Get The Picture ?

The Pretty Things second album sees the band transitioning from straight-ahead British blues to mid-1960s psychedelia. A great album full of crunching guitars and Phil May's gritty vocals. This package adds six bonus tracks (including LSD and Midnight to Six Man) and some vintage promo videos. A good purchase for fans of the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds and Animals.

all good great cd recomend it highly

This old group really has a great sound and somthing to listen to when you like to relax.

The good cop/bad cop image that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones had in the 1960s may have been a tad contrived. The Beatles weren't the clean cut lads they might have seemed and the Stones certainly played up to the Bad Boys Of Pop reputation they had that oiled the publicity machine so well. They had risen from a pool of bands playing blues and Bo Diddley covers, bands like the Downliners Sect, the Cops 'n' Robbers, the Bo Street Runners and the Pretty Things.When it came to bad publicity, the Pretty Things had it in spades, and were rarely out of the headlines for their rock 'n' roll crimes. They were badder than the others and their music was rawer, wilder, bluesier and more crudely recorded. Most of them shared a house and lived the rock lifestyle of excess to the full.Their second album, Get The Picture?, came out only a few months after their self-titled debut, and showed a laudable unwillingness to compromise, though it also showed they had not stood still musically in the intervening months of grueling round-world touring (they seemed to have left the drummer behind in New Zealand) as there was now a light and shade to the group sound and signs of experimentation.It also featured more of their own material, which included not only ravers like Buzz The Jerk, but also lighter folk-influenced songs like London Town and the excellent Can't Stand The Pain, on which Dick Taylor's guitar stands out. The covers include a great rough and ready rendition of Slim Harpo's Rainin' In My Heart, Ray Charles' version of I Had A Dream and the Cops 'n' Robbers' own But You'll Never Do It Babe. Their hit version of Cry To Me, written by Bert Berns for Betty Harris but best known at the time in Solomon Burke's cover is also featured. The Stones had recorded the song around the same time for Out Of Our Heads, so a direct comparison can be made.This reissue has been given the re-master treatment, and now includes all the extra tracks added to the contemporary EPs Rainin' In My Heart and The Pretty Things On Film, plus the raw soul power 1966 single Come See Me, adapted from the northern soul version by JJ Jackson.The Pretty Things On Film featured 4 songs from the soundtrack of LSD, a Chaplinesque short directed by Caterina Arvat and Anthony West, described on the EP sleeve as "sixteen minutes of chase, laughter and many brilliant club scenes", and included their all-stops-out recent classic single Midnight To Six Man ("he might be gone first but is he going anywhere?"), recorded apparently between midnight and six at IBC Studios, and featuring the tinkling piano of Nicky Hopkins and Margo from Goldie and the Gingerbreads on organ. It stalled surprisingly at number 46 in the UK charts but was included on Nuggets II.If you want one Pretty Things album in your collection, this is probably the one to go for

Fuzz guitar, guitar feedback, pounding drums, deep throbbing bass, subterranean organ, almost atonal piano, delta blues harmonica & singing with nihilistic/punk abandon, lyrics that explore more than dejected love songs e.g. Get a buzz etc, & a cover that suggests a psychedelic sonic/social revolution. This album from 1965 is far ahead of all the contemporary rock bands of the time & is the alpha & omega of exciting, innovative propulsive, raw, youthful rebellion & then some. Out of the 18 songs, I choose 16 that send me to artistic sonic nirvana each time I listen, & 2/3s are original compositions, & the 1/3 that are covers, they completely transform & make their own. They apparently had 4 days in the studio (as opposed to a couple of days) & this pays off with songs like the echoey atmospherics of Cant stand the Pain, Sittin all Alone & London Town with its subtlety and intricate eastern inflected folk sonic tapestry. The bonus tracks are contemporaneous or slightly later, early/mid '66 & are completely thematic musically and lyrically & all are complete sonic gems.Keith Moon of the Who studied The pretty Things drummer Viv Prince stealing both his technique & manic behavior. Later on of course the Who would steal the Pretties entire Rock Opera idea aka S.F. Sorrow. Mick Jagger of the Stones found Phil May the singer a total threat saying he was far too pretty & dangerous for his own good. Whilst every garage punk/psychedelic band is indebted to the most underrated guitarist in history Dick Taylor. 10/10

Get the 2011 issue that is combined with their debut.If you like raunchy, fuzzed out Garage rock, London style, then this is for you. It only falters when they try to be poppy or bluesy -- and not TOO badly on the latter.The debut album is a bit weaker, with too much thin-sounding cod Blues, but worth getting the double for the great songs that ARE on it.

