Procol Harum - Procol Harum (1967) - Deram Records
Hello Friends,
We're skipping the light fandango tonight on Vinyl in the Valley!
Our first album to kick off another Summer of Prog Rock Saturdays is Procol Harum's self-titled, debut LP.
Now this is definitely more of a proto-prog record than the more traditional progressive rock of the likes of Yes, King Crimson or Genesis. The songs here are relatively short and digestible, and the musical arrangements are interesting, but not overly complex.
Most of the songs here follow a traditional blues structure, but with heavy Classical influences and lots of big, almost otherworldly, organ sounds playing throughout. The lyrics, too, seem to be coming from another world with loads of psychedelic, mythological (demonic?) and death-inspired imagery.
One can even make a solid argument that Procol Harum's first single and most well-known song, "A Whiter Shade of Pale", is one of the earliest examples of what would eventually become progressive rock.
"Her face at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale..."
A great song, that may or may be about a girl dying from a drug overdose or the band playing a closing number at a slow dance in some haunted netherworld, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is to the late sixties what Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" was to the late 30's & early 40's. Its instantly recognizable and familiar. There's no doubting from what era the music comes from when you hear those first few notes. If we were making a movie and wanted to flashback to a hippie party in 1967, we'd probably use "Whiter Shade"; just like if we wanted to film a slow dance scene between a WWII GI and his girl the night before he ships out, we no doubt would use a few bars of "Moonlight Serenade".
Good thing we're better at slinging back drinks than we are at making movies, kids!
"She Wandered Through The Garden Fence" is a whimsical blues that sounds a little like Steve Winwood recording a song on Piper at the Gates of Dawn (which, incidentally was released just a month before this LP!) Actually, there's a lot points on the record where the singer and pianist, Gary Brooker, sounds A LOT like Traffic-era Stevie Winwood!
Death makes another appearance on "Something Following Me", a slow, soulful blues tune about a guy wandering around 42nd Street as he keeps seeing his own "engraved marble" tombstone following him around.
The borderline-annoying "Mabel" actually sounds like something Ray Davies might have perfected a few years later on Muswell Hillbillys. "More slide-whistle!" said no one, ever.
Side One concludes with the five-minute psychedelic death trip "Cerdes (Outside the Gates Of)" which features unicorns, mermaids & some downright dirty Hammond organ playing and guitar soloing (courtesy of Matt Fisher & Robin Trower, respectively.) "Cerdes" is the Goofus to "White Shade of Pale"'s Gallant. Its dark & trippy, loose & foreboding and features non-sensical lyrics like:
Phallus Phil tries peddling his pewter painted pot
But Sousa Sam can only hear the screams of Peep the Sot
Who only sips his creme de menthe from terra cotta cups
And exhales menthol scented breath whilst spewing verbiage up
Yowsa! We'll have what he's having!
On Side Two the weirdness continues, kicking off with the sludgy, "A Christmas Camel", a song about amazon brides, Santa Claus, Arabian sheikhs and "madmen in top hats and tails impal[ing] themselves on six inch nails." Hey kids, DO NOT put this on your next Christmas Cocktail Party playlist!
The great, "Conquistador" is next. Here they are performing it on German TV in 1976.
Hail Satan!
RATING: 4 Vestal Virgins Who Were Leaving For the Coast out of 5
Most of the songs here follow a traditional blues structure, but with heavy Classical influences and lots of big, almost otherworldly, organ sounds playing throughout. The lyrics, too, seem to be coming from another world with loads of psychedelic, mythological (demonic?) and death-inspired imagery.
One can even make a solid argument that Procol Harum's first single and most well-known song, "A Whiter Shade of Pale", is one of the earliest examples of what would eventually become progressive rock.
"Her face at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale..."
A great song, that may or may be about a girl dying from a drug overdose or the band playing a closing number at a slow dance in some haunted netherworld, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is to the late sixties what Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" was to the late 30's & early 40's. Its instantly recognizable and familiar. There's no doubting from what era the music comes from when you hear those first few notes. If we were making a movie and wanted to flashback to a hippie party in 1967, we'd probably use "Whiter Shade"; just like if we wanted to film a slow dance scene between a WWII GI and his girl the night before he ships out, we no doubt would use a few bars of "Moonlight Serenade".
Good thing we're better at slinging back drinks than we are at making movies, kids!
"She Wandered Through The Garden Fence" is a whimsical blues that sounds a little like Steve Winwood recording a song on Piper at the Gates of Dawn (which, incidentally was released just a month before this LP!) Actually, there's a lot points on the record where the singer and pianist, Gary Brooker, sounds A LOT like Traffic-era Stevie Winwood!
Death makes another appearance on "Something Following Me", a slow, soulful blues tune about a guy wandering around 42nd Street as he keeps seeing his own "engraved marble" tombstone following him around.
The borderline-annoying "Mabel" actually sounds like something Ray Davies might have perfected a few years later on Muswell Hillbillys. "More slide-whistle!" said no one, ever.
Side One concludes with the five-minute psychedelic death trip "Cerdes (Outside the Gates Of)" which features unicorns, mermaids & some downright dirty Hammond organ playing and guitar soloing (courtesy of Matt Fisher & Robin Trower, respectively.) "Cerdes" is the Goofus to "White Shade of Pale"'s Gallant. Its dark & trippy, loose & foreboding and features non-sensical lyrics like:
Phallus Phil tries peddling his pewter painted pot
But Sousa Sam can only hear the screams of Peep the Sot
Who only sips his creme de menthe from terra cotta cups
And exhales menthol scented breath whilst spewing verbiage up
Yowsa! We'll have what he's having!
On Side Two the weirdness continues, kicking off with the sludgy, "A Christmas Camel", a song about amazon brides, Santa Claus, Arabian sheikhs and "madmen in top hats and tails impal[ing] themselves on six inch nails." Hey kids, DO NOT put this on your next Christmas Cocktail Party playlist!
The great, "Conquistador" is next. Here they are performing it on German TV in 1976.
The psychedelic "Kaleidoscope" and blue-eyed soulful "Salad Days (are here again)" follow and the record concludes with the satanic sounding instrumental, "Repent Walpurgis". A great, organ-heavy instrumental featuring some more bleeding Hammond organ and note-shredding guitar soloing.
This leads us to a couple of questions, were Procol Harum the first rock & roll band to employ both piano parts and organ parts into their songs? Seems like a simple enough idea now, but at the time that lineup (guitar, bass, drums, piano & organ) had to be a pretty far out concept!
Also kids, there's got to be something Satanic with this band, right? From the weird, ghostly cover art to the fucked up lyrics throughout, these guys have definitely conjured a demon or two at some point, no? Even their name, Procol Harum, loosely translates to "Beyond these things" in Latin aka the devil's language! On 1969's A Salty Dog LP, they would even record a song called, "The Devil Came From Kansas".
Well, we're convinced!
RATING: 4 Vestal Virgins Who Were Leaving For the Coast out of 5
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