April 2, 2023
"I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story,” he continued. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene."
Said Keith Reid, quoted in "Keith Reid, Who Brought Poetry to Procol Harum, Dies at 76/His impressionistic lyrics, as in the hit song 'A Whiter Shade of Pale,' helped make the band one of the leading acts of the progressive-rock era" (NYT).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
20 comments:
Just yuck to the entire concept of prog rock.
“One of 16 Vestal virgins.”
I didn't much like the band's other music (I have, in fact, listened to all their albums by this point in time). However, that one song is one of my all time favorites. Loved it the first time I heard it on the radio over 40 years ago.
If my math is right, Keith wrote Whiter Shade of Pale when he was 21. People seemed accomplished at younger ages back in the day.
Great song. Superb when accompanied by a symphonic orchestra.
I guess he'll take the secret of its meaning to the grave with him. I've been listening to that song for over fifty years now without any understanding of what it's about. I guess the words resonate with the mystery of existence or the need to order a whiter shade of ale in rough seas when your stomach is upset. The meaning of existence is elusive, but it must have some meaning. Maybe the vestal virgins are better informed as to its significance.
My sister chimes in, “the music people/icons of one’s past begin dying at an accelerated rate with the passage of time…”
I tell her, it ain’t so simple, sister!
Whatever but, the only version of the song I enjoyed was King Curtis at the Filmore in SF. A great saxophone replaced the boomer treacle lyrics.
Mood was certainly conjured. I don't think there is any other song that so thoroughly slams me back into particular college memories and emotions. The longing for those days just guts me when I hear this song.
It's pop music people, the lyrics don't have to make sense. (Although I favor my own interpretation--rock guy and groupie have had too much drugs for sex; a nice irony set to Bach.)
so, the hit song 'A Whiter Shade of Pale,' helped make the band one of the leading acts of the progressive-rock era?
one of the leading acts of the progressive rock era?
even gilbar, has heard of "a whiter shade of pale", it's on movie sound tracks of some old era..
BUT, as Al Smith would say: Let's Take a Look, at the Record
That song was on their first album.. That song, was apparently the first song recorded.
It did very well, and took the album with it. It looks like some of their other albums broke into the top 100 for a time..
Can Any of you people think of 2 other songs they had? I'll bet you can. You Geezers are THE demographic for this band.
Is gilbar implying, that this band was The Most Overrated Band, of ALL Time?
If Course not! There have been Plenty of one hit wonders.. but Not MANY that are called
"one of the leading acts of an era"
It has been called The Perfect Song. There are two more verses but I don’t know if they ever put them on a recording. They did however play them in some live concerts. Unfortunately, they don’t add any additional meaning.
My understanding is that is about a woman breaking up with a man, and man does not know why nor is he given an explanation. She said, there is no reason. And the truth is plain to see. In other words: If you don’t know I am not going to tell you.
Trivia question: What popular song has a Chaucer reference?
Another song of theirs that pops into my head is Conquistador. But it's spoiled for me, a student of Spanish, by the idiotic British pronunciation Con-kwist-a-dor.
When I was in high school, my aunt took me to see the play Don Juan, put on by a British troupe. And damned if they didn't pronounce it Don JOO-an. What's wrong with those people?
I somehow forgot to mention that I was living in Edmonton at the time Procol Harem recorded the live album with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. We really wanted to go but procrastinated until it was sold out. I'm still bummed out about that.
Same song, WSP! Miller's Tale in Canterbury Tales vol 2
Same song, WSP. The Millers YTale appears in vol. 2 of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Prog rock flamed out for me with the genre-bending symphonic additives (some people love them).
The Millers Tale is a farce about a cheating wife and her clueless husband.
Sting did an album titled Ten Summoner's Tales
This is one of the songs, the other being House of the Rising Sun, that YouTube algorithms seem to default to if enough music of any genre, any era is randomly clicked. Try it out. Start with Mozart or Willie Nelson or Jeff Beck or the Sex Pistols or Taylor Swift. Within a dozen songs randomly selected from the suggested offerings on each song, this one appears. Uncanny.
Post a Comment