SickthingsUK

Hello Mr Dunaway,

I found PRETTIES and EASY ACTION the same night (Sept 1976) and it was like finding treasure-I had no idea either of those albums existed. Liked EA right off the bat, but PFY was a little too out there at the time (I was 14). Time has proved kind to PFY for Me and I truly find it enjoyable.

My question : It just may be my impression, but it seems a few songs on PFY have a sort of autobiographical nature to them:

"No Longer Umpire"- "Painting a picture to show everyone in the world". The band looking for acceptance from the masses?

"Earwigs to Eternity"- "Four Long Years"- From The Earwigs, to The Spiders, to The Nazz and finally Alice Cooper- where You start to hear a whisper. It fits the Ouija board story well, but could also from the band throwing out names.


"Changing Arranging"- "I look up high and swear all I see is a Carbon copy image of Me", "I swear I don't know what it's got over Me, but I know it doesn't want to be free". Could this be Vince coming to terms with his stage character?

Of course, "Nobody Likes Me" would have worked well for the album. Sort of speaks for how all of You weren't "liked" by the General public during that period. Was there not enough time to include this?

Thanks for any answers You can give.

Thank You

You're right on "No Longer Umpire" and "Earwigs to Eternity" but the line from "Changing Arranging" sounds more like Michael's lyric.
A friend in Phoenix would have the band over for dinner, Joy would say things like, "we are all one," and talk about the infinite circle of life. A lot of that philosophy, mixed with humor, is a big part of the PFY lyrics. Hey, if we are all one, then I'm that hot chick over there? Surely I am Shirley all the time.
The other main factor in the lyrics on both of those albums is the close collaborative unity of the band. I still have the original notebooks from that era. On one page you might find the lyrics to a song written by me. On the next page will be Alice's version of the same song, and the third page might be Michael's. And then the best of all are rolled into one final set of lyrics.
I talked about "Nobody Likes Me" in another thread, but basically, we ran out of time.

A major "what if" here......

Had Pretties for You been a surprise hit, expanded your international audience a to a great extent and brought forth good record deals, do you think it's possible you and the guys could have stayed moving in a more experimental and 'out there' direction? I'm thinking of the likes of Black Juju and Halo of Flies being the more commercial end of where you might have ended up.

I know it's a big step but have you ever pondered an alternate reality containing a career of quality albums but no chart hits? Would you and the guys have been satisfied with that?

Sorry for sort of hijacking the thread, but I had a question similar to VinceRaven above: Do you have a preference for the type of songs you play? I was listening to a couple of your 1971 gigs yesterday and really enjoyed hearing songs like You Drive Me Nervous, Caught In A Dream and Long Way To Go being performed. You sounded like a hit machine! Then I also loved hearing Dead Babies, Halo Of Flies, Killer and Dwight Fry, which are obviously longer and more experimental. Do you have a preference for which type of songs you played live?

VinceRaven wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:30 am

A major "what if" here......

Had Pretties for You been a surprise hit, expanded your international audience a to a great extent and brought forth good record deals, do you think it's possible you and the guys could have stayed moving in a more experimental and 'out there' direction? I'm thinking of the likes of Black Juju and Halo of Flies being the more commercial end of where you might have ended up.

I know it's a big step but have you ever pondered an alternate reality containing a career of quality albums but no chart hits? Would you and the guys have been satisfied with that?

If PFY had been as successful as we hoped for, we would have been able to afford to take our surrealistic concepts much farther. But to make it as big as we were aiming for required hit singles. And with more developed song-writing abilities, I'm sure we would have moved in that direction, just not as desperately.
As it was, unlike any other band, we had hit singles and we still managed to have controversial theatrical shows.

Gilles27 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:20 pm

Sorry for sort of hijacking the thread, but I had a question similar to VinceRaven above: Do you have a preference for the type of songs you play? I was listening to a couple of your 1971 gigs yesterday and really enjoyed hearing songs like You Drive Me Nervous, Caught In A Dream and Long Way To Go being performed. You sounded like a hit machine! Then I also loved hearing Dead Babies, Halo Of Flies, Killer and Dwight Fry, which are obviously longer and more experimental. Do you have a preference for which type of songs you played live?

Michael, Neal, Glen, Alice, and I put tons of thought into everything we did, including our set lists. The hits were our safety net. We could only get away with so much experimentation and still hold a mass audience. The percentage of people that came for the hits got their wish, but that's not what they went home talking about.