Snapper UK
2000
The Pretty Things
About This Album
The Pretty Things' debut LP was a legendary exercise in anarchy -- 30 minutes into the two days' worth of sessions, their original producer, Jack Baverstock (the head of the label, no less), walked out, and was eventually replaced by a slightly more sympathetic personality in the hopes of salvaging something from the efforts of the band, who, whatever their shortcomings in decorum or sobriety, were on their third successive charting single. The resulting album, made under the coordination (if not control) of drummer-turned-producer Bobby Graham, made the early work of the Rolling Stones -- rivals and one-time bandmates to the Pretty Things' Dick Taylor -- sound more like the work of the Beatles: very calculated, lightweight, and -- genteel. Pretty Things is recorded with practically every song and instrument pushing the needle into the red (i.e., overload). Normally, that would be a problem, except for the fact that a third of the repertory was written by Bo Diddley and most of the other two-thirds was inspired by him (even their version of Chuck Berry's "Oh Baby Doll" sounds like it was lifted from the Two Great Guitars sessions where the two legends crossed swords) -- and Bo spent most of his career with his amplifiers set on "11" in a world where ten was the max.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 and 14)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.

 
report abuse