Parachute (The Pretty Things album)

Last updated

Parachute
Parachutealbum.jpg
Studio album by
Pretty Things
ReleasedJune 1970 (1970-06)
RecordedSeptember 1969 – April 1970
Studio Abbey Road Studios, London
Genre
Length40:58
Label Harvest
Producer Norman Smith
Pretty Things chronology
S.F. Sorrow
(1968)		Parachute
(1970)		 Freeway Madness
(1972)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Record Collector Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [5]

Parachute is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Pretty Things, released in 1970. It is their first album without guitarist Dick Taylor.

Contents

Reviews at the time of release were very positive, with Billboard calling it "another top-flight album" for the band. [6] In 1975, Rolling Stone critic Steve Turner wrote that it had been "a Rolling Stone 'album of the year'," [7] though in fact Parachute did not place among the magazine's Albums of the Year for 1970 [8] or 1971, [9] and indeed was not mentioned in Rolling Stone until Stephen Holden called it an "obscure underground classic" in his review of Freeway Madness. [10]

The band's lineup at this point was Phil May, Wally Waller, John Povey, Vic Unitt, and Skip Alan.

In 1975, the record was packaged as a double LP with their previous album S.F. Sorrow titled S.F. Sorrow and Parachute and issued on the UK label Harvest on the Harvest Heritage series. In 1976, the record was again packaged as a double LP with their previous album S.F. Sorrow titled Real Pretty. In Canada, this album was on Motown Records.

Snapper Records released a 40th anniversary double CD in September 2010 which included acoustic reworkings of various tracks recorded in May 2010 by Wally Waller and Phil May.

Track listing

All songs by Phil May and Wally Waller, except where noted. Adapted from original UK pressing. [11]

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."Scene One"
  • "Scene One"
  • "The Good Mr. Square"
  • "She Was Tall, She Was High"
4:54
1:51

1:271:36

2."In the Square / The Letter / Rain"6:03
1:55

1:392:29

3."Miss Fay Regrets"3:28
4."Cries from the Midnight Circus"6:28
Side B
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Grass" 4:20
2."Sickle Clowns" 6:36
3."She's a Lover" 3:32
4."What's the Use" 1:45
5."Parachute"May, Norman Smith 3:52
Total length:40:58

Bonus tracks on 2000 reissue

  1. "Blue Serge Blues" (May, Waller, Jon Povey) – 3:55
  2. "October 26" – 4:57
  3. "Cold Stone" (May, Waller, Pete Tolson) – 3:11
  4. "Stone–Hearted Mama" – 3:29
  5. "Summer Time" (May, Waller, Tolson) – 4:29
  6. "Circus Mind" (May, Tolson) – 2:00

Personnel

Pretty Things

Technical

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pretty Things</span> English rock band

Pretty Things were an English rock band formed in September 1963 in Sidcup, Kent, taking their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing", and active in their first incarnation until 1971. They released five studio albums, including the debut The Pretty Things and S. F. Sorrow, four EPs and 15 UK singles, including the Top 20 UK Singles Chart "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Honey I Need". They reformed later in 1971 and continued through to 1976 issuing three more studio albums, and reformed once again from 1979 to 2020 releasing another five studio albums finalising with Bare as Bone, Bright as Blood.

"Echoes" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, and the sixth and last track on their 1971 album Meddle. It is 23+1⁄2 minutes long, the second longest of their discography, eight seconds shorter than Atom Heart Mother Suite, and takes up the entire second side of the original LP. The track evolved from a variety of different musical themes and ideas, including instrumental passages and studio effects, resulting in the side-long piece. The music, credited to all the band, was mainly written by Richard Wright and David Gilmour, while Roger Waters' lyrics addressed themes of human communication and empathy, to which he returned in later work.

Edgar Broughton Band were a British blues rock band founded in Warwick in 1968, and in their initial form were operative through to 1976. The group were also a significant influence on the emerging politically conscious and spiritually aware proto punk scene of the 1970s. They were a power trio consisting of brothers Edgar and Steve Broughton (drums) with Arthur Grant (bass), which was augmented at various times by a second guitarist and/or keyboardist, significantly Victor Unitt. They released five studio albums, including Sing Brother Sing, and six singles, including "Out Demons Out", on the EMI Harvest label and one further studio album for NEMS. The group reformed from 1978 to 1982, initially renamed as The Broughtons, issuing two more studio albums, and again from 2006 to 2010 with Edgar's son Luke for live appearances only.

John Charles Edward Alder, also known as Twink, is an English drummer, actor, singer, and songwriter who was a central figure in the English psychedelic and proto-punk movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Taylor</span> English musician (born 1943)

Richard Clifford Taylor is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and founding member of the Pretty Things.

