Procol Harum - A & B: The Singles (Great compilation of all the PH singles)

Although Procol Harum owed their career to their initial single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale," they were never really a singles band. Annotator Chris Welch notes that the group was not a one-hit wonder, but it might be called a three-hit wonder by tossing in "Homburg" and "Conquistador" (four, if "Pandora's Box," a U.K. Top 20, is included). For the most part, Procol Harum were known for their LPs, so the idea of organizing a compilation around singles that happen to have been excerpted from those LPs, largely without the band's say-so, in one country or another, is a curious one. But A&B: The Singles, a three-CD set running just under three and three-quarter hours, manages to include most of Procol Harum's better tracks along with rarities that will intrigue fans. Of course, there are the non-LP B-sides, such as "Lime Street Blues," "Good Captain Clack," "Long Gone Geek," "Drunk Again," "Backgammon," and "Into the Flood." Then, there are foreign curios, including "Shine on Brightly" sung in Italian ("Il Tuo Diamante") and a French single with "Adagio di Albinoni" on one side and "Blue Danube" on the other. Getting into hair-splitting territory, there are singles that represent alternate takes ("Quite Rightly So," "In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence"); that have been remixed ("As Strong as Samson Is"); that have been edited for single release; or that are in mono because that's how they were released as singles. The average fan may lose interest at this level of obscurity, but the more fanatic will be engaged. And that's who this collection is aimed at: Procol Harum aficionados who have already bought most of these tracks umpteen times, but not all of them, and not necessarily in these exact forms. For those fans, this album is a godsend; for others, it will seem redundant.

Disc one:
1. A whiter shade of pale
2. Lime Street blues
3. Homeburg
4. Good Captain Clack
5. Il tuo diamente
6. Fortuna (Repent Walpurgis)
7. Quite rightly so
8. In the wee small hours of sixpence
9. Quite rightly so (alternate)
10. Rambling on
11. In the wee small hours of sixpence (alternate)
12. A salty dog
13. Long gone geek
14. The devil came from Kansas
15. Boredom
16. Whisky train (single edit)
17. Broken barricades
18. Power failure

Disc two:
1. Simple sister
2. Song for a dreamer
3. Homburg
4. Conquistador
5. Conquistador (live)
6. Luskus Delph (live)
7. A salty dog (live)
8. All this and more (live)
9. Robert's box (single edit)
10. A rum tale
11. Grand Hotel (single edit)
12. Bringing home the bacon
13. Fires (which burnt brightly)
14. A souvenir of London
15. Toujours l'amour
16. Nothing but the truth
17. Drunk again
18. Beyond the pale
19. Fresh fruit

Disc three:
1. Pandora's box
2. The piper's tune
3. The final thrust (single edit)
4. Taking the time
5. As strong as Sampson (remix)
6. The unquiet zone
7. Adagio di Albinoni
8. The blue Danube (live)
9. Wizard man
10. Backgammon
11. Something magic
12. All our dreams are sold
13. The truth won't fade away
14. A dream in ev'ry home (edit)
15. (You can't) turn back the page
16. One more time
17. Perpetual motion
18. Learn to fly
19. Into the flood

AMG Review by William Ruhlmann

Procol Harum - Something Magic (1977 Prog-Rock [final album of the 1st PH era])

