Here is the story. AC were a struggling band. Flat broke getting by only from stiffing every motel in Detroit. On to LA, things were no better. Frank Zappa met up with AC at a party where it was learned Mr. Z. had started his own record label , Bizarre/Straight. AC wanted to record an album.
When Frank witnessed the band on stage, he noticed that each time they played, they would send the audience away in a fit. To the point of a ghosttown. The stage show at this time was so
offensive and disgusting it made the later AC stage extravaganza seem mild. No big budget theatrics, instead the likes of a transvestite crying "nobody likes me" and then having a temper tantrum like a 2 year old, lying on his back repeating 4 letter f- words until every single audience member had enough. Zappa saw SOMETHING, we can only imagine what, in this.
Zappa offered them a tryout for a record deal, and to his surprise one morning, they snuck into his basement studio and began playing-- loud. A naked, alarmed Zappa rushed out of bed and gave them the deal on the account THEY STOPPED PLAYING RIGHT THEN!
The budget was microscopic and the scheduling was rushed. The band DID NOT have any say in the production. Ya'll can blame
Zappa for the lackluster sound.
One of the things Zappa found interesting was that he realized he would have a challenge trying to transcribe much of their music on paper. It was full of odd time signatures, on a dime changes, sputters, and things that gave it charachter. It is the perfect example of something that sounds like junk until your band tries to play it. It takes some skill to keep it all together. Trust me on this. It is a lot harder than it may seem. None of this music is orchestrated in notation, moreover none of it was developed over time in a studio and none of it was played with real enthusiasm to a crowd on stage. It is literaly taking green amateurs and giving them a couple of hours in a studio and thats that.
Aside from the multitude of musical detail on this album, admittingly hard to notice at first due to the rushed pace of recording (sloppiness)and the lack of studio polish (live in studio, few overdubs), there is some great songwriting. A lot of the ideas are quite off the wall, but there is a definate mixing of emotions within the songs, typical of a lot of the psych music. It is SUPOSSED to be that way! NOT a result of bad songwriting. This was recorded at a time when in LA about the hardest thing around was Spirit or Amboy Dukes. Maybe the likes of Zeppelin coming through on the radio. Or Cream. That's about it.

Pretties is just oozing with that lovely "am I happy or sad?" , manic-depressive, so-on-dope- I'm confused mixed up emotional ambiguity. It's about putting some feeling in music rather than just playing what sounds "acceptable" to a beat. It is a testament to how records were sometimes made back then. Totally honest. This is what they were all about. Not a money making,
picture posing machine they later became.
They take risks. Neal Smith never again assaulted his drums like this. Those twin gibsons are never again given so much freedom. And those vocal harmonies are great! Alice REALLY sings in his REAL voice. It's like a pop album gone bad in some places. A times it sounds like Revolver era Beatles on bad acid! None of that nasal whining. But not all of this album is atonal disonant weirdness. There are a few beautiful songs too. Apple Bush with the help of George Martin could have been home on Sgt. Pepper. Reflected is actually better than the rehashed Elected. And Living is such a toe tapper. It sounds like the Beatles. It does. A fantastic song, a hundred times better than I'm 18. And I really like No Longer Umpire and BB on Mars (great titles by the way), these are go happy and almost giddy sounding, but yet disturbing. A technique AC would touch on later in songs like Dead Babies or I love the Dead, only this is much stranger. Twisted! Brilliant! Levity Ball souds like a live recording with a hand held tape recorder that was in a toilet down the hall-- terrible sound. Not a very good song, I'm afraid, either.
Yes it took me a while to warm up to this album, but after a some time I have realized its brilliance. It is probably my
favorite AC album.
This is one of the most underappreciated classic albums from the US underground scene. We can't always have sparkling production, motivated producers, or even seasoned musicians when making an album. It is the substance and the effort that makes it. Not to be judged comparably to say, Killer, but rather as some great material that was unlike anything else at the time, in true garage rock fashion. Stay away if you must have that studio polish or if some timing issues ruin your day. If you appreciate the avant-garde or late 60's experimentalism, this one is a must.

