Yeah...I could've had this on the "Before the 70's" page, but Procol Harum is both a 60's and 70's band.

I'm a fan for Procol Harum and they have more fame in the states than in their home land...except for "A Whiter Shade of Pale".

But here are a few songs I like from Procol Harum which isn't "A Whiter Shade of Pale"!...

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My favorite album from them is "Grand Hotel", next is "Shine on Brightly", and then "Shine on Brightly"!

But here are a few songs I like from Procol Harum which isn't "A Whiter Shade of Pale"!...


If you like Procol Harum then you most like "Conquistador" too, both original and the far better 1972 live version ?

"Conquistador" is my favorite of theirs, but I also like "A Salty Dog", "All This and More"
and this one from their first album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_W67hc6HgQ
She Wandered Through the Garden Fence - Procol Harum

If you like Procol Harum then you most like "Conquistador" too, both original and the far better 1972 live version ?

"Conquistador" is my favorite of theirs, but I also like "A Salty Dog", "All This and More"
and this one from their first album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_W67hc6HgQ
She Wandered Through the Garden Fence - Procol Harum



Conquistador is a fabulous song.

"White Shade of Pale" is soulful, but somber, almost ecclesiastical.  Yet if it starts up in a rock 'n' roll bar, nobody misses a beat.  I thought that song was done by a Motown group before I heard of Procul Harum. 

"White Shade of Pale" is soulful, but somber, almost ecclesiastical.  Yet if it starts up in a rock 'n' roll bar, nobody misses a beat.  I thought that song was done by a Motown group before I heard of Procul Harum. 



When I heard it years ago, I also thought it originated from a Motown type group.
Ecclesiastical? Must be the keyboard...I know what you are getting at.

When I heard it years ago, I also thought it originated from a Motown type group.
Ecclesiastical? Must be the keyboard...I know what you are getting at.


They credit Matthew Fisher on Hammond M-102 organ.  The opening verse:
 
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
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

is in a soul style descended directly from gospel music.  I couldn't understand the lyrics, and was underwhelmed when I did!

:-\\

They credit Matthew Fisher on Hammond M-102 organ.  The opening verse:
 
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
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

is in a soul style descended directly from gospel music.  I couldn't understand the lyrics, and was underwhelmed when I did!

:-\\

The lyrics to that one and "The Sound of silence" (Simon & Garfunkel) have always got me thinking and blows me away. Powerful lyrics.

The lyrics to that one and "The Sound of silence" (Simon & Garfunkel) have always got me thinking and blows me away. Powerful lyrics.


Simon & Garfunkel's songs are most endearing.  I grew up with them.  I cherish them.  The magic couldn't endure.  What they had could only last a short while.  I think Paul Simon knew it when he wrote, "I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now, but I won't be for long..."

Critics are too quick to dismiss Art Garfunkel.  No matter how great Paul Simon's music got in the ensuing decades, he was never able to replicate S&G.  Nobody could.  It's like the way nobody could replicate The Beatles or Monty Python.  Sometimes the right people work together at the right time.  You can't plan for it.
:)

"White Shade of Pale" is soulful, but somber, almost ecclesiastical.  Yet if it starts up in a rock 'n' roll bar, nobody misses a beat.  I thought that song was done by a Motown group before I heard of Procul Harum. 




Paul McCartney (who likes "A Whiter Shade of Pale" thought that the song was sung by Steve Winwood)!


If you like Procol Harum then you most like "Conquistador" too, both original and the far better 1972 live version ?

"Conquistador" is my favorite of theirs, but I also like "A Salty Dog", "All This and More"
and this one from their first album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_W67hc6HgQ
She Wandered Through the Garden Fence - Procol Harum




Yep, I like both versions of "Conquistador"! I also like this rarity from "Something Magic", by that time their Magic was practically gone....

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Simon & Garfunkel's songs are most endearing.  I grew up with them.  I cherish them.  The magic couldn't endure.  What they had could only last a short while.  I think Paul Simon knew it when he wrote, "I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now, but I won't be for long..."



Perhaps I'm wrong, but isn't that a line from a Billy Bragg tune? That aside, I agree with you about the "magic".  I appreciate S&G more than ever, now that I'm old enough to "get" some of their more poetic stuff. 

