Pretty Things & Philippe DeBarge - Alexander / Eagle's Son / Check Out - 1969

The Pretty Things were on a run in 1969. They had released several singles that charted over the past five years in the United Kingdom and Australia, had four albums under their belt, and even had a secret pseudo band called Electric Banana that made stock music for B-rated horror movies
[ + a comedy on 60's lifestyle (What's good for the Goose) www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rDaiY... ]
But even with their mild success in their homeland of England and around Europe, the band was somewhat in disarray from not hitting it huge like the bands they recorded beside at Abbey Road Studios like The Beatles and Pink Floyd. The lead guitarist and founder of the band Dick Taylor left the band early in the year to try his hand at producing, and this left Phil May and Wally Waller to apply their song writing skills in full force and then out of nowhere Philippe DeBarge asked they would do the music for his debut solo album.
DeBarge was the son of a very wealthy French family and dreamed of becoming a rock star. His money and charm won The Pretty Things over very quickly and they decided to record a new album. DeBarges limitless budget provided the best studio money could buy and his voice was ready as well. Unlike most rich people who insist on putting out their music without the hint that they actually cant sing, DeBarge could rock with the best of his day. After using a few songs they had worked on during live shows and concerts, The Pretty Things came up with some of the best psychedelic music of their career.
DeBarge took the finished album back to France thinking his family connections would get it published right away. Instead, the album had to wait forty years to come to album form and ten years after the death of DeBarge.
The Pretty Things went on to record one of rock musics classic albums Parachutes in 1970 and now are quietly touring on occasion and still making albums. Philippe DeBarge recorded another album with The Pretty Things in 1974 and finally got his musical debut worldwide, but would never become the star he wanted to become. After forty years, the music is still as good as the first day it was recorded and now it can live and breathe as it was intended-as a true rock album.
An excerpt from Sweet Floral Albion, issue 5 (by Barrington Phillips):
"London, 1968: A hip and very wealthy French aristocrat, by the name of Philippe de Barge, has one of his reps make enquiries among London's Underground scenesters, to find a band willing to travel to his chateau and record his own Personal "psych LP". The Pretties (as anyone familiar with the whole Electric Banana episode will know, were strapped for cash but brimful of great musical ideas) took up the offer, lodged with Philippe at his posh gaff, had a whale of a time, recorded the LP and then split. Soon after this, de Barge died in "extremely suspicious circumstances" (he alledgedly had ties to French mafiosi/drug barons...) and went the same way as Bobby Fuller."
Read the whole feature here: homepage.ntlworld.com/marmalad...
The following is an excerpt from an interview with singer Phil May, conducted by Richie Unterberger:
"[...] it was another moneymaking job. Wally and I just wrote a bunch of songs for this French guy, who was a millionaire, and he flew us down to his villa in St. Tropez. It was really bizarre, because what we'd do is, I would sing a song for him on the backing track. He would go back to the Hilton, and lie on his pillow with a Walkman, learning how to sing the song, and the phrasing. And then he'd come back to the studio the next day to sing it, having learned how to sing it. No kind of falseness about [him being] a musician. He just wanted to make a record with the Pretty Things. And he was prepared to pay. So it was like, we led him through it completely. And it was an interesting experience.
But I think, you know, because of the sort of people involved, it could only be, certainly, limited. Because there was restrictions in the fact that the guy who was Phillipe DeBarge, he had minimal talent. We'd play the backing track loud, and I'd sing into his Dictaphone so he could hear how to phrase it. There's some music on it, but it goes far because it didn't have a lead vocal delivery, because he'd never sung before. He had no way... he still was learning.
It was a learning curve thing. His English wasn't that good, so [he] had to paraphrase my English phrases."

[@michelbernardo6087]

On reconnais immédiatement le phrasé des PRETTY THINGS des années 67/68 . C’est une surprise du plus bel effet que ces minutes fantastiques . On veux la suite .

[@lesvoutesparis1351]

The "Debarge Version" of "Eagle's son" is stll the best version !

[@JROM79]

Wicked wicked track

[@Stationario]

Surely the story behind the album could be made into a film? Rich boy, Poor band (financially, but so rich musically) ! Any potential backers out there?

[@chrisgladstone4270]

Just cant top the Electric banana versions ,Phils vocals were made for these songs and much better produced in my opinion.

[@bigtone1348]

Will we ever see the rest of this brilliant album on youtube?

[@Brygantiman]

I'm clueless. The drums in Alexander is just fantastic, but on the other hand the vocals and orchestration is much worse than the Electronic Banana version... Eagle's Son. I can not say anything positive about this version compared with the EB.