I docked this one a star, taken on its own (see my review of "The Pretty Things" for comments on these two albums as a single-set issue in 1975), only because the material isn't quite the equal of their first album selections. But there's nothing wrong with the delivery by any means; in places, it's a little more scabrous than the first album, which is saying something if you've heard how raw that set was (and remains). Throw in a few traces of a nascent but smartly controlled and contextually appropriate psychedelia, and you've got the last of the real Pretty Things in your hands with this set, from Phil May's howling vocals to Dick Taylor's scratchy, blues-drenched guitar, to the splattering breastbone punch of the rhythm section. What came next should have been considered a punishable crime: the band shifted personnel and direction, taking the full dive into the psychedelic waters and going a few fathoms beyond to what would soon enough be called "prog rock". ("S.F. Sorrow" might have been thought daring in 1967 but, today, all it seems is an exercise in self-consciousness which probably began as an intriguing idea. If you can imagine, say, Nolan Ryan in prime heat shifting gears from power pitcher to junkballer, you have an excellent idea of just how drastically - and ill-advisedly, in the long run - the Pretties shifted gears.) Get the picture?

Bought it as a present for a big PT's fan and he loves it.

Another great album by the pretty things proper R&B.

very good

Nach dem sehr traditionellen, wenn auch umwerfenden Debut, machten die Pretty Things, auf ihrem zweiten Album hier, gleich mal ein ganz anderes Fass auf.Zum einen stürzten sie sich in kraftvolle Eigenkompositionen, die trotz Beat und hartem Blues jetzt wirklich schon garagenrockig daherkamen und zugleich psychedelische Elemente mit ins Repertoire brachten. Was man auch an manchem Titel sofort erkennt (L.S:D.).Und ohne das Debut im geringsten schmälern zu wollen - hier geht es deutlich abwechslungsreicher zur Sache, und dieses Statement dürfte auch ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des aufkeimenden Swinging London gewesen sein.Hier ist der Beginn einer kulturellen Revolution mitverankert, die dann hemmungslos stilistische Zutaten verschmolzen hat und zu einem eigenen Ausdruck fand.Und diese Aufbruchstimmung hört man deutlich heraus.Sicherlich wurde dies später nochmals verfeinert und erweitert, aber Get the Picture ist und bleibt ein relevantes Statement, dass einfach gut abrockt und immer noch frisch klingt.Auch hier hat man als Bonus sämtliche dazugehörigen Siingles berücksichtigt, und wieder hat Eroc bewiesen, wieviel Soundzauber man aus solch alten Aufnahmen herausholen kann - der Klang ist schlicht sensationell!UND: Der auf der Cd enthaltene Minifilm ist auch ein tolles Kunstwerk für sich! Hat echt Feeling!Ein essentieller Teil der 60s - viel Spass beim Entdecken!

Da ich nun Jahrgang 1954 bin, war so Mitte der 60-er der Eltern/Kinder Konflikt über den Musik -geschmack vorprogrammiert. Außerdem gab es da noch den von uns 14 - 17 jährigen heiß erwarteteSendung "Beat Club" im Fernsehen. Wenn die Sendung lief, hieß nach den ersten Klängen : Mach maldiese Negermusik leiser ! Was mich zu der Antwort an meinen Erzeuger veranlasste : Ja, Dschungel-Musik, das ist es ! Die Band "Pretty Things" stand leider immer im Schatten der großen "Rolling Stones", obwohl sie auch Eigenkompositionen im Repertoire hatten und nicht nur Rock`N`Roll Standards nachspielten. Außerdem sahen sie noch provokanter aus mit noch längeren Haaren. Diegesamte CD ist ein fantastischer Überblick über das frühe Schaffen der "Pretty Things". In dendanach folgenden Phasen der Psychedelic Ära waren sie auch sehr ambitioniert, ich erinnere an LPs wie "Silk Torpedo" oder "Parachute". Wer sich für die Ära interessiert, unbedingt kaufen!!!