The Pretty Things developed this introspective story of sorrow into a psychedelic rock opera and created one of the first concept albums. 'S.F. Sorrow' was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, at the same time that Pink Floyd were making 'A Saucerful Of Secrets' and the Beatles were working on the White Album. Norman Smith was the producer for both the Pretty Things and Pink Floyd projects. The sessions featured Phil May on vocals; Dick Taylor on lead guitar and vocals; John Povey on organ, sitar, percussion, and vocals; Wally Allen (Waller) on bass, guitar, vocals, wind instruments, and piano; and Skip Alan and John Charles Alder (Twink) on drums.
The storyline follows the life of Sebastian F. Sorrow through his birth into love and war and then despair and disillusionment. May reveals: "It's a search, really, for a direction. Something that can carry the band into the next bit, where we controlled all the elements, and where it had a complete shape. I could never understand why an album had to be five A-sides, five B-sides. It seemed like a collection. [S.F. Sorrow's] a 40-minute piece. It's meant to grow, and it's quiet bits and faster bits. When you listen to classical records, you'd start at the beginning, and you went through a whole experience. There were real fast bits and mellow bits and you had a whole emotional kind of journey. And I couldn't understand why an album couldn't be seen like a...[story]. Something which became different elements, but was the same story...Once I'd written the story, we suddenly had something to work from. We had like 14 months to make this picture up...Initially we were given the money with this suit who controlled how we spent it, and made sure we just didn't take drugs and sit in the studio all night and do fuck-all. So Norman was like a policeman for the Floyd to start with. But with us, the great thing with Norman was, he spent as much time on the studio floor with one of us in the box as he spent in the box. He would work with us, and he'd be doing the fourth harmony, or he'd have this idea for a drum motif. And he'd get up a boy's brigade drum and be playing that. 'Cause he knew -- it's easier than teaching somebody else to do it. He'd say try this, and we'll put it on the track. He was still slightly the producer, but it was breaking down. Norman realized the best way to work with the Pretty Things was to be on the floor. And then we would come in with an idea, not songs, and we'd all work out, on the floor. And it was kind of written in studio two [of Abbey Road]. There were no demos...a few songs [when 'S.F. Sorrow' began]. "She Said Good Morning" was kind of barely written. A lot of the other things, "Journey" and things, were just a small idea. [Norman] decided that the best way to work with us, was to break down that job definition. And we were all making an album. And sometimes, [for] 24 hours. Sometimes we didn't go home for a couple days. But we were so into what we were doing, we didn't want to be anywhere else (laughs). It was an incredible feeling. We felt we were doing something quite special...The only thing I was influenced by was classical opera. I thought it was a great idea to have a story. There seemed no reason that the music we were writing was not for a whole 40-minute [piece]. That was, to me, the difference in the five A-side, five B-side album. My only influence in terms of where I was looking for comparisons was in opera, where it starts off and they fall in love and she dies. I thought, great. All the bits and pieces in that song, that they can all be about one person's life. And I'd written this short story called "Cutting Up Sergeant Time," which was all based loosely about somebody in the first world war, in the trenches. And I developed the story, and started to where he was born and what would have happened to him on the way. And the whole thing developed. I just wrote the story, and it set us up for the next song. Because we'd looked at the story and said, okay, we've got to now make some musical statement here, because of this change. Now he's no longer 'S.F. Sorrow', he's private sorrow. So he has to be a song, because now he's joined the army. It was very easy then to pick moments [that comprised the story]. It was very exciting working... The Beatles putting their head round the door every time they came in. They started work later than us, and they'd always stick their head round the door. They were really nice. We'd all meet up in the canteen, there was only one canteen where everybody met. And it was a feeling that there were three albums going on, and everybody really working. I'd never worked as hard in my life. Because, you know, we didn't want to be doing anything else. "
'S.F. Sorrow'
full album:
1. S. F. Sorrow Is Born (0:00-3:10) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
2. Bracelets Of Fingers (3:11-6:46) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
3. She Says Good Morning (6:47-10:14) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
4. Private Sorrow (10:15-14:05) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
5. Balloon Burning (14:06-17:55) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
6. Death (17:56-21:07) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey, Alder)
7. Baron Saturday (21:08-25:07) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
8. The Journey (25:08-27:53) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey, Alder)
9. I See You (27:54-31:46) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
10. Well Of Destiny (31:47-33:33) (Smith, May, Taylor, Waller, Povey, Alder)
11. Trust (33:34-36:21) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
12. Old Man Going (36:22-39:28) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey)
13. The Loneliest Person (39:29-40:58) (May, Taylor, Waller, Povey, Alder)
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