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Electric Banana With Tilsley Orchestral* – Electric Banana Label: Music De Wolfe – DW/LP 3040 Format: Vinyl, 10", LP Country: UK Released: 1967 Genre: Rock, Funk / Soul, Blues Style:
A1Walking Down The Street Written-By – R. C. Taylor*, Phil May, A. E. Waller* A2If I Needed Somebody Written-By – R. C. Taylor*, Phil May, A. E. Waller* A3Free Love Written-By – Peter Reno A4Cause I'm A Man Written-By – Peter Reno A5Danger Signs Written-By – R. C. Taylor*, Phil May, A. E. Waller* Instrumental Versions B1Walking Down The Street Written-By – R. C. Taylor*, Phil May, A. E. Waller* B2If I Needed Somebody Written-By – R. C. Taylor*, Phil May, A. E. Waller* B3Free Love Written-By – Peter Reno B4Cause I'm A Man Written-By – Peter Reno B5Danger Signs Written-By – R. C. Taylor*, Phil May, A. E. Waller* Companies, etc. Printed By – Garrod & Lofthouse The Pretty Things were an English rock band, formed in September 1963 in Sidcup, Kent. They took their name from Willie Dixon's 1955 song "Pretty Thing". A pure rhythm and blues band in their early years, with several singles charting in the United Kingdom, they later embraced other genres such as psychedelic rock in the late 1960s (with 1968 S.F. Sorrow being one of the first rock operas), hard rock in the early 1970s and new wave in the early 1980s. Despite this, they never managed to recapture the same level of commercial success of their early releases.
The Pretty Things were preceded by Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, which consisted of Dick Taylor, fellow Sidcup Art College student Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger, among others. When Brian Jones was recruiting for his own band, all three joined Brian and Ian Stewart and were dubbed "Rollin' Stones" by Jones in June 1962. Because there were too many guitar players in the band, Taylor switched to bass. He quit the Stones five months later, when he was accepted at the Central School of Art and Design in London. Phil May, another Sidcup student, convinced him to form a new band. Taylor was once again playing guitar, with May singing and playing harmonica. They recruited John Stax on bass, Brian Pendleton on rhythm guitar, and Pete Kitley on drums. Kitley was soon replaced by Viv Andrews, also known as Viv Broughton.[3]
A fellow student at the Art College where May and Taylor studied, Bryan Morrison, was recruited as their manager. Morrison was to manage them for the rest of the 1960s, building his own Bryan Morrison Agency. This agency represented Pink Floyd among many other bands. Forming a partnership with songwriter Jimmy Duncan, he got the Pretty Things a recording contract with Fontana Records in early 1964. At this point, Viv Andrews was replaced by Viv Prince, a more experienced drummer who had played with Carter-Lewis and the Southerners.
1964–1966: Early career
Pretty Things in 1965 The Pretty Things' early material consisted of hard-edged blues-rock influenced by Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed. Their first three singles appeared in the UK Singles Chart in 1964 and 1965: "Rosalyn" No. 41, "Don't Bring Me Down" No. 10, and the self-penned "Honey I Need" at No. 13.[4][1] They never had a hit in the United States, but had considerable success in their native Britain and in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands. Their appearance and behaviour was provocative, with May claiming to have the longest hair in the UK and Prince often causing chaos wherever he went.[2]
The band later blamed their lack of success in the US on the fact their management opted for a tour of the Southern Hemisphere in July–August 1965. During their two weeks in New Zealand, they caused so much outrage in the media that the New Zealand Parliament addressed the issue of granting entry permits to musicians like the Pretty Things. The band was never actually banned from re-entering New Zealand, contrary to what can be read in some sources.[5]
The first of what would be many personnel changes over the years also began, with Prince, whose wild antics had become too much for the other members to endure, being the first to go in November 1965. He was replaced by Skip Alan.[6] In early 1966 the band made a short film The Pretty Things on Film; it featured live footage and a music video prototype for "Can't Stand the Pain", which also featured their manager, Morrison. Rarely screened at the time, the film can be found as a bonus multimedia item on the Snapper CD re-issue of Get the Picture. 1966 saw the R&B scene fall into decline and the Pretty Things began moving away, flirting with soul music.[2] In mid-1966 they made the UK Singles Chart for the final time with a cover of the Kinks song "A House in the Country". In December 1966 came the single "Progress", where the band were joined by a brass section.
