Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow (1968)
Vinyl rip @ 24/96 | FLAC | Artwork | 831Mb inc. 5% recovery
Rapidshare | Rock, Psychedelia | 1975 UK Harvest re-issue / SHSP 4061
Vinyl rip @ 24/96 | FLAC | Artwork | 831Mb inc. 5% recovery
Rapidshare | Rock, Psychedelia | 1975 UK Harvest re-issue / SHSP 4061
Who could ever have thought, going back to the Pretty Things' first recording session in 1965 – which started out so disastrously that their original producer quit in frustration – that it would come to this? The Pretty Things' early history in the studio featured the band with its amps seemingly turned up to 11, but for much of S.F. Sorrow the band is turned down to seven or four, or even two, or not amplified at all (except for Wally Allen's bass – natch), and they're doing all kinds of folkish things here that are still bluesy enough so you never forget who they are, amid weird little digressions on percussion and chorus; harmony vocals that are spooky, trippy, strange, and delightful; sitars included in the array of stringed instruments; and a Mellotron. Sometimes one gets an echo of Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn or A Saucerful of Secrets, and it all straddles the worlds of British blues and British psychedelia better than almost any record you can name. The album, for those unfamiliar, tells the story of "S.F. Sorrow," a sort of British Everyman – think of a working-class, luckless equivalent to the Kinks' Arthur, from cradle to grave. The tale and the songs are a bit downbeat and no amount of scrutiny can disguise the fact that the rock opera S.F. Sorrow is ultimately a bit of a confusing effort – these boys were musicians, not authors or dramatists. Although it may have helped inspire Tommy, it is, simply, not nearly as good. That said, it was first and has quite a few nifty ideas and production touches. And it does show a pathway between blues and psychedelia that the Rolling Stones, somewhere between Satanic Majesties, "We Love You," "Child of the Moon," and Beggars Banquet, missed entirely. Bruce Eder & Richie Unterberg AMG
Tracklisting:
A1. S.F. Sorrow Is Born
A2. Bracelets
A3. She Says Good Morning
A4. Private Sorrow
A5. Balloon Burning
A6. Death
B1. Baron Saturday
B2. The Journey
B3. I See You
B4. Well Of Destiny
B5. Trust
B6. Old Man Going
B7. Loneliest Person
Produced by Norman Smith
Recorded at E.M.I. Studios, Abbey Road, London.
Knosti RCM
Pink Triangle LPT with
Funk Firm Achromat.
Moth Arm.
Audio Technica AT33PTG MC Cart.
Harman Kardon PM660 Integrated Amp.
Creative S80300 ADC. Gold Interconnects.
Click Repair.
Split and manual de-click with Adobie Audition.
Pink Triangle LPT with
Funk Firm Achromat.
Moth Arm.
Audio Technica AT33PTG MC Cart.
Harman Kardon PM660 Integrated Amp.
Creative S80300 ADC. Gold Interconnects.
Click Repair.
Split and manual de-click with Adobie Audition.