My Top 2000 Songs #1150: Mr. Evasion

The Pretty Things went through the same contortions as many 60s UK bands (albeit sometimes less comfortably), pivoting from primal Stonesy R&B to Kinks-like British pop to Floydish psychedelia. Before issuing 1968's psychedelic opus S.F. Sorrow, they released the 1967 single "Defecting Grey" b/w "Mr. Evasion"--a sort of parallel to the "Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane" Sgt. Pepper prelude.

And while the a-side was pretty cool, a busy multi-part suite boldly introducing their shift into drug-addled experimentation, I slightly prefer the b-side. (Funny, we seem to be on a bit of a b-side streak lately!) "Mr. Evasion" is still awfully frenetic (the band couldn't quite shed their more boisterous bluesy stripes), but maybe a touch easier to digest. The verses aren't necessarily anything novel, a continuation of the post-British Invasion energetic pop of that year's colorful Emotions LP. But those phased vocals in the chorus, a wigged out mIIIIIIster/evAAAAAsion, are so incredibly striking that I've never quite gotten them out of my head.

The only annoyance is that the version I have, on the Sorrow CD reissue, is in mono; it would've been cool in proper stereo, those phased vocals bouncing around my headphones.

2020 stereo mix (I don't think it was mastered for stereo, though):

Live 2018: