The Pretty Things: The Pretty Things (mono mix) [MADFISH]

Why you'll love it

This 180g mono edition is re-cut directly from the original master tapes. The album went to No. 6 in the UK and spent 10 weeks on the chart, and AllMusic called "Road Runner" about as raw and loud as British rock and roll had ever got.

This edition

• Mono mix
• 180g vinyl
• Cut from the original master tapes

About the album

Before the Pretty Things there was Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, a Sidcup art-school band with Dick Taylor, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger in it. Taylor followed the other two into the early Rolling Stones on bass, then left for art school, where Phil May talked him into starting a new band with him on guitar. They took their name from the Willie Dixon song "Pretty Thing," a Bo Diddley staple, and that's the template for the whole record.

Fontana booked two days of sessions, and Bobby Graham ended up producing (and adding some drums alongside Viv Prince). A third of the songs come from Bo Diddley, and the rest are played as if he were standing in the room. "Road Runner" opens at full tilt, "Oh Baby Doll" puts Chuck Berry through the Diddley beat, "Honey, I Need" was a Top 20 single, and "13 Chester Street" tips its hat to a house the band shared with Brian Jones.

The band were famously loud for the period, and David Bowie later covered two of their singles on Pin Ups. Mono suits them; there's simply no room on either side for anyone to hide.

Also at Kops: more The Pretty Things on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Madfish (cat# SMALP1014), a reissue of the 1965 album.