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They thought that obviously we were homosexuals or perverts or transvestites. ''People would look at you and want to take a swing at you. ''It was apparently against all the codes that were laid down for behavior,'' he said. May said that the band's reputation sprang mostly from its long hair and scruffy look.
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With an estimated 61 convictions, ranging from drug to weapon possession, they were banned in Australia, kicked out of hotels and restaurants worldwide and claimed to have invented the rock tradition of throwing furniture out hotel windows.īut Mr. ''You've got the opening of 'Pinball Wizard' completely there, in 'Old Man Going,' '' he said, comparing the Pete Townshend song to his.ĭespite lyrics like ''You might be the loneliest person in the world/You'll never be as lonely as me,'' the Pretty Things did not have a reputation as Britain's most sensitive residents. Though the Who has denied that the album was a major influence on its better-known 1969 rock opera, ''Tommy,'' Mr. May's story with the album and made it pay the extra cost of printing the text on the album packaging. It was the oldest concept in the world, but at the time nobody had done it before.'' The band's record label balked when the group wanted to publish Mr. Pieces of music had been written for at least a 40-minute listen, and I thought the best way to do that was to overlay a story line and create music for the various characters and instances. ''I could never understand why an album had to be five A-sides and five B-sides with no connection. ''We were looking for another way of making a 40-minute disk,'' Mr.
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Loaded with rich harmonies, sharp dissonances, odd electronic effects, early Pink Floyd-style psychedelia, proto heavy metal and songs that drastically change styles from one moment to the next, the album was full of pop experiments and abstractions that have become a calling card for current underground alternative bands. Sorrow, whose downward spiral begins when he watches the hot-air balloon carrying the woman he loves crash and burn. May had written and developed an entire record around the life of the story's protagonist, Sebastian F. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.'' For the album, the Pretty Things took a short story Mr. Sorrow,'' the Pretty Things had changed their course to remain relevant in an era that was producing more sophisticated pop like ''Pet Sounds'' and ''Sgt. The Pretty Things began as a raucous blues-rock band influenced by Bo Diddley and constantly described in relation to the Rolling Stones as meaner, louder, uglier and with longer hair than the Stones, a band the Pretty Things guitarist Dick Taylor originally played bass in. in New York), on the Internet (and recorded for a live album. The concert, featuring the band's 1966 lineup with the addition of David Gilmour of Pink Floyd on guitar and Arthur Brown (known for his hit ''Fire'') providing narration, will be broadcast live (at 4 P.M. Sorrow'' in its entirety for the first time at Abbey Road Studios in London. On Sunday, the reunited Pretty Things are to perform ''S.
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After the band settled out of court this year with several record labels for royalties and the rights to its catalogue, Snapper made a deal to repackage the group's past albums and record three new ones.
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Out of print for decades, the album is to be reissued on CD by Snapper Music. ''The album has never really had a proper release,'' Phil May, the band's singer, said from his home in London. But for a work of such importance - among the most interesting and ambitious albums of the 60's - ''S. Sorrow is born,'' the British band the Pretty Things entered the rock-and-roll history books in 1968 with what is generally acknowledged as the first rock opera. With the lyric ''From number three there came the cry, 'S.