"Avenging Annie" is the sole single released by Andy Pratt. This song, from the viewpoint of a "mythical heroine," (and based partially on Woody Guthrie's "The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd" as interpreted by The Byrds), is sung by Pratt mostly in falsetto, accompanied by cat, piano and guitar (both forwards and backwards). The song rides on Pratt's classically-influenced piano through the painful story of his first marriage, which he reworks as an American Outlaw West fantasy reminiscent of Bonnie and Clyde, or Annie Oakley. At the end, the heroine finds "peace and release" on her own.
In June 1973 the single reached the top 15 on WRKO-AM in Pratt's native Boston, but peaked at number 78 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending ten weeks on the chart.
The record, produced by John Nagy with additional production suggestions from Clive Davis, went to number one in New Orleans and Providence. Rick Shlosser played drums on the record.
Prior to the release of the record, a pirate tape circulated through Providence and was frequently aired on Brown University radio as one of the most requested songs. This is what led to an official overproduced recording, which lacked the punch and power of the original pirate tape of 1971.
The song was covered by Roger Daltrey on his 1977 album One of the Boys; it later appeared on all three compilations of his solo work. Daltrey's version shied away from taking the woman's part in the song and lacked the complex syncopation of Pratt's.
Famous quotes containing the word avenging:
“That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he it is that has browsed off all the woods on Walden shore, that Trojan horse, with a thousand men in his belly, introduced by mercenary Greeks! Where is the country’s champion, the Moore of Moore Hall, to meet him at the Deep Cut and thrust an avenging lance between the ribs of the bloated pest?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)