From 1967-1978, the British band the Pretty Things recorded five albums under an alias, though none were sold in stores. Amongst the tracks they put to tape is an apocalyptic acid rocker, and it’s one of the finest psychedelic songs laid down in the 1960s.

Library music is ready-made soundtracks for film, TV, and radio productions. Until the mid ‘60s, instrumental background music was what was commonly needed, but then pop and rock tunes started to become in demand, as well. De Wolfe, a library music company, began looking for an actual band to provide genuine pop/rock songs, and found one in the Pretty Things. Recording under the fictitious, psychedelia-inspired name Electric Banana, the group produced a self-titled record in 1967, the first in a series of late ‘60s albums for De Wolfe. The general format of these records was to have songs with vocals on Side A, and instrumental versions of the same tracks on Side B. More Electric Banana (1968) was album #2, followed by—wait for it—Even More Electric Banana (1969). The latter release was unique, in that the material was destined for a specific project.
 

 
The 1969 film What’s Good for the Goose is very much of its time. Several scenes are set in a swinging, mod discotheque, in which the Pretty Things are seen performing Electric Banana songs from the third EB album. One of those tunes is the stupendous psych rock number, “Blow Your Mind.” After the initial burst of excitement, the song changes course, shifting into a swirling, dramatic instrumental rave-up that never looks back. It’s quite the head trip, and lives up to its title.

Get your mind blown, after the jump….

 
I’ve been going through a “phase” recently, where I’m gorging myself on music that was made by, or by fellow travelers of, The Pretty Things—The Deviants, Pink Fairies, Twink’s Think Pink and Lost Experimental Recordings 1970, Mick Farren’s darkly unhinged Mona – The Carnivorous Circus) as well as some of the music made by The Pretty Things themselves under their nudge-nudge, wink-wink work-for-hire pseudonym, The Electric Banana.

During the period from 1967 to 1978, for extra money, the Pretties (like Soft Machine) recorded material for the De Wolfe Music Library. De Wolfe sold low cost, royalty-free stock music for use in film and television soundtracks (Monty Python used De Wolfe for their TV series, for instance) and the Pretties’ music was used in the likes of soft-porn films and low budget horror movies. The songs were looser than their proper material, but still sounded quite good, especially to my ears, the material produced around the same time when they were recording their masterpiece, S.F. Sorrow at Abbey Road Studios and the early 70s material of the Parachute vintage (One Bananas track, “I See You,” did actually turn up on S.F. Sorrow).

Amazingly, the Pretties turned up portraying the Bananas in a comedy vehicle for British funnyman Norman Wisdom, as a middle-aged “square” banker chasing after a young, “free-spirited” London dolly bird in What’s Good for the Goose. Tell me that Twink wasn’t tripping his face off with this was shot…

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Keep It Together! Mick Farren and The Deviants, LIVE, Hyde Park, 1969
 

 
The Pretty Things started as blues-rock band in the early 1960s, and they’re often described as being “meaner, louder, uglier and with longer hair” than the Rolling Stones. (Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor originally played bass in the Stones). Their gritty, primitive R&B sound was heavily influenced by Bo Diddley’s beat.

With their fourth album, S.F. Sorrow,the Pretty Things decided to shake it up a bit and create a psychedelic rock opera that some regard as a lost masterpiece (I am one of them). It’s held in the same high regard as another lost 60s classic, Odessey and Oracle by the Zombies. In fact, S.F. Sorrow was the first rock opera, not Tommy. Although Pete Townshend has pointedly denied that S.F. Sorrow was an influence on Tommy, this seems unlikely to me at best. (They were of the same small London scene, The Who and the Pretty Things, so the notion that Townshend was unaware of S.F. Sorrow is bullshit. It’s got to be.)

S.F. Sorrow was recorded between December 1967 and September 1968 at Abbey Road Studios. The sound incorporates the sitar, Mellotron, flute, dulcimer and tripped out sound effects.. At the same time, the album’s producer, Norman “Hurricane” Smith was working with Pink Floyd on their A Saucerful Of Secrets album and The Beatles were recording their White Album. (S.F. Sorrow came out the same week as the White Album and Beggars Banquet).

The opera’s libretto came in the form of liner notes that told the story of one Sebastian F. Sorrow, an ordinary fellow who works at the “Misery Factory” and is drafted into World War I. His life descends into meaninglessness after he witnesses a hot-air balloon carrying his fiance crash and burn. Along the way he has an encounter with a mysterious whip-cracking character called “Baron Saturday” (based on the voodoo deity Baron Samedi).

Saturday “borrows his eyes” and takes Sorrow on a trippy trip through the Underworld (something that seems to mirror the Acid Queen’s unorthodox therapy in Tommy, don’t cha think?). The opera ends on a sad note as the desolate Sorrow realizes that he can trust no one and that he will die alone.

Following are a series of awesome vintage S.F. Sorrow performances from European television:
 

 
“Baron Saturday” on Tous En Scene, 1969
 
More Pretty Things after the jump…

 
Formed in London in 1963 by singer Phil May and guitarist Dick Taylor, The Pretty Things played raw R&B that shook up the English music scene. In addition to being musical pioneers, The Pretty Things were among the first of the Brit bands to experiment with LSD (they recorded a song of the same name) and the first to be arrested for drugs.

Sounding like an American garage band with a punk attitude, the Things were the least celebrated of the bands on the scene at the time, which included The Rolling Stones, The Animals, and The Yardbirds. It wasn’t until the late 60s / early 70s that group had both commercial and critical success with Parachute (1970 Rolling Stone Album of The Year) and concept album SF Sorrow. David Bowie covered two of their tunes for his Pin Ups album. Phil May left the group in 1976, but the band continued with shifting personel.He later rejoined the group and he and Taylor continue to perform till this day with various sidemen.
 

 
In this video from 1966 (a pristine master copy), The Pretty Things exude an effortless cool that makes Mick Jagger’s tar baby shtick seem absolutely vaudevillian.