10 Best Classic Rock Albums Of The 1960s
9. Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow
What should have been one of the decade’s most celebrated achievements was stymied by commercial mishandling. An early concept album, the Pretty Things’ proto-rock opera debuted in 1968, but received a wider release six months later, after The Who’s phenomenally successful - but entirely inferior - Tommy.
The album’s storybook concept hangs together like a dream, with character sketches taking the protagonist from birth to old age. The important thing is the music, which is buoyant, varied, and incredibly fresh sounding even today.
Songs like "Baron Saturday" and "She Says Good Morning" have a certain unmissable ‘60s twinkle but it’s a sound modern indie bands are trying to achieve in 2020. The production is slick and sparkling, especially for a band with such minimal resources as the Pretty Things.
As tends to be the case for works like this, S.F Sorrow has been rediscovered in the years following its release, but it really is a tragedy that the album didn’t get the praise it should have at the time. S.F Sorrow was influencing bands even as they pretended not to have heard it.