The Pretty Things Come See Me The Very Best of
Released: April 20, 2004 Origination Year: 2004 Time: 77.09 Tracks: 7 Produced by: N/A Style: Studio Format: CD Enhancement: None Website:

Ahhh...for about an hour, it's the mid-60s again...'64, '65, '66...those were, indeed, the days.  Any radio station you tuned in (AM, no FM underground yet) played great music, no matter what it was.  Everything in music was new and exciting and great, and there were no "formats" back then.  Each radio station played a mix of Beatles and Temptations, then Beach Boys and Stones, then Little Anthony and The Imperials, then Herman's Hermits, Cilla Black, The Dave Clark 5, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson...Man, we have never known times like that since.  Everything was, in fact, groovy...so groovy that life was a grand adventure.  Going to sleep to those sounds on the radio...waking up to your latest 45 RPM or LP purchase...knowing that no matter what happened that day, it was all alright, because you had THE MUSIC.

 

Friday nights at the National Guard Armory, the only place in my neck o' the woods that had live bands at the time, sometimes touring (Lou Christie, backed by local faves The Twilites, Chuck Berry, and others lost to the mists of time), but mostly local.  Great local bands like The Invaders, Travers and Coventry, (later The Clefs of Lavender Hill, presented on the Nuggets Box Set, disc four, doing their "Stop - Get a Ticket", which was released locally on 45RPM - of course, I still have mine), Somethin' Good (my band), and Sounds Unlimited (which I later joined, travelled with to New York, and recorded for Columbia Records in The Big Apple). 

 

The most popular local band, by far, though, were The Montells (later HMS Montells [for Her Majesty's Subjects The Montells]).  They actually put out some regional 45s (which I still have, of course, again), covering, guess who?...The Pretty Things' "Don't Bring Me Down" b/w Otis Blackwell's "Daddy Rollin' Stone".  These guys were the real deal. They weren't just some neighborhood kids having a lark...they were down and dirty and raw and nasty and amazing and like having your own huge Brit Invasion band right there every Friday night.  Very few people knew that most every song they did was a cover of The Pretty Things' material, it was thought that these guys were that good...that they were writing this stuff.  They were so way into the music that they, alone, were aware that this awesome stuff existed.  And they weren't giving away any secrets.  Honestly, I only found out a few years later when I heard my first Pretty Things LP.  Ya see, The Pretty Things never quite caught on here in the States.  But The Montells caught on to them, right away.

Now, back to that "almost an hour" mentioned in the first paragraph of this tome.  That represents, roughly, the first 60 minutes of Shout! Factory's new 77 minute Pretty Things collection, entitled "Come See Me:  The Very Best of The Pretty Things".  Shout! Factory has immediately jumped to the top of the list as my favorite label.  They've released alot of great stuff...most recently this Pretty Things disc, the Slade: Best Of... CD, the Slade In Flame DVD, and the all-encompassing 6-disc DVD Box set of the 1999 cult favorite TV series Freaks and Geeks, which is, hands-down, the benchmark DVD release of this year.  But, back to the music...

 

If you are a fan of the early Rolling Stones releases, punk style R&B, and garage rock (the likes of The Shadows of Knight, The Leaves, and later The MC5 and The Stooges), you're gonna love The Pretty Things (or, at least the first 14 tracks or so, of the 25 here included).  Formed in 1963 by mates Dick Taylor (guitarist, and friend of Jagger/Richards) and Phil May (vocalist and Jagger look-alike), The Pretty Things were neck-n-neck with The Stones in their early years.  Why did The Stones make it and The Pretty Things pretty much toil in obscurity?  Well, here's my theory:  The Stones were as "nasty" as any American mom'n'dad were (almost) willing to accept in the atmosphere of the mid-60s.  The Pretty Things were just too base, too nasty, too raunchy, too dirty (in look and sound) for the (relatively innocent) times.  They did a song called 'LSD' in 1965 ( ! ) that talked about "needing" LSD!  I mean, c'mon...a few years had passed by the time John Lennon was getting lambasted for the insinuation that 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' was an acronym for LSD.  They were just too much, too soon.  Another part of my theory is that The Stones evolved into an even greater band...The Prettys devolved into trying to get a hit on the radio, and lost not only their identity, but their credibility as well.

 

1965's self-titled 'The Pretty Things' was a great album.  Tracks 1-5 are pulled from that track list.  The second Prettys album, 'Get The Picture', also from 1965, was another great album (represented here by tracks 6-13).  So far, so good...the base, early Stones, garage-type sound.  Things change dramatically with track 15 and 16 here, "The Sun" and "Death of a Socialite" (both from the LP 'Emotions').  All of a sudden we get pop/psychedelic tunes that remind one of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd (still, pretty good), with strings and horns.  The balance of the disc more or less devolves, as did their career, into some rather lunky pop and glam-rock.  Trust me when I tell you, The Pretty Things' "Come See Me:  The Very Best Of..." is all The Pretty Things you'll ever need.  It separates the wheat from the chaff pretty well.  The only improvement might be to add their 'S F Sorrow' disc from 1968 (here represented by only two songs).  It is said, arguably, that 'S F Sorrow' was, in fact, the first rock opera, pre-dating The Who's Tommy by a year.  I don't agree, and to even compare the two is ludicrous.

 

So, is this Pretty Things Best Of worth having?  Yes.  Having a well thought-out best-of disc is just what the doctor ordered.  It is close to impossible to get The Pretty Things on disc, LP, or any medium in the States, and this dearth has lasted far too many years.  These guys were a huge part of the seamier side of The British Invasion, and not to have a decent representation available is a crime.  Thanks to Shout! Factory...crime solved!  Ya gotta have this, if only for the first, great, 14 tracks (and a hand-picked few of the rest...)

     

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