturgy for the chilling event that plunges Sebastian into utter despair. It's at this point that "Baron Saturday" appears on the horizon, the tempting pusher, an incarnation of death but also a healer of every ill. The track is bold and energetic, dominated by a martial bassline with sinuous mellotron carpets and black-music shadings that perfectly complement May's outstanding performance, now Luciferian, now raw and visceral.

Overwhelmed by despair, Sebastian gives in to temptation and accepts the malevolent gifts, surrendering to the artificial trip of "The Journey", a sweet, sparkling country-rock number sucked into a psychedelic vortex, followed by the hypnotic, blues-inflected "I See You" (with echoes of monstrous voices from beyond the grave), which vaguely recalls the Yardbirds. "Well Of Destiny", opened by organ reverberations and unsettling electric guitar crackle, is the terrifying nightmare that heralds the end: Sorrow realizes that no one can be trusted any longer, and "Trust", built on an elegant piano progression and driven by a genial, sing-song melody, tells us so with lucid disillusionment.

Sorrow is now a pathetic old man whose soul bears the scars of a cruel life, and "Old Man Going" – which would go on to inspire both the Who and the Black Sabbath – with May's hissing vocal and drums taking centre stage, is the expression of an anger repressed for far too long.

The farewell is brief but intense: "Loneliest Person" is a subdued, poignant folk ballad that definitively closes the casket on the existence of S.F. Sorrow, lost in the black sea of his endless solitude.

Ultimately, this is a record that's not only extraordinarily important from a historical standpoint, but also rich, vibrant, magnetic and multifaceted. A one-of-a-kind masterpiece that masterfully blends experimentation and melody, prog leanings and catchiness, weaving a story that makes us reflect while mercilessly reminding us of the transience of human existence, coldly governed by chance.

The recently remastered edition offers a handful of bonus tracks, among which the wayward, eclectic "Defecting Grey" (a 1967 single) stands out.

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11/01/2009