(The two also own a music-publishing house called Bluebeard.)Ī pioneer in melding rock with classical music, Brooker has continued to perform with symphony orchestras: ”I’ve done concerts in Poland with orchestras and played quite a lot in Germany, including an annual televised night of rock and classics with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. Procol Harum frontman Gary Brooker, who led the band throughout their 55-year history and co. In addition, the song’s lyrics were written by Reid, with whom Brooker still collaborates occasionally. The singer-songwriter and pianist co-wrote and sang the band's 1967 classic 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'. Wilson, another Procol alumnus, on drums. One of the tracks, ”The Long Goodbye,” features Fisher on keyboards and B.J. Procol Harum A Whiter Shade of Pale (Original Single Version) We skipped the light fandango turned cartwheels cross the floor. A third album, Echoes in the Night, is due out in September. The material was all already written (before the hit, in fact), but the group recorded the LP in just two days, simply to get a long-player out, and came up with one of the more. While he did not play an instrument, Reid was a full-time member of Procol Harum until its first break-up in 1977 only the group’s final album, 2017’s “Novum,” lacks lyrical input from him.Procol Harum–the name, roughly translated from Latin, means ”beyond these things”–recorded 10 albums over the next decade, but founders Brooker and Reid were the only continuous members.Īfter the group finally broke up for good in 1977, Brooker took a year off and then undertook a solo career, playing on Eric Clapton’s Another Ticket and recording two LPs, No More Fear of Flying and Lead Me to the Water. Procol Harum's debut album is amazingly engaging, considering that it was rushed out to capitalize on the hit title track. It’s a single with almost incomprehensible lyrics, has been the subject of drawn-out legal proceedings, and is the most played record by British broadcasting over the past 70 years or so. Via albums like “A Salty Dog” and another unlikely hit single, the orchestra-featuring “Conquistador,” the group remained a major act throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. The long and protracted tale behind UK prog legends Procol Harum's 1967 number one smash hit A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Beyond this the band has had a string of successful singles and albums. 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' continues to hold a fascination for all ages and was recently voted in to the all time top ten of UK no.1's in a poll to celebrate 50 years of the UK charts. While Blackwell initially passed on signing the group to Island - he recalls in his autobiography that the initial demo was dirgelike, but the drums added the crucial element that made it a hit and led him to rue his decision - the single was recorded with session musicians and a group was hastily assembled to tour and record an album. Procol Harum are one of the select group of acts who had a No.1 hit with their first single. Inspired the sorrows of the Holocaust (“The tone of my work is very dark and I think it’s probably from my background in some subconscious way,” he once said), and the songs of Bob Dylan, Reid met R&B disc jockey-turned-A&R/producer Guy Stevens (Mott the Hoople, The Clash) through Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who in turn introduced him to composer-pianist Brooker in 1966. He left formal schooling at the age of 15 to follow a literary path as a natural born lyricist. A Whiter Shade of Pale Lyrics: We skipped the light fandango / Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor / I was feeling kinda seasick / But the crowd called out for more / The room was humming harder. The son of Jewish Holocuast survivors, Reid was born on October 19, 1946, in London. While initially credited to Brooker and Reid, organist Fisher successfully sued to have his name added to the credits and publishing in 2009, more than 40 years after the song was originally released, after a long legal battle.
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