The Pretty Things in 5 Songs: Brad Kyle Reacts to Hearing UK Band for 1st Time (A Collab w/Michael K. Fell)

It's like those "First Reaction" YouTube videos, but, mercifully, without the visuals.

You know those “first reaction” videos on YouTube where the person or persons “claim” that they’re reacting to their first listen, ever, of a song we all have known and memorized for years, if not decades?

Well, that’s what Michael and I are doing here! It all started with his first post of 2024:

Bouquets From A Cloudy Sky

I happened to share with Michael my virtual lack of awareness of The Pretty Things, the seminal bluesy British rock band who first plugged in when I was 9 years old, in 1964. I was a few weeks removed from having discovered The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in my Gulf Coast hometown of Houston. We recently marked the 60th anniversary of that landmark event here:

The Beatles Diaries: Celebrating 60 Years and The Feb 9, 1964 Appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show"

In real time, I was too young to get into a band that wasn’t assailing Top 40 airwaves in Texas. Even if I wasn’t too young, I’d already made up my mind on the similarly rough-hewn sound of The Rolling Stones. As they were the direct competition to my beloved squeaky-clean Beatles, I wouldn’t have liked the PTs, anyway!

In the early-’70s, when the rock press gave me some perspective on the band’s standing (and sound) in the general scheme of pretty (and not so) things, I also managed to hear them for the first time on a U.S.-released compilation album. Only confirmed what I already suspected: Didn’t like ‘em, couldn’t appreciate them.

As I certainly didn’t hear them on American Top 40 radio relentlessly, and the one album I owned I never played, I can say, with 99.8% certainty that I have, yes, heard The Pretty Things, but I never came close to learning or knowing any of their songs!—Brad Kyle, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE

The Vinyl Analysis: Michael K. Fell In Love with The Things

Michael: In 1986 I fell in love with The Pretty Things. Having first heard them while at a friend of a friend’s house, everything stopped and my attention was on the music emanating from the stereo. I wrote about how the record was a pivotal moment in my lifelong love of music and also gave some background information on their importance in the burgeoning British music scene of the early-‘60s here (or from the box link above): Bouquets From A Cloudy Sky by

Michael K. Fell

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By the time I discovered The Pretty Things, their first album was already 22 years old. As I became more obsessed with the band, I needed to discover more from them. I eventually put an ad in the back of DISCoveries and Goldmine Magazines asking about The Pretty Things, and a few weeks later I received a letter from Mike Stax postmarked from San Diego.

Mike was in a ‘60s-inspired freakbeat band called The Tell-Tale Hearts (above; Mike, with long, blond hair, is standing to right of drum), and he was also editing and publishing a very cool ‘zine called Ugly Things, which recently turned 40.

Mike and I started regular correspondence and began trading tapes with one another. Because of his ‘zine, Mike had connections with the band, as well as links with European fans. Plus, his Pretty Things live bootleg and rarities collection was second to none. Similar to Deadheads, we passionately traded live Pretty Things shows, videos, and obscurities back and forth, always decorating the cassettes with artwork and our own personally-inscribed liner notes. 

My fandom for The Pretty Things eventually led me to see them a couple of times at the 100 Club in London where I met original members…lead singer Phil May, lead guitarist Dick Taylor, drummer Skip Alan, bassist Wally Waller, keyboardist Jon Povey, and rhythm guitarist Brian Pendleton.

Back in 1986, the holy grails of The Pretty Things discography were the legendary, unreleased 1969 Philippe DeBarge album (produced by Waller) and the various Electric Banana pseudonym releases they did for films released on the DeWolfe label.

Mike sent me all of these on several Maxell XLIIs (he has since officially released the Philippe DeBarge album on his own Ugly Things record label…singer DeBarge was a wealthy socialite, 1940–1999). Several years ago, knowing I am a major Pretties fan, the owner of a local record store in Portland phoned me saying they had original mint copies of all five Electric Banana records and were giving me first choice at buying them. I quickly made my way to the shop.