<i>S. F. Sorrow</i> 1968 studio album by Pretty Things

S. F. Sorrow is the fourth album by the English rock band Pretty Things. Released in 1968, it is known as one of the first rock operas ever released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil May (singer)</span> English vocalist (1944–2020)

Philip Dennis Arthur May was an English vocalist. He gained fame in the 1960s as the lead singer of Pretty Things, of which he was a founding member. May remained a member throughout the band's changing line-up over the years, and was one of the band's main lyricists. He was the primary lyricist for the album S.F. Sorrow.

<i>Think Pink</i> Debut studio album by Twink

Think Pink is the debut album by English psychedelic musician Twink. Recorded in 1969, the album was released on Sire Records in the US in 1970 and Polydor Records in the UK in early 1971. It was produced by Mick Farren and featured members of The Pretty Things, The Deviants, plus Steve Peregrin Took of Tyrannosaurus Rex. The final two tracks were the only commercial release of any songs written by Took until 1990, ten years after his death.

<i>Cross Talk</i> 1980 studio album by Pretty Things

Cross Talk, released in 1980, is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Pretty Things.

<i>Emotions</i> (The Pretty Things album) 1967 studio album by Pretty Things

Emotions is the third album by the English rock group Pretty Things, released in 1967.

<i>Get the Picture?</i> (The Pretty Things album) 1965 studio album by Pretty Things

Get the Picture? is the second album by the English rock band Pretty Things, released in 1965.

<i>Freeway Madness</i> 1972 studio album by Pretty Things

Freeway Madness is the sixth album by the English rock band Pretty Things. It was released in late 1972 on Warner Bros. Records and reissued by Warner Bros. imprint The Medicine Label in 1995 with additional liner notes from Phil May.

<i>Silk Torpedo</i> 1974 studio album by Pretty Things

Silk Torpedo is the seventh album by the English rock band Pretty Things. This is their second album without Wally Waller, the group's rhythm guitarist/bassist since 1967. The album has more of a glam rock feel, a contrast from their early R&B years and their psychedelic years.

<i>Savage Eye</i> 1976 studio album by Pretty Things

Savage Eye is the eighth album by the English rock band Pretty Things, released in 1975. It was their second and last album on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records. The band broke up later the same year after the departure of lead singer Phil May.

<i>... Rage Before Beauty</i> 1999 studio album by Pretty Things

... Rage Before Beauty is a studio album by the English rock band Pretty Things, released in 1999.

<i>Balboa Island</i> (album) 2007 studio album by Pretty Things

Balboa Island is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band Pretty Things, released on Zoho Roots in 2007.

<i>The Pretty Things/Philippe DeBarge</i> 2009 studio album (bootleg) by Pretty Things

The Pretty Things/Philippe DeBarge is a bootleg by the English band Pretty Things with French playboy Philippe DeBarge (1940–1999) in September 1969. The album was released in 2009. In 2017, it was re-issued under the name "Rock St. Trop" with new cover art and two bonus tracks.

<i>The Sweet Pretty Things (Are in Bed Now, of Course...)</i> 2015 studio album by Pretty Things

The Sweet Pretty Things is the twelfth studio album by the English rock band Pretty Things. It was released in 2015 via Repertoire Records.

Alan "Wally" Waller or Wally Allen is an English bassist and producer. He was a member of Pretty Things on their most famous records, S.F. Sorrow and Parachute.

<i>Resurrection</i> (The Pretty Things album) 1999 live album by Pretty Things

Resurrection is a live album by the English rock band Pretty Things. It is a complete performance of their 1968 rock opera S.F. Sorrow, recorded thirty years later in Abbey Road Studios.

References

  1. ↑ Fricke, David (17 March 2015). "Bouquets From a Cloudy Sky". Rolling Stone . Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
  2. 1 2 Nicholas Schaffner (October 1982). The British Invasion: From the First Wave to the New Wave. McGraw-Hill. p. 251. ISBN   9780070550896.
  3. ↑ Dylan (9 January 2016). "The Pretty Things – Parachute (1970)". Beardfood. Archived from the original on 18 September 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Rabid, Jack. Parachute at AllMusic. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  5. ↑ Rossi, Marco (December 2010). Parachute, Record Collector. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Special Merit Picks," Billboard, Jan. 23, 1971.
  7. ↑ Turner, Steve. "New Pretty Things Get a Led Zep Airlift," Rolling Stone, Apr. 10, 1975.
  8. ↑ "It Happened in 1970," Rolling Stone, Feb. 4, 1971.
  9. ↑ "1971 Vanishes Under Innocuous Circumstances," Rolling Stone, Feb. 3, 1972.
  10. ↑ Holden, Stephen (13 September 1973). "Freeway Madness". Rolling Stone .
  11. ↑ "Update Images". Discogs. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.