When Procol Harum's ninth studio album, Something Magic, was released in March 1977, it sold poorly and was largely dismissed, with the group breaking up at the end of the promotional tour for it. With this reissue more than 30 years later, annotator Roland Clare argues it is "in need of outright reappraisal." He doesn't actually make that case, but he does explain the circumstances that led to the debacle. After its previous album, Procol's Ninth, produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Procol Harum might have been expected to go back to a more conventional approach; instead, the group hired the hot studio of the day, Criteria in Miami, and its hot resident producers, Ron and Howie Albert. When the band arrived in Florida and played the songs intended for the album, the Albert brothers threw half of them out. That left half of an album to fill, which led singer/pianist/composer Gary Brooker to turn to a parable-like poem written years earlier by his lyric partner Keith Reid, "The Worm & the Tree," and -- in a move anticipating This Is Spinal Tap -- writing a musical suite around it to fill up side two. He then recited the poem rather than actually setting it to music, creating a pretentious work just at a time when critics and fans were tiring of peers like Jethro Tull and Yes doing much the same thing. It didn't help that the songs making up side one were relatively minor Procol Harum. None of this has changed in the ensuing decades, but Clare's explanation is interesting to read; the remastered sound is terrific; and the album boasts three bonus tracks including not only the instrumental B-side "Backgammon," which has appeared elsewhere, but also previously unreleased live versions of two of the songs the Alberts rejected, "You'd Better Wait" and "This Old Dog." They do not suggest that Something Magic could have been a great or even good Procol Harum album. But they do add to an understanding of one of the more confusing chapters in the band's history.

AMG Review by William Ruhlmann

Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale (Superb Debut album from a Great Band 1967)

Procol Harum's self-titled, debut album bombed in England, appearing six months after "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Homburg" with neither hit song on it. The LP was successful in America, where albums sold more easily, but especially since it did include "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and was reissued with a sticker emphasizing the presence of the original "Conquistador," a re-recording which became a hit in 1972. The music is an engaging meld of psychedelic rock, blues, and classical influences, filled with phantasmagorical lyrics, bold (but not flashy) organ by Matthew Fisher, and Robin Trower's most tasteful and restrained guitar. "Conquistador," "Kaleidoscope," "A Christmas Camel," and the Bach-influenced "Repent Walpurgis" are superb tracks, and "Good Captain Clack" is great, almost Kinks-like fun. Not everything here works, but it holds up better than most psychedelic or progressive rock.

AMG Review by Bruce Eder

Procol Harum - Broken Barricades (1971 Superb Prog-Rock - PH's "Trower-est" Album)

Despite the departure of organist Matthew Fisher, Procol Harum survived, and this album is ample proof. Fisher was one of the prime architects of the Harum sound, and his work on such classics as "Shine on Brightly" and, of course, "Whiter Shade of Pale" underline that. Procol continued as a four-piece, and it was indeed a good thing that they decided not to replace Fisher. The sound of the band on this album is a bit sparser, but definitely not without dimension and dynamics. "Simple Sister," one of the finest Gary Brooker/Keith Reid compositions, is truly glorious, with Robin Trower's frightening lead guitar work juxtaposed nicely against a wonderful string arrangement. Several other tracks are first rate, including "Power Failure" and "Playmate of the Mouth." Along with Little Feat, Procol Harum was a great survivor among rock bands that have lost a key member. The proof is in these grooves.

AMG Review by Matthew Greenwald

Procol Harum - Procol's Ninth (1975 Prog-Rock)

For their ninth album, Procol Harum turned to production by the veteran songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller, who had written the first single ("Poison Ivy") by Procol predecessor band, the Paramounts. Though the band is in top form (especially drummer B.J. Wilson) and despite a strong start (with the exquisite "Pandora's Box," a U.K. hit), the album largely runs out of steam by side two. Too much of the Brooker and Reid material is competent rather than exciting. Likewise, Procol fails to render memorable versions of two cover songs, Leiber and Stoller's "I Keep Forgetting" or the Beatles' "Eight Days A Week." Most of this album's best material can be found on the Chrysalis Years collection. [Grand Hotel and Procol's Ninth were later re-released as Cornerstone, a budget double album.]

AMG Review by James A. Gardner

Procol Harum - Grand Hotel (1973 Prog-Rock)

Procol Harum's first album for Chrysalis, Grand Hotel, found the band returning to the grandeur of earlier works such as Shine on Brightly and Salty Dog. Robin Trower's replacement Mick Grabham is capable, even powerful, but not nearly as distinctive as his predecessor; consequently, the material tends to rely more on ornate arrangements than guitar riffs, making this somewhat more dignified than either of their previous studio albums, Home and Broken Barricades. Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid step up with strong material, notably the title track, "Toujours L'Amour," and "Fires (Which Burnt Brightly)." While the keyboard and orchestra-based arrangements harken back to earlier triumphs, the lyrics deal less with whaling stories than with social commentary; "A Souvenir of London" is about social diseases, with "T.V. Caesar" about the pervasive influence of television.