By the way, AC were not into drugs. They only drank alot. And the cover of the album was taken from an original painting Zappa had hanging in his living room. Also, there are no Cooperisms on here , no "sick things" such as necrophilia, mental illness, etc. so if you are in love with Alice the persona, get a scrapbook and enjoy the wallet size cut out pics from your original LP press of BDB (great album packaging by the way), this has nothing to do with black leather. Alice has blond hair and is in a green mini dress in the back cover photo.


Will Leave You Scratching Your Head at First   September 3, 2004
Graboidz (Westminster, Maryland)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Take a pinch of Alice Cooper, stir in a big helping of Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa, and add just a touch of Gentle Giant and you kind of get "Pretties For You". Only the late 60's could have produced this music. I found both "Pretties For You" and "Easy Action" back in the late 80's on CD, reissued by the Retro label, and I guess those are the disks being offered here used. The production on "Pretties" is okay, but some of the songs sound as if they were recorded in a steel tank. Sometimes that actually helps the feel of the cd though, you know you are hearing the band in it's raw form. It's obvious there is quite a lot of talent in the band at this stage, but there isn't much focus. It's also kind of cool to hear bits and pieces of songs on "Pretties" that will turn up again on later recordings, the most obvious being "Reflected" later becoming "Elected" on Billion Dollar Babies. If you are a die-hard fan of Alice Cooper than I highly recommend "Pretties For You", or if you like Zappa or Beefheart and haven't heard this disk pick it up. But if you are a casual fan, stick with the Warner Brothers releases.


Anti-Bashing Review   September 11, 2005
The Punisher
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

I didn't think I'd have to rate this cd because I thought that anyone who listened to Alice Cooper would realize that all his albums are different and all stand for a particular moment in Cooper's history. This is a strange one ,yes. Very experimental ,yes. But so were a lot of bands including The Beatles. Take it as a historical time-piece. Alice Cooper was a n underground band who met Zappa and got recorded on low budget.
Please don't rate it on today's digital standards. Listen !!!!
It's great music ,no doubt.


Interesting To The Point Of Earaches   January 26, 2004
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

Not that I blame the Alice Cooper Group for the sound on this album. But it is indicative of the 60's. Too much reverb on things that should sound closer.. Well, to avoid technobabble, it sounds awful, but the musical genius is there. Now, remember when listening to this album, the guys had NO time to prepare their material for studio recording. They just went in. This is RAW Alice Cooper Group, not polished, not tarnished, right out of the womb. Despite the technical recording flaws of this album, the music is created in so many different veins it's disgusting. The band even throws in some ethnic sounds into a psychadelic rock. This album is often overlooked, and dismissed as garbage, without a musician's viewpoint. A conossieur of music will tell you that the intricacies of this album have never been heard since then. Not from ANY so called Rock Star of these days. It is my recommendation that anyone who wants to know the REAL Alice Cooper Group, buy this album. This is what they were all about. 'Nuff Said.


The Debut Album   December 4, 2006
Steven Sly (Kalamazoo, MI United States)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

The debut of the original Alice Cooper Band. Today everyone thinks of Alice as the man, but from 1969 through the mid-70's The Alice Cooper band was just that a band with Alice as their frontman. Consisting of Alice on vocals, Dennis Dunaway on bass, Glen Buxton on guitar, and Mike Bruce on Guitar and keys, the Alice Cooper band began their career in Arizona, but it was when they moved to Detroit that things really started to take off for them. At the time of this album the band were proteges of Frank Zappa and signed to his label. The music is very different from latter day Cooper. A little psychedellia, a bit of metal, a bit of garage rock, and like most other bands of their day a Beatles influence. Some of the songs on this album remind me of early Pink Floyd. Highlights include the 6 minute plus "Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio" with it's instrumental workout. "Fields Of Regret that sounds almost something like the Doors might do. "Levity Ball" which would be the first of many Alice Cooper songs with the subject of cross dressing as its main subject. "Reflected" would eventually resurface with different lyrics as "Elected". The version I have is the re-mastered re-issue from 1989, but the sound is still very spotty. The album was not recorded very well. Overall this is not essential Alice Cooper, but gives a good look at the band's early potential.