VA - Oh! You Pretty Things, Glam Queens and Street Urchins 1970-76 [2021] (3 x CDs)

GLAM

VA - Oh! You Pretty Things, Glam Queens and Street Urchins 1970-76 [2021] (3 x CDs)

In the teenage wastelands of grey early Seventies Britain, where the musical landscape was dominated by introspective singer-songwriters and dour rock bands, the emergence of the outrageous, androgynous, peacock-plumaged Glam Rock scene provided a vital spark in the dark. Sadly, the genre was quickly hijacked by the backroom hustlers of the British music industry and their mutton-dressed-as-glam pop idol marionettes. However, Oh! You Pretty Things ignores such lightweight fripperies to concentrate on the real deal. We focus on the twin central strands of Glam Rock: the cerebral and the visceral, with the artier, experimental element of the scene joined by the Ladbroke Grove Street rockers and the Steve Marriott-channeling chirpy Cockney geezer street urchins, many of whom had been to drama school and knew how to strike a pose. Big hits, inexplicable misses, seminal glam texts, cult classics, key album tracks, alternative versions and even a clutch of previously unreleased but essential recordings: Oh! You Pretty Things - housed in a clamshell box that contains a 40-page booklet of amazing photos and incredible stories, assembles all these and more to act as the definitive primer of a relatively short-lived but glorious musical and pop-cultural phenomenon. (Amazon)

Oh! You Pretty Things: Glam Queens and Street Urchins 1970-1976 takes its name from a David Bowie song that can't be found among the 66 songs spread across the set's three discs. Bowie himself is absent on this 2021 collection, but his presence is felt far and wide, bubbling to the surface on Mick Ronson's version of the Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat" -- a version very similar to the one the Spiders from Mars played -- and Lou Reed's Bowie-produced "Satellite of Love," not to mention Dana Gillespie's oddball cover of "Andy Warhol." Ziggy Stardust provides the connective tissue between the arch art rock and the gutter sleaze on Oh! You Pretty Things, a compilation dedicated to the loud, weird murk of the pre-punk 1970s. Many of the names are familiar, as are some of the songs -- Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten Twice Shy," Tim Curry's "Sweet Transvestite," and the New York Dolls' "Personality Crisis" provide anchors on each of the discs -- but the appeal of the compilation is how the Kinks get revitalized when paired with Duncan Browne and how the collection serves up weird, delightful discoveries and oddities from both high-brow glamsters and scuzz merchants. (AMG review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)

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Track lists

CD1

01 Roxy Music - Pyjamarama (Original 1973 Island 7" Single Version) 3:04

02 Electric Light Orchestra - Ma-Ma-Ma Belle 3:40

03 Sparks - Barbecutie 3:09

04 Pretty Things - Joey (Single Version) 3:20

05 Hollywood Brats - Tumble With Me 3:55

06 Silverhead - Rolling With My Baby (Single Version) 2:55

07 Be-bop Deluxe - Teenage Archangel 3:32

08 Streak - On The Ball 3:10

09 Ian Hunter - Once Bitten, Twice Shy (Album Version) 4:46

10 Hawkwind - Kerb Crawler (Single Version) 3:45

11 Brutus - Payroll 2:42

12 England's Glory - Bright Lights 4:11

13 Dana Gillespie - Andy Warhol 3:06

14 Rococo - Blue Movie Star 2:04

15 Mick Ronson - White Light/White Heat 4:11

16 Duncan Browne - Send Me The Bill For Your Friendship 3:38

17 Kinks - Powerman 4:18

18 Bearded Lady - Up In The Air 3:09

19 Simon Turner - The Prettiest Star 2:46

20 Heavy Metal Kids - The Cops Are Coming 3:48

21 Blackfoot Sue - Glittery Obituary 3:37

22 Pink Fairies - Street Urchin 7:04

CD2

01 Slade - Take Me Bak 'ome 3:17

02 Thin Lizzy - Little Darling 2:57

03 Zior - Cat's Eyes 2:59

04 Lou Reed - Satellite Of Love 3:42

05 John Cale - Gun 8:06

06 Despair - Lady Easy Action 3:22

07 Hammersmith Gorillas - Shame 3:24

08 Doctors Of Madness - B-Movie Bedtime (Demo Version) 3:25

09 Iggy Pop & The Stooges - Gimme Some Skin 2:45

10 Third World War - Rat Crawl 6:27

11 Agnes Strange - Give Yourself A Chance 3:30

12 Bryan Ferry - Chance Meeting 3:17

13 Curved Air - The Purple Speed Queen 3:33

14 Jobriath - Earthling 3:33

15 Phil Manzanera Feat. Eno - Big Day 3:45

16 Slowload - Around And Around 3:30

17 Troggs - Strange Movies 2:57

18 Rosie - Rosie's Coming To Town 3:45

19 Wayne County - Queenage Baby 3:54

20 Tim Curry - Sweet Transvestite 3:12

21 Sweet - The Six Teens 4:03

CD3

01 New York Dolls - Personality Crisis 3:44

02 Tina Harvey - I'm Waiting For The Man 3:18

03 John Howard - Small Town, Big Adventures 3:00

04 Brett Smiley - Space Ace 3:52

05 Leo Sayer - The Dancer 4:30

06 Richmond - Peaches (What's It All About?) 3:13

07 Strawbs - Going Home 3:12

08 A Raincoat - I Love You For Your Mind (Not Your Body) 2:55

09 Rupert Hine - The Monk 2:35

10 Rusty - All I Wanna Be 3:26

11 Duffy - The Browns 3:05

12 Winkies - Last Chance 2:59

13 Hard Stuff - Ragman 3:03

14 Flamin' Groovies - Dog Meat 4:05

15 Bullfrog - Dozy Dora 3:11

16 Spiv - Little Girl 2:39

17 Fumble - Not Fade Away (Single Edit) 3:13

18 Crushed Butler - High School Dropout 1:55

19 Michael Moorcock's Deep Fix - Dodgem Dude (Demo Version) 2:58

20 Kim Fowley - Hollywood Nites 2:30

21 Hollywood Stars - King Of The Night Time World 3:29

22 Sensational Alex Harvey Band - The Last Of The Teenage Idols 7:13

23 Mott The Hoople - Saturday Gigs 4:23

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