Phil May and myself decided to write this 'bonus track', in honour of our good friend Philippe Debarge (who's sad and untimely passing came in 1999). We produced an album for Philippe in 1969, but it was never released at the time and I'd completely forgotten about it until 2009, when Mike Stax had un-earthed a credible acetate of the entire album - a lot of work was needed on the audio, and I helped Mike with this. Phil & I called our bonus track "Monsieur Rock".

The Pretty Things / Philippe Debarge 1969 - "Monsieur Rock" (bonus track)

(This is an abridged version of Mike Stax's notes for the 2009 Ugly Things' album) : -

"SF Sorrow is done and dusted. Parachute is yet to come.The Pretty Things are at their creative peak.

Ensconced in a rambling communal flat on Westbourne Terrace in Bayswater, living alongside artists, musicians, filmmakers and assorted freaks and hangers-on. Phil May and Wally Waller are writing almost constantly. Despite this proliferation of material, though, there would be no Pretty Things records released in 1969.Instead, it would be a year of change and reconstruction. In June lead guitarist Dick Taylor exited the group, a move that drew the May/Waller team even closer together. In the hazy, hothouse atmosphere of Westbourne Grove their songwriting
partnership was soon flourishing.

Into this creative milieu stepped a young Frenchman named Philippe Debarge. He came from a prominent French family who’d made their fortune in the pharmaceutical industry. “Philippe was a couple of years older than us,” remembers Wally. “For the want of a better phrase I suppose you could call him a playboy.”

The Frenchman also harboured dreams of rock stardom, and with his family’s abundant bank account he figured he might have the resources to help turn this fantasy into reality.

The main point that both Phil and I made to him was that we didn't want to use any material that we hadn't written”, and Philippe was cool with that.

Emotionally our ‘recording home’ was Abbey Road,” says Wally, “but this was extra-curricular activity, so I looked around, and found a studio just off Marble Arch; it was called Nova. It was one of the first studios in London to have 8-track machines. We had recorded the whole of SF Sorrow on 4-track machines, so we were a bit like kids let loose in a Candy Store, with double that number now available at Nova Studios !

The Pretty Things/Philippe Debarge album proved to be a work of real value. For the Pretty Things it was an important stepping stone between two of their greatest works, and for Philippe Debarge—“just a French kid chasing down a dream”—it stands as a lasting milestone in an otherwise troubled life".

P.S. This track also contains the closest thing to a 'Bass Solo' of mine that ever made it onto a record. You'll have to be patient if you want to hear it - it doesn't come in till about 3:55 !