Pendleton left in December 1966 and will be replaced on stage by Billy Harrison from Them. Stax followed in January 1967. Jon Povey and Wally Waller, both former Fenmen from Bern Elliott and the Fenmen, joined and made the band a five-piece once again.[4]
1967–1971: S.F. Sorrow and Parachute Their final album for Fontana Records was a contractual obligation produced by Steve Rowland and the subject of controversy, since Emotions was laden with brass and string arrangements arranged by Reg Tilsley. EMI producer Norman Smith expressed interest in working with them and at the end of September 1967, the Pretty Things signed to EMI's Columbia label.[4] In November 1967 they released "Defecting Grey", a psychedelic effort that failed to sell. This was followed three months later by a double A-side single, "Talking About the Good Times" / "Walking Through My Dreams".
That single marked the beginning of sessions for the S.F. Sorrow album. Released in December 1968, it was the first rock opera, preceding the release of the Who's Tommy in May 1969.[4] It was recorded between December 1967 and September 1968 at the Abbey Road Studios, while Pink Floyd were working on A Saucerful of Secrets (also produced by Norman Smith) and the Beatles worked on the White Album. In March 1968, drummer Skip Alan left the group. Twink replaced him to help the band to complete the album.
In March 1969, the British music magazine NME reported that Motown Records vice-president Barney Ales had visited London to sign the Pretty Things as the U.S. label's first British act.[7] S.F. Sorrow was commercially unsuccessful, with no immediate release in the United States. The work received only modest support from EMI, and its depressing narrative probably did not help sales. The American release, on Motown's Rare Earth Records label, came out more than a year late, leading to the impression that S.F. Sorrow was merely following the trend set by the Who's Tommy.[4][1]
1969 saw the band feeling disillusioned by the failure of S.F. Sorrow and that June, Taylor left the group. The Pretty Things borrowed guitarist Victor Unitt from the Edgar Broughton Band to replace Taylor. During the summer of 1969, they recorded an album for a young French millionaire Philippe DeBarge, which was intended only to be circulated among his social circle. The acetate has since been bootlegged.[citation needed] In 2010 it was picked up by Mike Stax, owner of 1960s music magazine Ugly Things. He unearthed one of the two acetates and had it mixed and mastered and then as a piece de resistance, had the classic Pretty Things line-up, which Dick Taylor had just left at the time of the recording of the tracks with DeBarge, record a song entitled "Monsieur Rock" (Ballad of Philippe) a bonus track for this release on Ugly Things UTCD-2207.
Twink left at the end of 1969 to form the Pink Fairies. Skip Alan returned to the drumstool in time for the band's return to Abbey Road to start work on Parachute, which kept the psychedelic sound. Shortly before the release of Parachute, Unitt left to rejoin the Edgar Broughton Band and was replaced by Pete Tolson, former guitarist for Eire Apparent. Despite much stage work and acclaim, their records were still failing to sell at all well.[8] With Tolson, they released a few singles before disbanding in mid-1971.
During the late 1960s, the group made some extra money by recording for music library company DeWolfe. Some of these songs ended up in low-budget films including What's Good for the Goose (1969), The Haunted House of Horror (1969), and a couple of softcore porn films. Not intended for official release, these songs were later compiled on a number of records and released under the alias Electric Banana: Electric Banana (1967), More Electric Banana (1968), Even More Electric Banana (1969), Hot Licks (1970), and Return of the Electric Banana (1978). The initial releases featured one side of vocal and one side of instrumental tracks. Subsequent releases of these albums generally keep the true identity of the band secret.[4]