Parachute (The Pretty Things album)

Parachute
Studio album by The Pretty Things
Released	June 1970
Recorded	Abbey Road Studios September 1969 to April 1970
Genre	Psychedelic rock, art rock
Length	40:52 (original) 62:50 (CD reissue)
Label	Harvest (original UK release) Rare Earth (original US release) Edsel (1988 UK reissue) Snapper Music (1999 and 2010 UK reissues) Victor Entertainment (2007 Japanese CD reissue)
Producer	Norman Smith
The Pretty Things chronology
S.F. Sorrow (1968) Parachute (1970) Freeway Madness (1972)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Record Collector	[2]

Parachute, released in 1970, is The Pretty Things' fifth studio album, following S.F. Sorrow and preceding Freeway Madness. It is their first album without Dick Taylor.

Reviews at the time of release were very positive, with Billboard calling it "another top-flight album" for the band.^[3] In 1975, Rolling Stone critic Steve Turner even wrote that it had been "a Rolling Stone 'album of the year',"^[4] though in fact Parachute did not place among the magazine's Albums of the Year for 1970^[5] or 1971,^[6] and indeed was not mentioned in Rolling Stone until Stephen Holden called it an "obscure underground classic" in his review of Freeway Madness.^[7]

The musicians involved were Phil May, Wally Waller, John Povey, Vic Unitt, Skip Alan.

The record was later packaged together with S.F. Sorrow as a double LP 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.

1. "Scene One" - 1:51
2. "The Good Mr. Square" - 1:27
3. "She Was Tall, She Was High" - 1:36
4. "In the Square" - 1:55
5. "The Letter" - 1:39
6. "Rain" - 2:29
7. "Miss Fay Regrets" - 3:38
8. "Cries From the Midnight Circus" - 6:29
9. "Grass" - 4:21
10. "Sickle Clowns" - 6:36
11. "She's a Lover" - 3:32
12. "What's the Use" - 1:46
13. "Parachute" (May, Norman Smith) - 3:52

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

• Phil May – Vocals
• Vic Unitt - Guitars [album tracks only]
• Wally Waller – Bass, Guitar, Vocals
• Jon Povey – Keyboards, Vocals
• Skip Alan – Drums
• Pete Tolson - Guitars [bonus tracks only]

References

1. Rabid, Jack. Parachute at AllMusic. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
2. Rossi, Marco (December 2010). Parachute, Record Collector. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
3. "Special Merit Picks," Billboard, Jan. 23, 1971.
4. Turner, Steve. "New Pretty Things Get a Led Zep Airlift," Rolling Stone, Apr. 10, 1975.
5. "It Happened in 1970," Rolling Stone, Feb. 4, 1971.
6. "1971 Vanishes Under Innocuous Circumstances," Rolling Stone, Feb. 3, 1972.
7. Holden, Stephen. "Freeway Madness," Rolling Stone, Sep. 13, 1973.