The Pretty Things were an English rock band, originally formed in 1963 by guitarist/vocalist Dick Taylor and singer/guitarist Phil May. Taylor had briefly played the prior year in an embryonic lineup of The Rolling Stones. They were arguably the most significant band of the beat boom to not have a stateside breakthrough during the British […]
Thought experiment: correlate each class of ’77 UK punk/new wave act to their class of ’64 British beat antecedent (or correlate the ’64 beat act to their ’77 doppelganger). I offered ten comparisons for consideration (A–J). Explore the parallels and similarities that distinguished each pair from their respective kin. Class of ’64 vs. Class of […]
Twink was the stagename of John Charles Alder, an English rock drummer and singer. He played in multiple bands and cut the 1970 solo album Think Pink. He first emerged in The Fairies, a Colchester R&B beat group that released three 1964/65 singles. In 1966, he joined The In Crowd, a mod-soul outfit that morphed […]
What did each of these albums bring to the table in rock’s transformation from Beat through psychedelia and the subsequent emergence of suite-driven symphonic progressive (Genesis, ELP, Yes) and orchestral pop (ELO, Alan Parsons Project, Klaatu). The period from 1966 to 1968 was a pivotal moment in rock history, as the “Beat” era of three-minute […]
S.F. Sorrow is the fourth album by English psych-rockers the Pretty Things, released in December 1968 on Columbia. Comprised of thirteen songs that follow the lifelong journey of one Sebastian F. Sorrow, the album is cited as the first LP-length rock opera. et Tracklist: A1. “S.F. Sorrow Is Born” (3:12) A2. “Bracelets of Fingers” (3:41) […]