Not the original of any of the five official Electric Banana covers, this is the cover of a later CD compilation. The original cover can be seen here on a recent CD issue.

When I asked how the store had come into acquiring them, I was told that an older, local fan was selling his entire record collection, and he would sell me the series of five original Electric Banana albums (of stock film music for soundtracks) for a fantastic price as long as I took them all and promised not to flip them (to another buyer for a quick buck). I told the store owner to assure him they were going to a good home, and I excitedly walked out with five records I had spent decades searching for.

When Brad suggested a collaborative piece by sending him five songs by The Pretty Things that I thought would make a great introduction to the band, I eagerly accepted his challenge.

I am now excited to hear Brad’s thoughts on these five songs. I don’t know if he will be running out to purchase any Pretty Things albums, but at the very least, I hope it gives him some insight into a fascinating and highly influential band. The Pretty Things may only be a footnote in the history of rock and roll, but their footprint is huge. If I am pressed to choose a favorite rock and roll band, I would find it hard not to choose The Pretty Things.

Brad’s first reaction:

I’m surprised The Pretty Things were recording as early as 1965 (I was 10). I was guessing the next year or ‘67 would have been their start. But, they were out of the starting gate with the rest of The British Invasion, and my heart and ears were definitely more in the Beatles’ zone than The Stones. The PT attack is very much bluesy, rough, and edgy, and firmly in the “dirty,” unkempt camp that I simply had no attraction to…at least as a pre-teen.

That one guitar grinding sound in the chorus (after every time Phil May sings “Baby, I’m your man”) was pretty jarring, and, frankly, a sound not unlike the one my dentist is prone to make when I sit in his chair.

Michael responds: Come See Me (1965) - Early Pretties were a bruising R&B band, and “Come See Me” demonstrates perfectly their raw, primal energy. The year is 1965, several years before the MC5 or Stooges’ first albums. The Sex Pistols and Ramones were still in elementary or middle school. This is pure proto-punk. Its thunderous bass, buzzsaw fuzz guitar, and Phil May’s vocals rip the air to shreds and curdle the clouds into cottage cheese. Not even The Kinks come close to the blistering and manic chaos captured on this record. “Come See Me” encapsulates the original early band at their sleaziest and most ferocious.

Back to Brad: I hear, now, the influence they obviously had on the Detroit bands, as well as The Pistols and Ramones. I think (along with being a young adult), I appreciated, then, how those ‘70s bands incorporated their various influences into their respective unique sounds.

I loved the British Invasion Kinks at the time, too…even their rockier moments (like “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night,” and “‘Til the End of the Day”), but was also very drawn to their “Waterloo Sunset” and English music hall, more jaunty fare.

Brad’s first reaction: Sounding a little more listenable and psychedelic (at least, at the start), I’m gonna guess this is 1967. Ninety seconds in, they move to a waltz signature, and just past the 2-minute mark, they become surprisingly melodic before going back to that waltz time. They break that up with some bizarre riffing. To call this a schizophrenic attempt would be an understatement. I’m still waiting to hear something that would make me a fan.

Michael responds: Defecting Grey (1967) - By 1966, LSD had entered The Pretty Things’ circle, and there were some changes to their personnel as well as their creative output. Their third album, Emotions, hinted at the changes: Producer, American actor/singer/columnist, Steve Rowland (assigned to the band by their UK label, Fontana), mixed strings and orchestration into the original mix, completely transforming the sound of the album to the disappointment of both the band and their fans.

Nevertheless, the record was released and the band moved on to pursue an even more experimental and lysergic direction. Their 1967 single, “Defecting Grey,” incorporated a variety of tempo and key changes, backward guitar, Eastern modals, blistering fuzz guitar that almost descends into white noise, and surreal lyrics. It is an atmospheric, mind-altering, psychedelic roller-coaster ride. It hints at what would come next from the band, and it predates progressive rock by several years. I can’t help but think it must have also inspired Radiohead when composing their “Paranoid Android” in 1997.

