In 1967 Procol Harum emerged from the ashes of a modest Southend beat team to attain an all-time best-selling unmarried. However as an alternative of milking A Whiter Colour Of Faded, their debut album wove epic fantasies right into a proto-prog vintage. We explored the tale with the overdue Gary Brooker in 2012.
When your first unmarried is among the maximum lauded in historical past, there’s an opportunity it could possibly overshadow no longer simply your impressed debut album, however all your next profession. Gary Brooker, who co-wrote and sang A Whiter Colour Of Faded for Procol Harum, isn’t one to moan, alternatively.
“I feel any one would feel free to have this sort of good fortune,” he shrugs. You’d assume so, however musicians in similar eventualities generally tend to whine. Brooker’s no longer having that: “Oh no,” he says. “All at once, the whole lot was once to be had. It was once most effective ever a dream to visit The united states originally of 1967. I’d believe taking part in in San Francisco, however I didn’t in point of fact even know the place San Francisco was once! However inside a couple of months, there we had been. So it opened numerous doorways…”
As did Procol Harum, their first album, which laid one of the crucial basis stones of what was once to change into modern, or symphonic, rock – despite the fact that Brooker thinks of it most commonly as “fashionable blues for its time, incessantly with a depressing edge.” Recorded after the stratospheric good fortune of A Whiter Colour Of Faded, its unique liberate didn’t come with that one-off wreck, and gross sales suffered. Wasn’t {that a} unusual choice?
“I’d fully consider you – these days,” says Brooker. “Actually, even a 12 months later, I’d have. However the level was once, that had bought monumental numbers. I will have to assume that everyone – I’m no longer exaggerating, everyone – had it. So we felt it might be dishonest folks to cause them to purchase it once more. That was once our common sense. It made best possible sense on the time.”
More than a few reissues through the years, or even of-the-time releases in different territories, have had the track-listing meddled with, incessantly together with the underrated follow-up unmarried Homburg too; however it’s the band’s unique, natural debut album we’ll speak about right here. “I’ve to forged my thoughts again 44 years,” says Brooker, “however I gave it a concentrate this morning and I heard so much in it, bearing in mind…”
By way of ‘bearing in mind,’ he way the manufacturing. “You need to see thru it – it’s disappointing. For some reason why, it got here out in mono. Which, as stereo have been round for a couple of years, is difficult to imagine! One can blame Denny Cordell, the manufacturer, for that. And the four-track system. So there are boundaries, simply within the sound of it.
“The guitar solo in Kaleidoscope turns out to have were given totally misplaced. When you’ll pay attention Robin Trower’s solos they’re completely magnificent, ground-breaking. We had been reside within the studio: he’d be blasting it out, BJ Wilson can be thrashing like an octopus in a tub – we had been doing issues there that individuals hadn’t performed sooner than. So there have been top issues…”
There without a doubt had been. From the dramatic opening gambit of Conquistador (re-recorded with a symphony orchestra, a success in ’72 – even though Brooker wrote it with The Seaside Boys in thoughts), during the surprisingly warped rock of One thing Following Me and Cerdes (Out of doors The Gates Of), to the epic instrumental early set-closer Repent Walpurgis, it fuses riffs, bass traces, classical tropes and psychedelic detours, plus surrealist lyrics, right into a pulsating, prescient complete.
More than likely only a 12 months sooner than, one thing like Frank Ifield have been primary. Procol Harum appeared very, very other
“It wasn’t standard,” says Brooker. “Neither had been we. The place the arena was once at was once ‘smiling beat bands,’ and it without a doubt didn’t have that surroundings. More than likely only a 12 months sooner than, one thing like Frank Ifield have been primary. Procol Harum appeared very, very other. That’s how issues felt. We had been moodier. We had been excited about it.”
The album’s genesis was once about Brooker and Keith Reid “getting in combination a number of musicians. We had an idea of what we would have liked: bluesy guitar, bass and drums, a Hammond organ, then me on piano and making a song.” After reducing his tooth as a Southend teen taking part in with The Paramounts (seven singles; excursions with the Stones and The Beatles), Brooker had ‘retired’ at 21 to change into a songwriter. “I’d been bashing round within the van at the highway for years. I’d retired from lively accountability to sit down on the piano.”
Offered to lyricist Reid via manufacturer Man Stevens, the pair clicked right away as an inventive unit. Demoing their new songs, they realised Brooker was once the most efficient guy to sing them. They had been the core of a brand new band sooner than they knew it; Brooker’s retirement was once short-lived.
With a reputation advised via Stevens in honour of a pal’s blue Persian cat (the cat’s title was once a misspelling of the Latin word for “past this stuff” – Procul Harun), they sought avid gamers with influences starting from Booker T & The MG’s to Dylan to Bach and Tchaikovsky. It took two or 3 months, however musicians had been decided on, and the debut unmarried were given them off to a flyer.
I advised BJ Wilson and Robin Trower… Everybody realised they had been nice. I’d identified that anyway
The album was once smartly below means, however “we determined that it wasn’t moderately hitting it,” Brooker remembers. “It wasn’t gelling in positive spaces.” So adjustments had been made. “We’d already auditioned numerous folks. Some had became out to be heroin addicts; all types of issues. So I advised BJ Wilson as drummer and Robin Trower as guitarist, either one of whom I’d performed with in The Paramounts. Everybody realised they had been nice. I’d identified that anyway, however hadn’t sought after to mention, ‘I’ve discovered the men, take it or depart it!’”
