Parachute (The Pretty Things album) explained

Parachute
Type:studio
Artist:Pretty Things
Cover:Parachutealbum.jpg
Recorded:September 1969 – April 1970
Studio:Abbey Road Studios, London
Label:Harvest
Producer:Norman Smith
Prev Title:S.F. Sorrow
Prev Year:1968
Next Title:Freeway Madness
Next Year:1972

Parachute is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Pretty Things, released in 1970. It is their first album without guitarist Dick Taylor.

Reviews at the time of release were very positive, with Billboard calling it "another top-flight album" for the band.[1] In 1975, Rolling Stone critic Steve Turner wrote that it had been "a Rolling Stone 'album of the year',"[2] though in fact Parachute did not place among the magazine's Albums of the Year for 1970[3] or 1971,[4] and indeed was not mentioned in Rolling Stone until Stephen Holden called it an "obscure underground classic" in his review of Freeway Madness.[5]

The band's lineup at this point was Phil May, Wally Waller, John Povey, Vic Unitt, and Skip Alan.

In 1975, the record was packaged as a double LP with their previous album S.F. Sorrow titled S.F. Sorrow and Parachute and issued on the UK label Harvest on the Harvest Heritage series. In 1976, the record was again packaged as a double LP with their previous album S.F. Sorrow titled Real Pretty. In Canada, this album was on Motown Records.

Snapper Records released a 40th anniversary double CD in September 2010 which included acoustic reworkings of various tracks recorded in May 2010 by Wally Waller and Phil May.

Track listing

All songs by Phil May and Wally Waller, except where noted. Adapted from original UK pressing.[6]

Bonus tracks on 2000 reissue

  1. "Blue Serge Blues" (May, Waller, Jon Povey) – 3:55
  2. "October 26" – 4:57
  3. "Cold Stone" (May, Waller, Pete Tolson) – 3:11
  4. "Stone–Hearted Mama" – 3:29
  5. "Summer Time" (May, Waller, Tolson) – 4:29
  6. "Circus Mind" (May, Tolson) – 2:00

Personnel

Pretty Things

Technical

Notes and References

  1. "Special Merit Picks," Billboard, Jan. 23, 1971.
  2. Turner, Steve. "New Pretty Things Get a Led Zep Airlift," Rolling Stone, Apr. 10, 1975.
  3. "It Happened in 1970," Rolling Stone, Feb. 4, 1971.
  4. "1971 Vanishes Under Innocuous Circumstances," Rolling Stone, Feb. 3, 1972.
  5. Stephen. Holden. Stephen Holden. Freeway Madness. Rolling Stone. September 13, 1973.
  6. Web site: Update Images . Discogs . 20 May 2021.