Brad’s first reaction: More of a progressive, if not experimental outing, here. Acoustic guitar, hand-claps, merge into what sounds like a processed lead vocal complaining about a corporation or something over fuzz-toned guitar. So, I guess they also dabbled in social commentary a bit? About time I looked up the year of this album: Ah, 1968, and the legendary S.F. Sorrow album.

I remember early ‘70s rock mags (as I “graduated” around 1970 from teeny-bopper fare, 16 and Tiger Beat, to the more “adult” Crawdaddy, CREEM, Rolling Stone, PRM, Stereo Review, and other serious rock prose and commentary!) raving about S.F. Sorrow, and I guess I can see its attraction in the post-summer-of-love 1968 (when I was 13)! Had I been 18 in ‘68, I’m sure I’d be all over this one!

Michael responds: Old Man Going (1968) - In 1968, The Pretty Things released what is acknowledged as the first rock opera, SF Sorrow. While most credit The Who’s Tommy as the first, even Townshend has stated he was inspired to write Tommy by repeatedly listening to SF Sorrow.

The forty-minute song cycle takes the listener on a journey of the life and death of Sebastian F. Sorrow. Its penultimate tune, “Old Man Going” is another fuzzed-out, volcanic eruption of proto-thrash metal. Dick Taylor’s guitar crunches and swirls, the bass and drums reverberate throughout, and Phil May’s shredded lungs gasp for air as he snarls his way through its thickness.

English musician, Arthur Brown (of The Crazy World of…), once said, “The Pretty Things invented everything, but are credited with nothing.” The Pretties, not only gave us proto-punk three years earlier, but they were now inventing a new genre that would explode into popularity in the following decade. No doubt Ozzy and Tony were both taking note.

Brad’s first reaction: Interestingly, on Motown-distributed Rare Earth Records. Still sounding like they’re experimenting with vocal sounds, and even polyrhythms.

Michael responds: Cries From The Midnight Circus (1970) - Original guitarist, Dick Taylor, having left the band, the vacancy was now down to former Edgar Broughton Band guitarist, Victor Unitt, and a young Peter Tolson, formerly of Northern Ireland’s Eire Apparent.

As incredible as SF Sorrow is, The Pretty Things followed it with an album equally as good, if not better: Parachute. Legend has it that the Pretties were recording next to The Beatles at Abbey Road Studios, and both bands were listening in on the others’ sessions. If someone mentions hearing similarities to Abbey Road, I usually point out that it might actually be Parachute one is hearing when listening to Abbey Road! Despite poor sales, Rolling Stone Magazine loved Parachute enough to award it their “1970 Album of the Year.”

“Cries From The Midnight Circus” is the heavy closing track on side one of Parachute, and is a dark and broody, riff-filled progressive rock tune that when played live allowed the band space to open up and jam freely.

Brad’s first reaction (to studio version, following; produced by Norman Smith, who was an EMI Studios engineer, and worked on The Beatles’ albums through 1965; he also produced 3 Pink Floyd albums and recorded as Hurricane Smith): This is sounding a little more “conventional,” with unison double-tracking the lead vocal, some wah-wah pedal. First time recalling them engage in a rare harmony sequence….toward the end, but still, very brief:

Michael’s response: She’s A Lover (1970) - The only pop-sounding track on Parachute, yet it’s beautifully crafted, and one of Phil May’s best songs he ever wrote. I was hooked on the band the very first time I heard May sing its opening verse:

She takes the moon and stars

To wear as her disguise.

Then catching cosmic rays

She uses them for eyes.

She’s a lover

Thank you for the invite to do a collaborative piece on The Pretty Things, Brad! While they may only be a footnote in the history of rock & roll, their inspiring and creative footprint for many of their peers, fans, and musicians was exceptionally huge!