Procol Harum

Track	Single / Album
A Whiter Shade Of Pale	Deram DM 126
Homburg	Regal Zonophone RZ 3003
Shine On Brightly	Shine On Brightly
A Salty Dog	A Salty Dog
Whisky Train	Home
Barnyard Story	Home
Simple Sister	Broken Barricades
Conquistador	Live with Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
Grand Hotel	Grand Hotel
Pandora’s Box	Procol's Ninth

1970 photo by David Bailey for the ‘Home’ LP insert l-r Keith Reid (lyrics), Robin Trower (guitar), BJ Wilson (drums), Chris Copping (bass, organ), Gary Brooker (vocals, piano)

 

 

Procol Harum playlist

 

 

Contributor: Mike Press

The Unsung Pioneers of Progressive Rock

Now, here’s the thing: at the time of writing over 1,140 artists and bands have been featured on Toppermost, but the band responsible for one of the most famous, iconic songs in popular music is not among them. Procol Harum remains strangely, almost criminally underappreciated.

Their 1967 debut single, A Whiter Shade of Pale, is recognised as a defining moment not just of the psychedelic era, of the so-called summer of love, but of pop music in general. The song not only got to number 1 on the UK charts, but nearly 60 years later is reckoned to be the most played record of the past 80 years, has been covered by over 900 other artists, and is one of only thirty singles to have sold over 10 million copies worldwide. John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Wilson were all fans of a record that was joint winner of the Best British Pop Single 1952–1977 at the first ever BRIT Awards.

But Procol Harum were no one-hit wonders. The band went on to produce a rich and diverse body of work that blended rock, classical, blues, and progressive elements. Indeed, they laid the key foundations for the progressive and underground music of the period.

Their sound was unique and brought the following elements together. First, they had a double keyboard sound, with Gary Brooker on piano and Matthew Fisher’s Hammond Organ giving them a very distinctive musical identity. Second, Fisher’s often classically inspired playing – which comes to the fore on their debut single made them one of the first bands to bridge the gap between rock and classical music, creating a sound that was both grandiose and deeply emotional. Their collaborations with orchestras built on this further.

Third, they were one of the first bands to stretch out from the confines of the three-minute song. Unlike most of their so-called progressive contemporaries, Procol Harum focused on strong songwriting and poetic lyricism to make this work, thanks to lyricist Keith Reid, who was a full-time member of the band despite not playing an instrument. His words were often surreal, melancholic, or darkly humorous, adding a unique depth to their music.

Finally, while they were a key influence on bands such as Genesis, Yes, and King Crimson, unlike them they retained a bluesy, soulful core to their music. Founding guitarist Robin Trower’s playing was vital in this regard, but perhaps most significant was frontman Gary Brooker’s powerful vocals. His soulful expressive voice was without equal in the British R&B scene of that period, which he retained throughout his life.

Procol Harum was one of the first bands I discovered as a teenager exploring music. Their 1970 album Home helped to begin my vinyl buying. Shortly after this, their first two albums were released on a budget label, which I added to my collection. I was there sitting on the floor at Dunstable Civic Hall when they played in 1974, promoting their epic album Grand Hotel and continued to enjoy their music for another year or so.

Their 1975 album Procol’s Ninth saw them moving towards a more stripped-back, R&B-influenced sound, possibly in response to changing trends. Procol Harum disbanded in 1977 when punk was at its peak, but not necessarily because of it. Probably more a result of creative exhaustion: they had taken some brilliant musical and lyrical ideas to a conclusion.

The band reformed and toured with a variety of line ups at various points from 1991, and released three albums during this latter period. Gary Brooker’s death in 2022 drew a permanent line under Procol Harum.

 

Poetic, Surreal and Gothic

Much so-called progressive rock of the period has, to be honest, not aged particularly well, largely due to its lyrical quality. By contrast, Procol Harum approached lyricism with a real sense of poetic elegance and mystery. Their songs fused melancholic grandeur, literary ambition, and atmospheric beauty. Keith Reid’s lyrics frequently explored themes of loss, fate, morality, and surreal experiences.

While Reid wasn’t strictly a gothic lyricist in the sense of writing horror or macabre themes, his work contained gothic elements, particularly in its dark romanticism, sense of decay, and tragic grandeur – A Salty Dog evokes a doomed maritime journey, Simple Sister has a sinister, vengeful tone, while Grand Hotel paints a picture of faded decadence and decaying European aristocracy. As such, I always feel that Grand Hotel is the beautifully crafted and decadent death march of progressive rock.

For those unfamiliar with Procol Harum beyond their biggest hit, here are ten essential songs that showcase their range, ambition, and lasting influence.

 

Johann Sebastian Bach never performed with Ray Charles, but if he had done, then it would probably have sounded much like A Whiter Shade Of Pale. It is perhaps dangerous to attempt to analyse why any particular song becomes timelessly iconic, but I’ll give it a go.

