S. F. Sorrow is the fourth album by the English rock band Pretty Things. Released in 1968, it is known as one of the first rock operas ever released. Based on a short story by singer Phil May, the album is structured as a song cycle telling the story of a main character "Sebastian F. Sorrow", from his birth, through love, war, tragedy, madness, and his disillusionment with old age. Concept S. F. Sorrow story is told by the Pretty Things, who relate the bulk of the narrative through small paragraphs as chapters, which were printed in liner notes of LP and CD's. The narrative alternates from spoken word to sung lyrics; these passages were read and sung in performances by Arthur Brown, during The Pretty Things' two live performances of the opera. S. F. Sorrow opens with the birth of the story's protagonist at the turn of the 20th century. Sebastian F. Sorrow is born in a small nameless town to ordinary parents in a house called "Number Three". The town is supported by a factory of some sort, referred to as the "Misery Factory". ("S. F. Sorrow Is Born") Sorrow, an imaginative boy, has a relatively normal childhood until it ends abruptly when he needs to get a job. He goes to work with his father at the Misery Factory, from which many men have been laid off. This might make S. F. Sorrow the object of hate in a sense that he might be a scab in the story, or perhaps the young boy who is taking some older man's job, and he comes into his sexual adolescence during this period ("Bracelets of Fingers"). From here, joy exists for him in the form of a girl across the street. She says 'Good morning' to him every day, and he thinks about her constantly. This is the factor that keeps him going despite his childhood's abrupt ending. The two fall in love and become engaged, but their marriage plans are cut short when Sorrow is drafted ("She Says Good Morning").Sorrow joins a light infantry ("Private Sorrow") and goes off to fight in a war, possibly World War I. Sorrow sinks into a daze, living out the entire war in a funk. Soon the sounds of gunfire and artillery become the rhythm to his life in a daydream. He survives the war and settles down in a land called