The Pretty Things – S.F. Sorrow (1968)

The Pretty Things – S.F. Sorrow

In 1967, The Pretty Things ended their contract with Fontana Records in favor of drawing up a new one with EMI. They quickly got to work at Abbey Road, excited to utilize the new studio to implement a concept that singer Phil May had been fine tuning. During the recording however, drummer Skip Allen quit the band to marry his girlfriend and studio execs found out that May's "concept" consisted of a song cycle focusing on the entire life of a man leading up until his decent into insanity. As far as EMI were concerned they had bet on the wrong horse. Nearly everyone that the band tried to work with was dismissive of the idea, save for producer Norman “Hurricane” Smith who was pretty much desensitized to that kind of thing. By the time they had managed to get the album completed, EMI was no longer interested and they committed almost no promotion to the album, not even releasing it in the U.S. It wasn’t until six months later that American critics got a hold of it but by that time they were savagely comparing it to the Who’s recently released Tommy. That makes sense, the story that S.F. Sorrow is bound to is that of the eponymous character; it recounts his enlistment in World War I, the death of his fiancé in the Hindenburg disaster, and the journey he goes on later in life to find meaning in his ongoing turmoil (to no avail). Clearly that is the kind of thing an established psychedelic band would be exploring in 1967 and 1968 -trying to make sense of how the Summer of Love could have descended into the assassinations and drug fueled paranoia of 1968. Undoubtedly The Who saw the same disillusionment growing among their fans and held a similarly cynical view of the end of the 60's. Pete Townsend has, to his credit, denied ever hearing Sorrow before writing Tommy, but regardless of those comparisons,Sorrow’s reputation had already been squandered.

This "rock opera," as it would later be called, would lend it’s themes to many other albums that would come out after 1970 as well. It can be heard in the attempt to compare the baby boomer generation to the generation of World War II veterans that came before them as in Pink Floyd’s The Wall, (which was also a favorite topic of Pete Townsend) and the albums influence can also be heard towards the end of Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway where that protagonist travels a very similar existential journey. Sorrow is also reflective of its peers, specifically The Kinks’ The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society. These two albums, released only a few months apart from each other and also probably the first two proper concept albums, provide a mirror image of each other. Both English bands had been a part of the hit making machine for a few years and had become sullen in the turbulence of 1968. Where The Kinks turned inward and produced an undisputed classic of proto-Britpop from deep inside Ray Davies psyche, The Pretty Things sought grandeur, collecting individual songs that pushed the boundaries of psychedelic rock while binding them in a story that gave them a greater purpose. Despite the importance of the story to the album's narrative, the most important (and maybe smartest) thing about Sorrow is that opposed to the concept albums that followed, May made no attempt to tell his story through the song’s lyrics. Instead, each song is a standalone piece that merely evokes the characters and emotions of the story while the albums liner notes indicate what is happening during each song. This certainly allows the record to transcend the narrow confines that too often leave rock operas regarded as dated curiosities or vanity projects. By keeping those sites lower it does mean that the album doesn’t transcend to the level of dense masterpieces like The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway or Quadrophenia, but it does allow for The Pretty Things to develop a type of album that had never been fully or accurately conceived of.

~9.0