The BBC Sessions

Artist: The Pretty Things
Label: Repertoire
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Live
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 2

UPC: 766482034048
EAN: 0766482034048
ASIN: B00008Q09P

Release Date: 2002-08-15

The BBC Sessions

Related Categories:

General

| Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Britain

General

| International | Styles | Music

General

| Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General

| R&B | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Live Albums | Rock | Styles | Music

Psychedelic Rock

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

British Invasion

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

General

| Live Albums | Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

Classic Rock

| Imports | Stores | Music

Rock

| Imports | Stores | Music

Tracks:

Big Boss Man
Don't Bring Me Down
Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut
Roadrunner
Big City
Midnight to Six Man
Sitting All Alone
Midnight to Six Man
Buzz the Jerk
.S.D.
Defecting Grey
Turn My Head
Walking Through My Dreams
Balloon Burning
S.F. Sorrow Is Born
She Says Good Morning
Send You With Loving
Spring
Sickle Clowns
She's a Lover
Cries from the Midnight Circus
Stone-Hearted Mama
Cold Stone
Summer Time
Rosalyn
Allnight Sailor
Religion's Dead

Tracks:

Havana Bound
Love Is Good
Route 66
Onion Soup/Another Bowl
Route 66
Peter/Rip Off Train
Atlanta
Bridge of God
Singapore Silk Torpedo
Come Home Momma
Dream/Joey
Not Only But Also
Big City
Belfast Cowboys/Bruise in the Sky

Similar Items:

Psychedelic Years, 1966-1970
Parachute
Pretty Things
40th Anniversary: Live in Brighton
S.F. Sorrow

Album Description

German compilation featuring 41 tracks plus a 12-page full color booklet with liner notes & photos. Packaged in double gatefold digipak format. Repertoire. 2003.

Album Details

These Sessions Make Up a King of 'shadow Discography" of Alternative Versions, Re-vamped Arrangements and Unrecorded Material. Includes Tracks in Mono and Stereo.

Customer Reviews:

Pretty Things - 'The BBC Sessions' (Repertoire) 2-CD.......2006-02-07

Two discs,total of 41 tracks from when the Pretty Things performed at the radio sessions at the BBC Studios between 1964-75.A good compilation to have,showing the band's wide variety of material.Disc one shows you where the band had developed into pscychedlia,with tunes like "Roadrunner","L.S.D.","Buzz The Jerk","Ballon Burning" among many others.Then disc two lets us know how they changed their music direction to a rather punk-like/R&B style,with cuts like "Route 66","Havana Bound" and "Come Home Momma".Don't despair,it all makes for good listening.Check this one out.You won't be sorry you did.

keeping up a fine tradition.......2005-12-23

This double-CD surely keeps up the fine tradition of all BBC radio-sessions albums, such as those of the Beatles, the Kinks, the Who and other Sixties greats. In this album the Pretty Things are on, spanning a period from 1964 until 1975.

We hear the Pretty's rough music change from their early electrifying blues to that of a good rock band. Which period you prefer is a matter of taste; however, it's clear that the drive by Brian Pendleton's great rhytm-guitar is gone in the later years.

What remains then, is the varied music of a good rockband. Sometimes really sounding like Roger Daltrey's singing with the Who. It provides good entertainment, though, coming from a band that never equalled the fame of its early electrifying years.

The Complete Mott's.......2005-06-30

Formed in the later stages of 1963, the Pretty Things arrived on the Londoner scene playing Berry/Diddley/Reed influenced raw rhythm and blues. The driving force behind the 'Pretties' were vocalist Brian May and Dick Taylor. (Taylor had left a version of the embryonic Rolling Stones with Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger because the three wanted him to play bass guitar while he was born to play lead guitar.)

The Pretty Things were contemporaries of 'The Rolling Stones' and 'The Kinks'. Of course there was also that little band with that funny name from Liverpool, the Beatles. This dog always had a soft spot for the `Pretties' as the Beatles were a little bit goody two shoes to be considered cool. I mean your parents liked them! The Rolling Stones were great, but always seemed to want to be Americans, denying their Dartford, Kent roots, and the Kinks could get a little whimsical at times.

The 'Pretties' had no image; music was their thing and hard edged rhythm and blues was the starting point. Their first seven singles all went top 50 in the U.K. (they did not mean a light in the U.S. of A., no image, nothing to promote). The sight of the `Pretties' standing on Top of the Pops, trying to hide their embarrassment as they mimed their way through their latest single, was a wonder to behold. Unlike most of their contemporaries their lineup was quite liquid, revolving around the main duo, the drum seat, revolving faster than Spinal Tap's.

In the late sixties the Pretty Things plunged head first, along with everybody else, into the psychedelic culture. Gone was all the straight ahead music and in came sitars, thousands of overdubs on all guitar parts, and kaftans and beads. Although huge on the underground scene, this did not exactly get the till bells ringing over, and in a state of confusion Dick Taylor left the band to settle down into production work. Away from the chaos of life on the road, Taylor produced the first albums from Hawkwind and Cochise.
Taylor was quickly replaced in the band, which imploded within the year.

But famous rocking's roll manager Bill Shepherd, upon hearing of the 'Pretties' demise, tried to persuade them to reform, telling them that the `Pretties' were too good a band to lose. How right he was. With a new dual lead guitar partnership in place, the mercurial Peter Tolson and Gordon Edwards, they were ready to roar again. After six weeks rehearsal they went into the studio to record the seminal 'Freeway Madness'. The `Pretties' had now put the entire wishy-washy psychedelic behind them and come back with a new hard-edged sound, combining their love of American harmony vocals and crunchy guitar licks with screaming solos.

This gained them enough attention to get them to be the first signing to the newly formed Swansong label, the brainchild of Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant. Two wonderful albums were released over the next two years, but, although critically acknowledged, both failed to dent the charts. Once more the band fell apart in 1976, when Phil May decided enough was enough.
The band came together again in the late nineties, including old running mate Dick Taylor on lead guitar, and in 1999 they released 'Rage Before Beauty', an apt title if you consider what had gone before. The band still plays gigs to this day.

This collection of work from the B.B.C. Sessions gives you an overall view of the 'Pretties' career from 1964 to 1976. All the early singles are here. (The Pretty Things had a surge of popularity stateside when David Bowie covered their first two singles 'Rosalyn' and 'Don't Bring Me Down' on his album Pin Ups. To many Americans this was the first time they ever heard of the 'Pretty Things'.)

It all goes a bit pear shaped in their psychedelic era, but then it did for a lot of people (remember the Stones? Or Their Satanic Majesties Request?), but on their return to hard edged rock 'n' roll, like on the Radio One 'In Concert' show to promote 'Freeway Madness', the band is so hot, it is incendiary. Nobody can throw caution to the wind with such abandon and still nail a song down like the 'Pretties' like 'Onion Soup' and especially 'Route 66'. The live sessions for the following two albums are a little more controlled, but equally as exciting.

This album is not only a good overview of the Pretty Things' career, but also a good overview of British rock in this era. If you are not familiar with the Pretty Things, this album would be an excellent way to find out.

Music Album:

Music Album

Music Album

Music CD

Ciao Balla Italia! ~ Francesco Napoli

Guapapasea!

Julian Cannonball Adderley ~ Cannonball Adderley

Twilight World ~ Pamela Hins

The Blue Season ~ Dan Peterson

Seven Degrees North ~ King Sunny Ade

Solo Tango ~ Raul Parentella

Cherry Moon Vol. 6 - The Machine is ready again

D'Soca Zone 4th Jump ~ Various Artists

Grooblue ~ Super Butter Dog