One of the song’s most striking features is its haunting organ melody, played by Matthew Fisher. The Bach-like structure of the organ part has baroque elements, but is far from being a direct lift from Bach. Indeed, Fisher’s unique contribution to the song led to a protracted legal case over the song’s authorship which was eventually settled by crediting him as a co-writer.

Brooker’s slow, stately chord progression, creates a sense of grandeur and melancholy. Yet, despite its classical influences, the song also has deep roots in rhythm and blues. Gary Brooker’s vocal delivery is soulful and expressive, giving the song its emotional weight.

This combination of baroque structure and bluesy vocal phrasing was groundbreaking at the time, helping to set Procol Harum apart from the more psychedelic and blues-based British rock bands of the era. Then, of course, there are the lyrics.

Reid himself has stated that the song was not written with a single narrative in mind but rather as an impressionistic series of images and emotions. It takes in fandangos, cartwheels, seasickness and a baying crowd – and that’s just in the first four lines. The intentional ambiguity, but richness of imagery allows listeners to project their own emotions and experiences onto the song, which is what has made A Whiter Shade Of Pale so enduring. Love, loss, intoxication, the passage of time, existential despair, religious imagery, and literary allusion – it’s all there for us to mix and match with our own lives.

As I was writing this Toppermost, I asked folk on Substack what the song meant to them. Some people replied to say they liked it, while for others it was significant in their lives. Margaret explained: “It was the recessional music at my wedding. Chosen because my dad loves it and my husband’s aunt was playing the organ. Instantly takes me back to a very happy day.” While Deryck has a somewhat different association: “I’m slightly conflicted by it – a friend used to use it to mock my lightweight nature when it came to teenage drinking (‘Deryck’s gone all golden oldie’). It is a beautiful piece of music though.”

 

The band that created A Whiter Shade Of Pale was only half formed. Gary Brooker had been in a Southend R&B band the Paramounts, who for a time were Sandie Shaw’s backing band. Brooker and Reid aimed to set up as songwriters, but very quickly realised that if they wanted their songs performed, then they were going to have to do it themselves. Procol Harum began life with Matthew Fisher from Screaming Lord Sutch’s band and a session drummer. The recording of Homburg brought former Paramounts BJ Thomas (drums) and Robin Trower (guitar) into the band.

Following up A Whiter Shade Of Pale was never going to be easy, but Homburg proved that Procol Harum had depth and staying power. With its elegant piano and organ interplay, melancholic atmosphere, and cryptic lyrics, it expanded on the themes of their debut while introducing a more introspective, brooding quality.

The song charted well in the UK and Europe but wasn’t as big in the US, leading to the band becoming something of a cult favourite rather than mainstream stars. Homburg remains one of their finest compositions, with Reid’s dreamlike storytelling showing early signs of the literary ambition that would be developed further over the coming years.

 

The Shine On Brightly album from which this is the title track is recognised as one of the pioneering works of progressive rock, the centrepiece of which is the five-part piece In Held ‘Twas In I. Often overlooked by this seventeen-minute epic, the title track is a sparkling gem that demonstrates how Reid’s ever evolving songwriting ambitions and the musicality of the new lineup were pushing Procol Harum into new territories.

One of the most striking aspects of Shine On Brightly is its dramatic, larger-than-life quality. The opening piano chords and powerful vocal delivery from Gary Brooker make it feel almost like an aria from a rock opera – one of Brooker’s most impassioned and emotional performances.

Reid’s lyrics are particularly imaginative and evocative, blending existential longing with surreal, almost hallucinatory imagery. The opening lines – “My Prussian blue electric clock’s alarm bell rings, it will not stop” – immediately transport the listener into a bizarre, dreamlike world, where time and perception seem unstable. The lyrics describe a character losing touch with reality, possibly hinting at madness, altered consciousness, or spiritual revelation.

The song’s complex structure, shifting moods, and heightened emotional drama make it one of the earliest examples of a true prog-rock anthem. Although uncredited, much of the production on the album was by Tony Visconti.

 

And so we move from one album title song and prog rock anthem to another. One of their most critically acclaimed songs, A Salty Dog is an orchestral, cinematic masterpiece that perfectly fuses rock with classical influences, and was the band’s first of many collaborations with an orchestra. Inspired by sea shanties and maritime imagery, the song is both nostalgic and deeply emotional, with lush string arrangements, penned by Brooker, enhancing its epic feel.