AMG Review by James A. Gardner

Procol Harum - Shine On Brightly (1967 Psychedelia)

Shine on Brightly, by the UK band Procol Harum, was released in 1968 and consolidated the success of their debut album; it was influential in the development of progressive rock by breaking all pop and rock music standards with the 17-minute epic "In Held Twas In I", which marked the beginning of the lengthy progressive rock suites that would occur later in the 1970s. The epic's title is an acroynm, putting the first word of each each movements' lyrics into it as shown: In (glimpses of nirvana pt 1) Held (glimpses of nirvana pt 2) Twas (twas teatime at the circus) In (in the autumn of my madness) I (Look to your soul). In addition, progressive rock band Transatlantic covered this song on their album SMPT:e. Their version extends glimpses of nirvana by cutting out Twas teatime at the circus.

1. "Quite Rightly So" - 3:40
2. "Shine on Brightly'" - 3:32
3. "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)" - 3:47
4. "Wish Me Well" - 3:18
5. "Rambling On" - 4:31
6. "Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)" - 2:50
7. "In Held 'Twas in I": - 17:31
   1. "Glimpses of Nirvana"
   2. "'Twas Teatime at the Circus"
   3. "In The Autumn of My Madness"
   4. "Look to Your Soul"
   5. "Grand Finale"

Procol Harum - Exotic Birds and Fruit (1974 Great Prog-Rock)

After two albums that combined progressive rock with orchestral grandeur, Procol Harum returned to the basics on this 1974 outing. This time, the accent was returned to the thick electric guitar and swirling guitar on a batch of lushly textured but driving songs that covered everything from hard rock to moody prog and even a bit of music hall comedy. In the rock category, the most memorable numbers are the opener, "Nothing but the Truth," a punchy tune that displays the group's thorough grasp of rock dynamics as it veers between metallic riffing and rollicking keyboard flourishes over a stomping beat, and "Monsieur R. Monde," a bracing mid-tempo track that punctuates its guitar-heavy attack with some infectious cowbell accents from drummer B.J. Wilson. In the progressive arena, the most interesting tunes are "The Idol," a sumptuous epic that adds layer after layer of keyboard and guitar as it tells the story of a hero's fall from grace, and "The Thin End of the Wedge," an avant-garde tune that highlights Mick Grabham's guitar work as it creates a surreal, gothic atmosphere. Other memorable tunes include "Beyond the Pale," a tune about the search for the Holy Grail that mixes pop hooks with a Germanic folk song feel, and "Exotic Fruit," an amusing song that extols the virtues of its titular subject over a bouncy English music hall melody. It's a diverse group of songs and styles, but the group delivers them with aplomb and energy, and the album is further bolstered by a sumptuous, consistent Chris Thomas production that makes sure everything blends together smoothly. As a result, Exotic Birds and Fruit is one of Procol Harum's finest efforts of the '70s.

AMG Review by Donald A. Guarisco

Procol Harum - A Salty Dog (Great Prog-Rock album 1969)

This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range, A Salty Dog was recorded in a reasonable amount of time, giving the band a chance to fully develop their ideas. The title track is one of the finest songs ever to come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock ever heard, and a very succinct example at that at under five minutes running time -- the lyric and the music combine to form a perfect mood piece, and the performance is bold and subtle at once, in the playing and the singing, respectively. The range of sounds on the rest includes "Juicy John Pink," a superb piece of pre-World War II-style country blues, while "Crucifiction Lane" is a killer Otis Redding-style soul piece, and "Pilgrim's Progress" is a virtuoso keyboard workout. [A Salty Dog was reissued by Repertoire Records in 1997 with enhanced sound and the lost B-side "Long Gone Geek," a Robin Trower guitar workout par excellence.]

AMG Review by Bruce Eder