The road-up was once finished with bassist David Knights and Hammond participant Matthew Fisher (credited as sole creator of Repent Walpurgis and a person who, at the side of Brooker, probably is aware of one thing concerning the trivialities of writing credit after the notorious felony case relating to his contribution to A Whiter Colour Of Faded). They went again into the studio and re-recorded the whole lot. And so a 60s landmark ensued?
“Other folks generalise about ‘the 60s.’ It was once 10 years. However ’67 was once a landmark… issues did alternate. Like the angle of younger bands developing the track. Was once all of it lengthy hair, medicine and Carnaby Side road? Smartly, sure, it was once! It was once a part of existence in that generation.
“What we idea may just paintings changed into other. The construction blocks got here from my influences of rock, blues, classical, the whole lot – but if we had been requested what ‘kind’ of track it was once, we stated, ‘Smartly, it’s our track.’ That was once the one resolution there was once!
We determined we’d do an 18-minute-long semi-connected suite – ‘the good paintings,’ we referred to as it
“‘Modern’ rock was once a identify that was once made up a few years later. I’m no longer positive who was once the primary to be in truth referred to as that. Nevertheless it did contain much more motion and idea concerning the chords and the bass traces. And I feel that’s glaring from this album.”
Brooker reveals if arduous to mention whether or not he spotted its affect on others. “We went to The united states: the album was once very large there. They weren’t all that fascinated about A Whiter Colour Of Faded – they cherished those songs. I’ve met musicians through the years who’ve stated it in point of fact woke them up. For those who’ve were given any individual who has a distinct means of doing issues and has a large off-the-wall hit, I’m positive others idea: ‘Smartly, we’ll check out doing that!’
“I used to be striking my classical influences in, little quotes right here and there, which bolstered it. On our 2nd album, A Salty Canine, we determined we’d do an 18-minute-long semi-connected suite – ‘the good paintings,’ we referred to as it. Sound results; an orchestra. That was once very strange on the time, and after that King Purple and Sure confirmed you’ll do the rest…”
Reid’s lyrics had been additionally strange, exhibiting a choice to open up doorways of belief. Other folks nonetheless debate their which means. Take a look at A Christmas Camel, which provides no longer most effective ‘some Arabian sheikh maximum grand impersonates a hot-dog stand,’ but additionally ‘some Arabian oil smartly impersonates a padded mobile.’
One of the crucial nice minds have contemplated over what they imply, those ‘arduous to know’ lyrics – however they’re simple
“Don’t omit I get started that one with, ‘My Amazon six-triggered bride…’” Brooker issues out. “They had been difficult, sure, however that’s what I appreciated about them. Other, sure; but I understood all of the colors, the photographs. The entirety about them rang a chord with me. I didn’t in finding it bizarre. On mirrored image, how on Earth are you able to get started a tune making a song about your Amazon six-triggered bride? Or sing, ‘Out of doors the gates of Cerdes sits the two-pronged unicorn’?
“I wouldn’t say I understood them, within the sense of seeing precisely what was once being stated, however in Keith’s phrases there have been numerous references to mysterious ladies. There’s incessantly a mysterious lady concerned.”
Was once such subject material more difficult to sing than ‘ooh child child…’? “The query isn’t was once it tough, however was once it in truth a stroke of genius with the intention to sing the ones issues and cause them to plausible? I’m being conceited right here, however I made the ones issues sound like: ‘Yeah, right here’s a lyric, right here’s a tune.’
“When Keith gave me One thing Following Me, I simply idea: ‘Smartly, it’s the blues.’ This man’s were given an issue, however it’s no longer that he aroused from sleep this morning and his automotive had long gone. It’s simply that this man’s tombstone is following him in all places and he’s proper at the edge. One of the crucial nice minds have contemplated over what they imply, those ‘arduous to know’ lyrics – however they’re simple additionally.”
Robin Trower says he hasn’t heard the album for many years and “by no means in point of fact listens to any bands of the modern rock style.” He does recall: “The classes for that album had been comfortable and amusing, and the combo of avid gamers labored rather well, with everybody slotting in simply. I in finding Keith’s lyrics very hypnotic, and Gary got here up with very good complementary track for them. I don’t assume I may just undergo to hear it these days although, as I do know I’d be unsatisfied with my guitar taking part in.”
It was once a semi-conscious bid to do one thing that wasn’t being performed
Brooker isn’t. He praises Knight’s bass (“improbable”), highlights the contrasts (“Mabel was once gentle aid between all of the drama”) and says that once Procol Harum play reside now, and 20-year-olds name out for She Wandered Via The Lawn Fence, part of him thinks, ‘Oh, it was once price it…’
Only the start of a profession that’s been so a lot more than the bridal educate of A Whiter Colour Of Faded, that debut document – a prog first light – has been praised via everybody from Jimmy Web page to Elton John. Paul McCartney would deliver the opposite 3 Beatles and Pete Townshend to look Procol Harum play.
“They appreciated what we had been doing,” says Brooker. “From the writing viewpoint, it was once a semi-conscious bid to do one thing that wasn’t being performed, and most likely everyone else picked up on that.”
