Thursday Night Music Byte

The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London. They pioneered a raw approach to rhythm and blues that influenced a number of key bands of the 1960s British invasion, including The Rolling Stones. David Bowie covered two of their songs on his album Pin Ups.

The Pretty Things were preceded by Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, which consisted of Dick Taylor, fellow Sidcup Art College student Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger. When Brian Jones joined the band on guitar, Taylor was pushed from guitar to bass and the band changed its name to the Rollin’ Stones.Taylor (born Richard Clifford Taylor, 28 January 1943, in Dartford, Kent) quit the Stones several months later when he was accepted at the London Central School of Art, where he met Phil May (born Phillip Arthur Dennis Wadey, on 9 November 1944, in Dartford, Kent) and they formed The Pretty Things.Taylor was once again playing guitar, with May singing and playing harmonica. They recruited Brian Pendleton (born 13 April 1944 in Wolverhampton – died 16 May 2001 in Maidstone, Kent) on rhythm guitar; John Stax (born John Edward Lee Fullegar, 6 April 1944 in Crayford, Kent) on bass; and Pete Kitley, replaced by Viv Broughton (on drums) and then by Viv Prince (born Vivian St John Prince, 9 August 1941, in Loughborough, Leicestershire) on drums. Viv Prince made his first set of drums himself while a student at Loughborough Grammar School.

The Pretty Things caused a sensation in England, and their first three singles — “Rosalyn” #41, “Don’t Bring Me Down” #10, and the self-penned “Honey I Need” at #13 — appeared in the UK singles chart in 1964-1965. They never had a hit in the United States, but had considerable success in their native United Kingdom and in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands in the middle of the decade. However, in the U.S. they, along with The Yardbirds and Van Morrison’s Them, were a huge influence on hundreds of garage bands, including the MC5 and The Seeds.

Their early material consisted of hard-edged blues-rock influenced by Bo Diddley (they took their name from Diddley’s 1955 song “Pretty Thing”) and Jimmy Reed. They were known for wild stage behaviour and edgy lyrical content; their song “Midnight to Six Man” defined the mod lifestyle. Around this time, the first of what would be many personnel changes over the years also began, with Prince the first to go late in 1965. He was replaced by Skip Alan (born 11 June 1948 in London). Brian Pendleton left late in 1966, and was not initially replaced. Stax quit early in 1967. Jon Povey and Wally Waller (both former Fenmen from Bern Elliott and the Fenmen) joined to make the band a five piece once again.

After a flirtation with mainstream pop on the Emotions album in 1967, they embraced psychedelia, producing the concept album S.F. Sorrow during 1967-68. This album, released in late 1968, is one of the first rock operas, preceding the release of The Who’s Tommy in April 1969 by a few months. It was recorded over several months during 1967 at EMI’s famous Abbey Road Studios in London, during the same period when The Beatles and Pink Floyd were recording Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Piper at the Gates of Dawn respectively. These albums share a similar late-1960s psychedelic sound, and the Floyd and Pretty Things albums were both produced by the late Norman Smith, who had engineered most of the Beatles’ recordings until 1966.

Original rhythm guitarist Brian Pendleton died of lung cancer on 16 May 2001. The following year ex-keyboard player Gordon Edwards died of a drug overdose.

Here is a video of The Pretty Things performing their 1966 song, LSD. Please enjoy.

Glenn Beck Is Nucking Futs !!!

Please do yourself a favor and tune into the Glenn Beck show if you enjoy watching a person quickly sink into the bottomless abyss of insanity. This nutjob is making Sarah Palin sound like the proverbial voice of reason. His crazed and distorted rant on October 19, 2009 may rank as his most confused anti-Obama diatribe yet. Let’s dissect and analyze Beck’s incoherent argument against volunteering for the public good.

We have all heard the most recent public service announcement by President Obama which has been broadcast repeatedly on both television and radio. You know, the one where he asks Americans to volunteer their services in the hope of helping fellow Americans in need. The President has also applauded the Corporation For National And Community Service’s recent ability to convince most of the television networks to include in their shows, plot lines which encourage volunteerism in the local community. To the average person this sounds like a commendable non-political plea to help our neighbors and communities. But it does not sound that way to Glenn Beck. Surprised?

On his Fox Network television show last Monday, Beck explained to the world why volunteerism and community service are un-American and worthy of disdain. Beck said this:

When you’re watching TV this week, you might notice a common theme on some of your favorite TV shows: service and volunteerism. Not just public service announcements, but service and volunteerism will be worked into the plots…Your favorite character might volunteer at the dog shelter or at the park. I just have one pesky question. Are we running out of volunteers in this country?… Are we trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist? Are we creating a problem that doesn’t exist? To have an emergency that doesn’t yet exist? Or is it just a coincidence that all of this falls into line with President Obama’s Corporation for National and Community Service. President Obama has called for a new era of responsibility… recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and world to serve others. It is the price and promise of citizenship. In response, our television community with the Entertainment Industry Foundation will launch a multi-year campaign to inspire action and promote a new way of thinking about service. Well this is fantastic, we’re living in Mao’s China right now.

Yeah, OK Glenn. So, in your world, promoting the benefits of volunteerism and community service is akin to living in Mao’s China. How so? Please do tell. Oh, what’s that, you were silent on your program as to just how this analogy makes any sense? Not surprising in that nothing that this moron says makes any sense. If Glenn Beck ever decides to write a memoir, he best have Sarah Palin do the ghostwriting. Her word salad is a lot more appetizing than his smorgasbord of reason.

Please click on the song link below to familiarize yourselves with the tune and to have more fun singing along with the parody.

Crazy song link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmLS_jkxPRs

HE’S CRAZY

(sung to the Patsy Cline song “Crazy”)

Crazy
Glenn Beck is a demented phony
He’s crazy
Marbles? He’s missing a few

We knew
He was one of Bellevue’s “Most Wanted”
And that someday
He’d make an asylum debut

Sorry
Beck’s on a mental safari
Wondrin’
How did he go so koo-koo

Oh, crazy
Glenn’s crazy and back on the home brew
There’s no use denyin’
Beck can’t stop cryin’
Glenn Beck’s crazy
And stupid too

Crazy
We’re not sure that Beck’s not sniffing glue
It seems like he’s flyin’
We’re not just implyin’
Glenn Beck’s crazy
We know it’s true