Procol Harum 40th Anniversary Special Collectors Edition Album Release

Jonw

40TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTORS EDITION OF PROCOL HARUMS DEBUT ALBUM WAS RELEASED APRIL 13TH AND
FEATURES 11 BONUS TRACKS

Salvo/Fly Records Reissued classic Procol Harum debut album expanded and remastered on April 13th 2009

Their music was a particularly majestic hybrid. Keith Reid’s expansive, highly cinematic lyrics crowned an instantly identifiable sound. Strong R ‘n’ B influences were integrated with classical themes. Gary Brooker’s blue-eyed soul vocals were accompanied by a hallmark dual keyboard sound (a Steinway grand piano and a Hammond organ), bluesy guitar playing, rock-inspired percussionand melodic bass lines, forming the essence of a uniquely British ensemble.

Salvo, in association with Fly Records, have enlisted the assistance of songwriters and band mainstays Gary Brooker and Keith Reid in presenting the Procol Harum’s early albums as a part of their meticulously produced 40th Anniversary Series. Procol’s classic recordings are to be collated chronologically for the first time accompanied by copious bonus tracks - including previously unreleased masters - and generous, highly detailed booklets.

A wonderful album that built on the lavish promise of their first two singles, which weren’t originally included, and proved very influential in its own right, Procol Harum’s eponymous long-playing debut is here augmented by the inclusion of the timeless A Whiter Shade Of Pale, the follow-up smash Homburg and a variety of rare and previously unreleased cuts selected by Gary Brooker.

If any song can be said to encapsulate an era - to immediately conjure up the sights, sounds and smells of a particular time - then ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ is surely that song. For a whole generation AWSOP remains the emblematic anthem of that Summer of Love. And even now, 40 years on, the song remains a haunting tale of mystery and imagination.

Thanks to the extraordinary success of AWSOP, the recording of the album had to be staggered, slotted in between a hectic round of one-nighters all over the UK. And when it hit No.5 in the US during the summer of 1967, transatlantic travel had to be factored in too. After such an interrupted gestation it would not have been at all surprising if the LP had lacked continuity, but in fact Procol Harum is a remarkably cohesive record. The foundations for a whole school of specifically English rock music were laid by AWSOP and by the tracks on this album.

Even the album’s cover managed to capture the spirit of the times. Drawn in the style of Aubrey Beardsley, the illustration was perfectly in keeping with the faux-Victorian flavour established by Sgt Pepper and here we have used the rare pink Italian version.

Procul Harum – Tracklisting
Conquistador
She Wandered Through the Garden Fence
Something Following Me
Mabel
Cerdes (outside the gates of)
A Christmas Camel
Kaleidoscope
Salad Days (are here again)
Good Captain Clack
Repent Walpurgis

Bonus Material

A Whiter Shade Of Pale
Lime Street Blues
Homburg (single version)
Good Captain Clack (single version)
Il Tuo Diamante (Italian single promo version)
Understandably Blue (stereo)
Pandora’s Box (version 1: backing track) (stereo)
Alpha (stereo)
Conquistador (stereo)
She Wandered Through The garden Fence (stereo)
Homburg (album version) (stereo)

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