Overkill packaging as usual with tracking via USPS media for $4.00 and yes, I do combine. Since I have had a series of questions concerning shipping charges on combined orders I will try to be more explicit. Generally up to three lps ship as one, but shipping charges are based on weight not records. So gatefolds or double LPs or 180 gram vinyl all have an affect differently. Suffice to say, I don't try to make money on shipping charges and I am fair, so enjoy the auctions. Open records are cleaned with Ultrasonic cleaning system and in new 3 mil inner and outer plastic sleeve.


Seminal British R&B band that never broke big, despite talent to spare and a notable psychedelic masterpiece in 1968's S.F. Sorrow.


If S.F. Sorrow is the Pretty Things' Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, and Yellow Submarine wrapped in one, then Parachute is their more succinct White Album and Abbey Road. It's not just a time line comparison. The Pretties made this fascinating LP in the same studio as the Fab Four, London's Abbey Road, with Beatles engineer Norman Smith producing. "The Good Mr. Square" replicates the three-part harmony the Beatles were so proud of on "Because." Two songs later, the group assembles a brief, interconnected three-song suite like the famous ones on side two of Abbey Road. Bassist Wally Allen's vocals on tracks such as "Sickle Clowns" have the same throaty, mad anguish that John Lennon exhibited on "Yer Blues" and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." If S.F. Sorrow is hard rock grandeur, then Parachute is its more bitter twist, the dream dying and the witching hour upon us. Yet, if this isn't as much of a triumph, the creative neurons are still firing throughout a multi-varied, cohesive LP. Like S.F. Sorrow, it's a surprisingly palatable concept LP. This time the topic is a generation caught between the conflicting calls of (rural) peace, love, and boredom, and (urban) sophistication, sex, and squalor in a harsh world. Somehow the departure of the band's main creative force, Dick Taylor, didn't diminish the writing and inspired variety. Allen stepped up big time into the collaborator role with singer Phil May. The harmonies remain a strong point on an otherwise rock-inclined record, and the nasty edge of perfectly balanced bombast in the best songs have been a lost art ever since. (There are 18 minutes of good stuff tacked on the Snapper edition, taken from singles.)

The Pretty Things ?– Parachute

Label: Rare Earth ?– RS 515, Rare Earth ?– R 515 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: US Released: 1970 Genre: Rock Style: Psychedelic Rock, Pop Rock, Classic Rock

Tracklist

Scene One 4:29 A1.1 The Good Mr. Square
A1.2 She Was Tall She Was High

- A2 In The Square 1:54 A3 The Letter / Rain 4:07 A4 Miss Fay Regrets 3:24 A5 Cries From The Midnight Circus 6:25 B1 Grass 4:18 B2 Sickle Clowns 6:32 B3 She's A Lover 3:28 B4 What's The Use 1:42 B5 Parachute 3:48

Credits

• Design – Hipgnosis (2)
• Engineer – Nick Webb, Tony Clark
• Photography By – Hipgnosis (2)
• Producer – Norman Smith

Notes

Motown Record Corp. Detroit. (P) 1970
An E.M.I. Records Recording

Cat# on Label: R 515

Barcode and Other Identifiers

• Matrix / Runout (Label A-Side): HS-1765-1
• Matrix / Runout (Label B-Side): HS-1765-2