Perhaps I'm wrong, but isn't that a line from a Billy Bragg tune? That aside, I agree with you about the "magic".  I appreciate S&G more than ever, now that I'm old enough to "get" some of their more poetic stuff. 


The same thing happened to me with Dylan.  My folks had some of his records, but all anybody seemed to do was laugh at the way he sang.  Then one night, I must have been 17 and "Like a Rolling Stone" came on.  Dylan blew me away!  I had yet to hear Ginsberg perform "Howl," but it was a transformative.  I would have thought my old man would have liked Dylan's intellect, but he seemed to feel Dylan was a commercial enterprise with little to his credit.  I begged to differ!
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Procol Harum — The band was named after the pedigree name of a Siamese cat that belonged to a friend of Guy Stevens, the band's manager. The name was Procul Harun, which is Latin for "Beyond these things", but was written down incorrectly by Keith Reid. The band would say in interviews that the cat was a Burmese Blue, though all cats with the name are the Devon Rex breed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_band_name_etymologies

Or maybe not.
http://www.procolharum.com/young_cat-claude1.htm

Procol Harum — The band was named after the pedigree name of a Siamese cat that belonged to a friend of Guy Stevens, the band's manager. The name was Procul Harun, which is Latin for "Beyond these things", but was written down incorrectly by Keith Reid. The band would say in interviews that the cat was a Burmese Blue, though all cats with the name are the Devon Rex breed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_band_name_etymologies

Or maybe not.
http://www.procolharum.com/young_cat-claude1.htm




I'm surprised that they (Procol Harum) never made a song about a cat.

I however...have synchronized "Grand Hotel" (Their 1973 Album) with "Grand Hotel" (1932 Movie). It's like the whole "Dark Side of OZ" thing, except you don't start the album from beginning to end or have the album on throughout and repeat the album once it's done and the movie is going.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but isn't that a line from a Billy Bragg tune? That aside, I agree with you about the "magic".  I appreciate S&G more than ever, now that I'm old enough to "get" some of their more poetic stuff. 


If Billy Bragg's lyrics mention something similar, it's purely coincidental.  I respect Billy Bragg for carrying the torch of Leftie rocker, but I just never got into his music much.

If Billy Bragg's lyrics mention something similar, it's purely coincidental.  I respect Billy Bragg for carrying the torch of Leftie rocker, but I just never got into his music much.


Just as I thought, Max...


"New England" by Billy Bragg

I was twenty one years when I wrote this song
I'm twenty two now, but I won't be for long
People ask when will you grow up to be a man
But all the girls I loved at school
are already pushing prams

I loved you then as I love you still
Tho I put you on a pedestal,
They put you on the pill
I don't feel bad about letting you go
I just feel sad about letting you know

I don't want to change the world
I'm not looking for a new England
I'm just looking for another girl
I don't want to change the world
I'm not looking for a new England
I'm just looking for another girl

I loved the words you wrote to me
But that was bloody yesterday
I can't survive on what you send
Every time you need a friend

I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware
I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care

I don't want to change the world
I'm not looking for a new England
I'm just looking for another girl
(Looking for another girl)
(Looking for another girl)
(Looking for another gi-rl)

'Conquistador' was recorded in Alberta with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, making Procul Harum (if I researched correctly) the only British band during the 70's with a Top 40 hit to qualify as a Canadian Artist under CANCON rules.

'Conquistador' was recorded in Alberta with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, making Procul Harum (if I researched correctly) the only British band during the 70's with a Top 40 hit to qualify as a Canadian Artist under CANCON rules.


Really?

Because "Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra" album is also one of the best Live Albums Ever...IMO.

Really?

Because "Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra" album is also one of the best Live Albums Ever...IMO.


And it's not bad considering the amount of time they had to get everything ready.
According to allmusic.com:


"...Even "Conquistador," the song on which the resulting album's commercial success was built, was added at the last minute, with no time for the orchestra to rehearse the arrangement that Brooker wrote on the flight from England. They did it cold, opening the concert..."


I also wonder if any part of the final track of this recorded live performance was "enhanced" in anyway later on in the studio ??