THE PRETTY THINGS
Parachute (Snapper)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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The fact that Rolling Stone named Parachute album of the year in 1970 is pretty interesting when you consider that Rolling Stone is a US publication and The Pretty Things never meant a thing to US audiences. Well, that's not entirely correct, because The Pretties have always had a fanatic but far too tiny following here. They began as a hard-edged R&B outfit in the same vein as Jagger and company, then went on to write and record the first true rock opera, S.F. Sorrow, in 1968. By 1970 the Stones influence had waned and, if anything, the band were being influenced by The Beatles and, perhaps, Pink Floyd. An interesting mix, at that. Parachute was the first Pretties album without guitarist/co-founder Dick Taylor, and that left a vacancy in the spirit of the band. Too much of the album was aimlessly "pretty," with a few rockers standing out, notably "Miss Fay Regrets" and "Cold Stone," but in the moments when they were on the money, they recorded some of their finest post-R&B materiel here. In fact, "Sickle Clowns" might have been ripe for radio programming in 1970, if someone had been savvy enough to give it a spin. But wasn't that always the case with The Pretty Things? Easily the 60s most drastically snake-bit band, at least in the "bands that never crashed their airplane into a mountain" category, The Pretties, used to expecting the inevitable, probably weren't the least bit surprised when the parachute didn't open. Recommendable for those tracks that rock and a few that seem acid-induced, and for anyone looking for the missing link between SF Sorrow and the mid-70s Silk Torpedo incarnation.

© 2000 - DJ Johnson