The Pretty Things' Phil May Chats with Garagerocktopia! (Part 2)

 

The Pretty Things, some would argue, are one of rock’s most overlooked groups, not getting the props for the number of trails they have blazed. In our small way, we at Garagerocktopia hope to correct what we can. One way we’ll do that is to list some of the firsts to which the Pretty Things can take credit.

If you didn't read the first part of our Pretty Things feature, click here.

For example, the band may have been the first to make a long-form music video with “Pretty Things On Film.” Made in 1966, the black-and-white Richard Lester-esque mini-movie includes some of their greatest songs of the period, such as “Midnight to Six Man” and an early stab at music video with “Can’t Stand the Pain.” This seems to stem from the PT’s beginnings in art school. 

“We’ve always been concerned with visuals,” May explained. “The way we look, the way the albums are packaged, and the way we come across on film all matter a great deal.”

The Pretty Things, as their aficionados will acknowledge, didn’t have nearly the chart presence that some of their contemporaries did. That said, the band was far from unsuccessful. Despite the way they are sometimes characterized, The Pretty Things were never obscure or unknown. 

 

They put several singles, including “Rosalyn,” “Midnight to Six Man,” and their most successful single, “Don’t Bring Me Down,” on the UK charts. 1964-66 also saw the band chart on the continent, Canada, and Australia. Sadly, they never made very much of a dent in the biggest market, the United States, where they commanded a erudite but small audience.

In the early ‘60s rock was still all about the single. The band’s three-minute ditties never sold as much as the group might have hoped, and eventually they jettisoned the whole hit-single mentality.

But soon, rock’s whole notion of singles hit a brick wall. That wall was called Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Though not a concept album, the songs on Sgt. Pepper were clearly bound together musically and emotionally in a way LP’s never had before and the impact changed rock forever. Much has been written about Sgt. Pepper and there’s not much we can add here. But it did give the Pretty Things an opening to take the whole rock album idea even further.

Unlike so many of the other British bands of the time, that artistic spirit refined in art school never completely left the band members. By the mid ’60s rock music itself was leaving adolescence wandering beyond the teen angst theme that had defined it so far. That made it OK for Pretty Things to write rock music that was also high art. That high art would be the very first rock opera, S.F. Sorrow.

“The inspiration (for S.F. Sorrow) came from having done all the three-minute pop singles,” May recalled.  We wanted to put a little more meat on the plate, to experiment and push the envelope. With S.F. Sorrow we were following what was a well-established literary format. That was what inspired us, not Sgt. Pepper.

The 1968 album is recognized as the first true rock opera, predating the Who’s Tommy  by several months. The album chronicles the life of Sebastien F. Sorrow, “from cradle to old age” as May describes it.

“It is indisputable that S.F. Sorrow is the first rock opera,” May states. “The storyline and the music absolutely work together. Most rock operas are just collections of songs. Tommy didn’t have a libretto, but S.F. Sorrow did.”

Even in the age of Sgt. Pepper, or Are You Experienced or Disraeli Gears, and so many other iconic albums of 1967-68, S.F. Sorrow stands out as a masterpiece, tied together not just by a plot but by a spread of often breathtakingly melodic songs, and a theme whose interpretation might vary with each listener.

“Spoon-feeding an audience is not what we do,” May explained. “When you read a novel or see a film, or experience any work of art, there should be space for you.

The album also marked the transformation of the Pretty Things from a rather grungy blues-based outfit to a band more musically substantial. One can still hear echoes of S.F. Sorrow today in the music of so-called “Brit-pop” bands like Radiohead or Keane.

“We still get bands who tell us how great it is, how influential it is” said May. “Kasabian has said S.F. Sorrow gave them the freedom to express themselves. We wanted to show that rock and roll can be anything you want to make it – it’s the spirit that’s important.” 

The band would follow up – sans Dick Taylor, who stayed out of the picture for many years -- in 1970 with the somewhat harder-edged Parachute, which some argue is actually the Pretty Things’ best album. Subsequent works such as Freeway Madness, Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye traversed styles, from glam to progressive to hard rock, and all would generally be considered solid efforts.

 

But anyone who has observed the music biz for more than, say, two minutes, knows that “good” and “hit” frequently have little to do with each other. Despite a series of solid works, chart success mostly eluded the Pretty Things. The problem, in large part, lay not with May and company, but with the suits at EMI and Motown (who released the group’s albums through its Rare Earth subsidiary).  

We won’t recount the history here – Alan Lakey gives a more thorough treatment in his biography Growing Old Disgracefully. Suffice to say that a chess game between the two labels did much to torpedo any potential commercial breakthrough the band thought they might finally achieve. It would be easy for May to whine about the unfairness of it all, but he’s rather matter of fact about the band’s commercial travails.

“Money would be helpful, but when you spend so much time in the studio, and writing, and playing, I just wish more ears had heard us,” May said. “Our music just didn’t get out. That’s the only regret. When you do this, you just want people to give you a listen. If they decide after that to buy something else, that’s OK, but you at least want to know that someone did hear you.”

The story isn’t entirely sad, though. David Bowie, at the pinnacle of his early ‘70s commercial success, covered “Rosalyn” and “Don’t Bring Me Down.” Little Steven regularly plays the bands’ songs on his Underground Garage radio show. David Gilmour and Arthur Brown have joined the band to perform “S.F. Sorrow” live. The band continues to enjoy a small but faithful cult worldwide, particularly in Australia.

With such a long history, it’s amazing that the band continues at all. Many of their contemporaries who racked up vastly higher units sold are completely forgotten. Yet the Pretty Things remain, not as relics of rock’s bygone eras but as a group who still have something to say.

“When we play, we have a lot of younger people now appearing in our audiences,” May pointed out. “When we play some psychedelic, the younger audiences react to it as now-ness rather than nostalgia.”

What keeps May, Taylor and the rest of the band going? Perhaps the answer is quite simple – it’s perspective. May said that despite logging so many years as a Pretty Thing, he, as well as Taylor, has never let it completely rule their lives.

“Both Dick and I have other lives, other interests and we’ve taken breaks,” said May, who has taken a couple of multi-year absences. “When things get tough, we take a time out. Dick stepped away at one point for 10 years. I’ve been with this band for 51 years, but not nonstop.”

“I don’t think I’m a professional musician,” May explains. “Dick is – he reads notes and all – but my voice is not something you can carry in a case. It’s a feral thing. What I have is not so much an ability to sing, but life experience. That experience changes and adds things to my voice.

The Pretty Things have been included on a number of compilations, most notably the second Nuggets compilation Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969 that no doubt has grown the band new waves of fans, May doesn’t at all discount the importance of his band’s inclusion on these compilations.

“Anything that gets the music out there helps, including by association,” May commented. “If other bands’ fan base learns about the Pretty Things, that’s great. What’s better than being saluted by your peers?”

We at Garagerocktopia are extremely grateful to Phil May for talking with us. Remember, the new album

The Sweet Pretty Things (Are in bed now, of course) becomes available this week.

One last bit of news -- Cheryl Ostrander joins Garagerocktopia as chief copy editor and bottle washer. What did we have to do to get this talented individual to join us? Well, marry her of course ...