The Pretty Things Releases New Record
The London Band Creates a Slow-Burning Masterpiece
The band that crafted the sublime S.F. Sorrow, the very first rock opera, is back with a late-career, slow-burning masterpiece. Though never gaining the level of fame and acclaim of The Stones or The Who, wild and woolly rockers The Pretty Things were highly regarded enough by Jimmy Page to be signed to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song Records during the ’70s. Singer Phil May, guitarist Dick Taylor (who was the bass player for the first Stones gig in 1962), and the rest of the Pretties bring the verve and the vintage ’60s analog sound to this artful album, which gleans its title from Dylan’s “Tombstone Blues” lyrics. Best tracks: “Hell, Here and Nowhere,” “You Took Me by Surprise,” and “Greenwood Tree.”
