BRIEF SUMMARY

Hands up everyone who remembers ‘A whiter shade of Pale’. OK, so probably slightly more than those of you who believe we landed on the moon in 1969. For a band who probably had more memory in their Hammond organ than NASA did as they attempted to land a tin can upright on a rocky outcrop, I suspect it was a rope that eventually hung them.

I had a good friend who love ‘Whiter shade’. I loved him almost as much as I hated the song. So, if like me, you enter the Harum song tent with about as much interest as a chicken has in a foxes lair, sit tight, because you are about to be transformed…..it isn’t what you think it is. Get down to the music review and find out more.

Procol Harum - Procol Harum

£32.00

TITLE: Procol Harum

ARTIST: Procol Harum

LABEL: Stateside

CAT NO: SSSX 340.600

RELEASED: 1968

FORMAT: Vinyl LP album

COUNTRY: France

GENRE: Rock

VINYL: Ex

LABEL: Ex

COVER: VG+
Side 1

Homburg

She wandered through the garden fence

Something following me

Mabel

Cerdes (outside the gates of)

Side 2

A Christmas camel

Kaleidoscope

Salad days (are here again)

Conquistador

Repent walpurgis
Fortunately (for me), this version (released in France in 1968, a year after the LP was originally released), does not contain their most famous hit (it was only added for the American version and it replaced Homburg as the first track). And much the better it is for it. For it allows each song to sit upright and be listened to in the manner in which it was designed. Or as the sleeve notes informs us ‘to be listened to in the spirit in which it was made’.

Keith Reid (wordsmith but uncredited in the band line up on the sleeve), is on record as saying this is ‘the most brilliant assembled debut album’. Well, we all have the most attractive partner at home don’t we Keith?

It is certainly hard to think this was released in 1967. Grand, triumphant, epic, indulgent may be a few words used to describe it at various points. ‘Your multi-lingual, business friend’ isn’t your usual start to Side A track 1 for any record, but probably sets the tone for what to expect.

Harum definitely produced a unique ‘sound’. You need to take it all in. It is dominated by Matthew Fisher’s organ play in my view, but you need to focus on the whole sound and the variety on here is worthy of many listens. For many of a certain age, they will forever be remembered for one song. For those of you with slightly more curiosity, this offering will open up the caverns to something so much more fulfilling and certainly with more depth.

Vinyl Seconds

Procol Harum - Procol Harum

ALBUM INFORMATION

CONDITION DESCRIPTION

TRACKS

MUSIC REVIEW