The Pretty Things: S.F. Sorrow [MADFISH]

Why you'll love it

This German pressing is remastered from the original Abbey Road tapes, on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. S.F. Sorrow is generally considered the first rock opera, and The Guardian called it a psychedelic masterpiece.

This edition

• Remastered from the original Abbey Road tapes
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in Germany
• Stereo mix

About the album

The Pretty Things began as a London R&B band. When they signed to EMI in 1967 the deal came with complete creative control, and they spent it wisely, hiring Norman Smith, who had engineered the early Beatles albums and had just produced Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Phil May grew the story from a short story of his own, about a soldier in the trenches of the First World War, and wrote it as the songs arrived. It follows Sebastian F. Sorrow from his birth in a factory town through love, war and loss to a strange journey with Baron Saturday. "Bracelets of Fingers" was the first song written for it, "S. F. Sorrow Is Born" sets the scene, and "Baron Saturday" and "Private Sorrow" lean into the drama. Most of it came together in Abbey Road's studio three between December 1967 and September 1968.

May said the idea was simply a better way to fill a 40-minute record than five A-sides and five B-sides with no connection. It remains a better plan than most of our playlists.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Madfish (cat# SMALP1053), a reissue of the 1968 album.