Pretty Things - Parachute

ORIGINAL COPY . FIRST UK PRESSING. HARVEST RECORDS SHVL 774 . Released 1970 . Stereo

Sleeve Condition : EXCELLENT (Near Mint). Gatefold sleeve with laminated exterior. Very minor edge rubs. The laminate is still shiny but there a minute tear on the spine. Original company inner.

Vinyl Condition, Visual: MINT. Looks unplayed

Vinyl Condition, Audible: MINT. Stunning, appears never to have been played.

Label Condition : VERY GOOD. Excellent bar a symbol written in green pen on one side.

      Produced by Norman Smith. This record is deleted and not available new on vinyl .

Tracklist:

• Scene one: the good Mr. Square: She was tall, She was high
• In the square: The letter, rain
• Miss Fay Regrets
• Cries from the midnight Circus
• Grass Sickle clowns
• She's a lover
• What's the use
• Parachute

This item is offered with a money back guarantee, please see below.

    Our accurate condition gradings are based on those used in the UK 2006 Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide. Please see below for a complete explanation.

This record is deleted and not available new on vinyl.

International bidders welcome – Internationales Bewerber Willkommen – Bienvenue Internationale De Soumissionnaires – Recepcion Internacional De los Licitadores

 

 Amazon.com Album review:

Exactly why this album remains a cult., March 11, 2003

Reviewer: ampar from somewhere in your computer The Pretty Things. What a dreadful, career-in-the-dumper name for a group. Even shortened (the "Pretties", anyone?) it's a nonsense. I know it's ironic, but it's also terrible.
The album cover. One of the worst sixth-form paste-and-scissors photomontage crimes ever committed in the name of "art".
So; rubbish name, rubbish cover. And yes, these things matter. So does kicking off the album with a "challenging" (ie dissonant, dreary) opening track. Anyone unfamiliar with this wonderful album is most likely not going to get past these three hurdles. Tough on them, and tough on the "Things", too, because it is one of the few albums that define rock music, as opposed to pop, or whatever, as an art form in itself. Don't sneer. This is art. This is beautiful, and this is timeless. It also sounds fantastic. If it was released today, by some bunch of unknowns, it would effortlessly go to number one. No question. Ther's nothing dated or embarrassing about a single note of it; you don't have to excuse anything. What you won't find; humour, singalong nursery-rhymes, boogie, timewasting. What you will find; the best harmony singing ever recorded by a British band (hearing people SING is just such a treat, isn't it? As opposed to people who think they can?), the best ensemble playing ever recorded by a British band (yes, there are great guitar solos, but this isn't an exercise in nostril-hair guitar histrionics, and everybody's listening to everybody else), and quite possibly, the best rock album ever recorded. There are others as great (Dark Side of the Moon, f'rinstance, and maybe the first Mighty Baby album, and -add your favourite here-) but it really doesn't get any better than this. There's music here so beautiful, so deep, so strong, so subtle ... ahhh ... I'm going to shut up. Really, for once, the cult is right, and what people say about this album has a real basis in the groove. Get this before you get SF Sorrow, if you have nothing yet. Then get their last album (Rage ...). These guys are, incredibly, still out there and still making fine music.
Look at it this way. It's a few quid you'd spend without noticing it somewhere else. Help get this album to number one in the charts, because it deserves the view. What it doesn't deserve is to remain a cult pleasure.

Allmusicguide.com  Album review:

Review by Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover

If S.F. Sorrow is the Pretty Things' Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour, and Yellow Submarine wrapped in one, then Parachute is their more succinct White Album and Abbey Road. It's not just a time line comparison. The Pretties made this fascinating LP in the same studio as the Fab Four, London's Abbey Road, with Beatles engineer Norman Smith producing. "The Good Mr. Square" replicates the three-part harmony the Beatles were so proud of on "Because." Two songs later, the group assembles a brief, interconnected three-song suite like the famous ones on side two of Abbey Road. Bassist Wally Allen's vocals on tracks such as "Sickle Clowns" have the same throaty, mad anguish that John Lennon exhibited on "Yer Blues" and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." If S.F. Sorrow is hard rock grandeur, then Parachute is its more bitter twist, the dream dying and the witching hour upon us. Yet, if this isn't as much of a triumph, the creative neurons are still firing throughout a multi-varied, cohesive LP. Like S.F. Sorrow, it's a surprisingly palatable concept LP. This time the topic is a generation caught between the conflicting calls of (rural) peace, love, and boredom, and (urban) sophistication, sex, and squalor in a harsh world. Somehow the departure of the band's main creative force, Dick Taylor, didn't diminish the writing and inspired variety. Allen stepped up big time into the collaborator role with singer Phil May. The harmonies remain a strong point on an otherwise rock-inclined record, and the nasty edge of perfectly balanced bombast in the best songs have been a lost art ever since — it's not hard to see why Rolling Stone rated Parachute the best LP of 1970.

 

 

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UK Record Collector Grading System:

 

MINT - The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality.

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US version of this term: MINT

EXCELLENT - The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in sound quality. The cover and  packaging might have slight wear and/or creasing. 
 US version of this term: NEAR MINT

 

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