A long and evocative handwritten letter, with detailed drawing, sent by Pretty Things co-founder and lead singer Phil May to a Los Angeles-area girl he had dated.  May met Vicky, from whom we obtained this, while the Pretty Things were touring America in support of their 1972 album Freeway Madness.  The band played Hollywood’s Whisky A-G0-Go on April 19, 1973, and May wrote this letter from London, after returning from the tour.

May fills both sides of a single sheet, writing (spelling and grammar preserved):

Dear Vicky, We are now back in a rather damp, ancient London, deexcelerating from the high speeds of touring.  Its taken a while for me to adjust, getting over that diffinite feeling of alienation that long periods of travel seem produce.  I guess its always been my nature to keep moving, I’ve become used to living against a constantly changing emotional and scenic back drop, I even thrive on it.  Maybe one day i will turn away from a proffered air ticket, find somewhere to digf in, refuse to be nailed to a date sheet.  But as for now, I’m just off to a meeting, to plan the next nine months in a short life.

I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to reply in letter form, yours arrived saying much that coukldn’t be squeezed into our wonderful week together.  I tried several times to part the waves of insanity and make a backward reply, but pen would not meet paper, guided by the most urgent hand.  But the images I retain, though slightly blurred, they’ll stay with me.  My trip to Baden Place is safely locked away, man eating cat and all.  The Toyota bounce, as we disected LA, your long periods of silent thought, the mystified look stared into my liquid pond.  The sensing together that this was not our time, we should both have been born amongst the lower numbered pages of a dusty book, that was our bond.  I have never been at one with the twentieth century, much of which I desire has pased out of life today, I don’ keep a list, I just feel instinctively the gaps left by the missing fragments.  I do feel too, that this might be part cause for your apparent heartache, I’m sure that it contributes to mine.

This letter Im afraid seems totally rooted int he abstract, and therefore may seem a disapointment to you. It is not meant as a rejection of our time together in the material sense, but I try to show what has grown out of that short time.  A future meeting really relies on that force whcih you have already indicated deep belief in, fate.  But in that vast area, outside of the strangulating grip of time, that gives not a fig for minutes, hours, days, we need never part.  I carry the thought of those that have felt close to with me always, another meeting might I admit add new depth, brighter colour, stronger ties, but it could also erase.  For now I shall clutch what I have saved of that week, and feel glad.  The future will arrive in due time, out for now I’m content, I shall not try to anticipate, it would be folly.  I sent you my love and also my address. 

Phil.  24 Thames Street, Hampton Court, London, England

With a small magazine photo of the Pretty Things, promoting their Whisky show.

He includes a detailed drawing of himself and Vicky, both with question mark thought balloons, on Zuma beach in Malibu, where Vicky lived.  May, an art student at Sidcup Art College, formed the Pretty Things with another Sidcup student Dick Taylor, who had recently left the nascent Rolling Stones (Keith Richard was also a Sidcup student!)

A great Pretty Things/Phil May collectible.  With Recordmecca’s written lifetime guarantee of authenticity.  8″ x 11″, in excellent condition, with two horizontal mailing folds.