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Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, But You Know the Rest
I will never see Procol Harum. Like a good many things I had intended to do in my time stateside, this too has been bumped by government lockdowns into the bucket of things for which tomorrow will never come.
I have adored Procol Harum since I was a kid, and well should I! They stole a lot from Bach, and they gave a lot to rock. That’s the way that usually goes, by the way. In between heavy prog and sea shanties, they produced nearly a genre of their own — classically inspired catchy power-pop tunes with erudite abstract lyrics and evocative chord progressions.
“Whiter Shade of Pale” grabbed me as a child, and I slowly expanded into other music of theirs, one tune at a time, in the way that children and teenagers do — until I got a whole real album. I had several PH cassettes when I served aboard USS Enterprise, and used to chip paint and rip asbestos tiles using pneumatic tools in a white Tyvek suit with my Walkman under layers of tape. I listened to Queen and Procol Harum for the most part. Made the work go by just fine.
That’s a story in the Telegraph, you know the song. Here’s another, with lyrics based on a poem by Auden. It’s the second song (starts at about 6:20) in this two-song video. Procol Harum – A Salty Dog, An Old English Dream live in Denmark 2006 – YouTube
An Old English Dream
This circa 2006 performance is (to my knowledge) either a special appearance or part of a larger production with Danish royalty in attendance, at an idyllic setting in Denmark. Look at the place, the people, the atmosphere. Good God — this is civilization. This is why we have civilization.
I don’t mind a bit of moping progressivism (the politics) in great music — dreams based upon fairness and brotherhood and all that horse-manure have a place, and that place is the admirable but not-human world of dreamy music and other creative endeavors. In the real world, we temper such idealism with realism. This is a beautiful song, and apart from a few spoilers, could just as well be a conservative anthem decrying the United States and what we are losing.
We are English, after all.
The music of Procol Harum is run through with English history, and as Brooker alludes, that includes things from the Danegeld to the Euro. You know who you find running through the body of work? Chaucer, for crying out loud. “As the Miller told his tale” is the key to WSOP.
So here’s Whiter Shade of Pale from the same appearance in Denmark. Nearly twenty years ago, Brooker was already not a young man. Procol Harum – A Whiter Shade of Pale, live in Denmark 2006 – YouTube
I may take the rest of the day off and just throw things. Farewell, Gary Brooker. I’ve been a fool.
Published in General
The rock legends keep leaving us, more rapidly as time marches on . . .
As a young fellow, born shortly after Whiter Shade of Pale came out, this is a big change in my landscape. It’s not about what I may have listened to every day. It’s what I knew was there. And it’s not there anymore.
The clock is ticking. And I love the music! Whimsy for the son, whist for the father.
Whiter Shade of Pale is a classic and I always really liked Conquistador.
I’m gonna have to dig into them on Youtube. Don’t know that I’ve heard anything beyond Pale until clicking on your link, which I quite enjoyed. What’s your favorite album?
I confess, it’s probably a Greatest Hits compilation, here. But below see more:
And here’s the Greatest Hits, complete with a WONDERFUL closing instrumental (“Repent Walpugis”) which was not present on the 8-track, uh I mean cassette, that I wore down to the hubs.
https://www.amazon.com/Procol-Harum-Greatest-Hits/dp/B000002G5E
As I alluded to, I also have a hands-down actual release (not a compilation) winner: A Salty Dog, which is packed with ten tracks that I do not skip, to this day.
Some links (no affiliate)
https://www.discogs.com/master/67317-Procol-Harum-A-Salty-Dog for a description and links to a bunch of collectors
Here’s the CD going for over $100 now: https://www.amazon.com/Salty-Dog-Procol-Harum-Audio/dp/B00GG3BXGU
And here is Amazon’ssale of the CD with an included MP3 download: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XYYO02I/ref=dm_rogue_cd
Naturally, the plain MP3 link is visible from there.
I don’t do iTunes anymore.
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Soooo, I recommend the Greatest Hits link, and if that grabs you, I would go with A Salty Dog.
An intermdiate but very different selection is a later compilation “The Chrysalis Years”, which is nearly unavailable on Amazon. I have it on cassette and CD. Here’s a link to buy the CD from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Chrysalis-Years-1973-1977-Procol-Harum/dp/B000002TCO
Just listened to this before I popped over to download 3 Martini Lunch…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St6jyEFe5WM&list=RDgY01JvjGLfk&index=3
I traveled to Europe with a college buddy, whose parents were connected in the entertainment biz and who is now a major manager/promoter, in part to attend a Procol Harum concert in London. The main reason for the trip was the Munich Olympics but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Since my friend was connected, he wangled an invite to an after-party. My only memory of the whole London experience was stumbling out of one of those black London taxis at the hotel.
Eat your heart out, BDB.
PH also launched the career of one of my favorite arena rockers of the 1970s; Robin Trower…
Sad news. When I was young and foolish, as opposed to old and foolish, I very much enjoyed “relaxing” (heh, heh) to the album A Salty Dog. Will have to give it another listen in memoriam. RIP.
Heart gone after the 2012 election. Do you worst!
Here’s the ASCII version of a magnificent piece (from the absolutely priceless site https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com)
IMHO, this transcription tries to specify too much, but I’m not complaining. This is the last track on the album A Salty Dog.
In that vein I will report my experience. 1970 The Electric Factory in Philadelphia. I was about 50 feet behind Gary Booker. Twin pianists who were sons of someone in my father’s company stayed with us for a summer. Took one of them -which one I forget, does it matter? Anyway they performed amazing piano pieces on two grand pianos. He was suitably impressed with the classical training of Gary Booker ,never having heard the band before. I was young and happened to be exposed but at the time it wasn’t very special. We just went to hear the band.
But it could have been a year or two later. I remember “Shine on Brightly” being played. Or maybe I saw them twice. “If you remember the 60’s you weren’t really there”, and that goes double for the early seventies!
In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence
In the wee small hours of sixpence
And the lighted chandelier
Stands a rusty old retainer
Whose old eyes are filled with tears
For his master, Good Sir Galant
Who is now off to the wars
And although his eyes are crying
We know grief is not the cause
And if grief is not the reason
He must be of sterner stuff
And his sword though old and rusty
Must be blunt as sharp enough
In the wee small hours of sixpence
And the broken window pane
Stand the remnants of the evening
Who are waiting all in vain
For the crowing of the cockerel
Showing morning is not night
But the air is filled with silence
And the daylight is not bright
But still darkness is no reason
We are men of sterner stuff
And our swords though old and rusty
Still are blunt as sharp enough
In the wee small hours of sixpence
And the hat-stand in the hall
Waiting only for the morning
Shadows flitting ‘cross the wall
And perhaps that old retainer
Whom now giving of his all
May have once been just as we are
And now has no face at all
But still grief was not the reason
He was made of sterner stuff
And his sword though old and rusty
Still was blunt as sharp enough
I think I saw them at the same tour in 1970:
Date:November 21, 1970
Venue:Grace Hall, Lehigh University
Location:Bethlehem, PA
source: concertarchives.org
Weird to think he was only 22 belting out that song.
My brother asked me recently what A Whiter Shade of Pale was about, he always expects me to know the answer to those types of questions. I had no idea but I remembered this scene from The Commitments:
https://youtu.be/YvryDZQt8JE
The chords are pretty straight forward except for that E-flat Diminished. Dim chords always give me trouble…mostly because my musicianship stinks.
I got the soundtrack for that movie for a dollar a few months ago.