Nobody remembers the brave pioneers...
Jeffrey Blehar | Potomac, MD | 12/04/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"You want to know how to recognize the pioneers? They're the ones with the arrows in their backs. In late 1967 The Pretty Things struck out into a whole new realm, taking a suicidally daring chance by forsaking their R&B roots to plunge into psychedelia and create the FIRST EVER "rock opera" (a full year before The Who ever released that pinball opus of theirs)...and were roundly ignored for all their troubles.
Because everybody remembers Tommy, and nobody remembers its inspiration S.F. Sorrow, about a dreamy little fellow who wants to fly himself to the moon. Now perhaps it's down to the fact that nobody expected this coming from a band that previously had more in common with Them or The Rolling Stones than Pink Floyd. But it's certainly not because of the music itself, which is gorgeous, enveloping, fully-realized and touching in its idealism and ambition. Somewhere God is flogging an angel because of the fact that "Trust" was never a hit single."