The nautical theme and sweeping grandeur of A Salty Dog helped define Procol Harum’s artistic ambition, influencing later progressive rock bands to think beyond traditional rock structures. Many fans and critics consider this their greatest song after A Whiter Shade Of Pale. The song operates on multiple levels: it can be taken literally as a grand sea tale, metaphorically as a reflection on fate and human struggle, or spiritually as a journey toward transcendence. The sweeping orchestral arrangements and Brooker’s dramatic vocal delivery heighten the sense of epic grandeur, making it one of Procol Harum’s most haunting and poetic works. The album was produced by Matthew Fisher who left the band shortly afterwards, to be replaced by Chris Copping.

 

By early 1970 a succession of lineup changes culminated in all members being former Paramounts. In February 1970, they entered Abbey Road studios to work on their album Home. Produced by Chris Thomas (Beatles, Roxy Music, Sex Pistols, etc) who stayed with them through until 1974, this was the start of their ‘golden period’ when the band made some truly outstanding work. Home (1970) and Broken Barricades (1971) are perhaps their best albums.

The shift in lineup and growing confidence in Robin Trower as a songwriter and occasional singer brought the guitar to the fore in terms of arrangements, and broadened the band’s stylistic range. Home’s opening song Whisky Train is a Trower/Reid composition and a raucous, bluesy departure from their usual sound, driven by Trower’s guitar riff and a tight, funky rhythm section.

 

Barnyard Story opens side two of the Home LP and stands as a forgotten masterpiece of melancholy. Again, it demonstrates the range of styles on the album and stands as one of their most haunting and underrated songs. This is a beautifully stripped-down, deeply introspective piece, relying on Brooker’s mournful piano and emotive vocals. The song’s beauty lies in its simplicity and emotional depth – it feels like a dark, gothic lullaby, with a stark quality that creates a quietly devastating piece of music.

Lyrically, Keith Reid presents one of his most fatalistic visions, one of despair. This is conveyed by an unusually vulnerable Brooker vocal. The music is sparse with no grand climax or orchestration.

 

The opening track on the band’s 1971 album Broken Barricades is one of their most powerful songs, and probably owes a great deal to excellent production by Chris Thomas. Distinctive orchestral ‘stabs’ fill out the sound, along with Trower’s intense riff-heavy guitar work and BJ Wilson’s thunderous drumming.

Apart from A Whiter Shade Of Pale and Barnyard Story, BJ Wilson plays drums on all ten songs here, but it is perhaps on Simple Sister that his unique artistry can be best appreciated. So, as a drummer, how good was he? Let me hand over to Jimmy Page:

“There was nobody to touch him. He almost orchestrated with his drumming…with his uniqueness on the kit. And that’s what he had. He was very special indeed. There was nobody in the world that could drum like BJ Wilson.”

Until Robert Plant walked in with John Bonham, Wilson was Page’s first choice as drummer for Led Zeppelin. He was that good. You can hear him play on Joe Cocker’s With A Little Help From My Friends and on Lou Reed’s Berlin album. In a band that emphasised its lyrical depth, Gary Brooker describes why BJ Wilson was a perfect fit:

“He interpreted, in a very subtle way, the lyrical content. He was always listening. I could see in his face that’s what he was playing along to: the lyrics. He wasn’t playing along with the bass player, which is probably what most drummers do. They think that’s what their job is. He knew that the real job of the drummer is to play with the vocalist.”

It’s worth listening to this track simply as a masterclass in drumming, with subtle tempo shifts, rolling fills, and perfectly placed accents. But, of course, there’s far more to the song than this. There is the outstandingly varied and fluid guitar work by Robin Trower which adds texture to the song and displays musical ambitions that were fulfilled after the album’s completion by Trower leaving the band and forming his own power trio.

Keith Reid’s lyrics in Simple Sister are more direct and confrontational than his usual surreal or poetic approach. The song is about control, oppression, or possibly abuse. It is a powerfully dark piece of gothic horror.

 

According to John Peel, combining rock and classical music is like grafting a tomato plant onto a cricket bat. The nation’s favourite and legendary DJ was no fan of orchestral experimentation, and listening to Deep Purple’s concerto for group and orchestra suggests that he had a fair point. Rock and orchestras is very much a Marmite combination, but whether you love them or loathe them, the album that this track is from is probably the best of its type.

By the early 1970s, Procol Harum was seen as a one hit wonder in the UK – but regarded as a lauded pioneer of prog in North America. The album Procol Harum Live: In Concert With The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra reached number five on the US Billboard chart, but barely troubled the lower reaches of the UK top 50.

Originally recorded in 1967 for their debut album, Conquistador took on a whole new life when the band performed it with an orchestra. Unlike the more restrained original, this symphonic reinterpretation transforms the song into a majestic, dramatic epic, reinforcing its themes of triumph, tragedy, and historical grandeur.

Gary Brooker wrote the orchestral arrangements (which according to one account he penned on the plane while flying to the gig) that give the song the feeling of the soundtrack to a lost historical epic, complete with rising tension and dramatic peaks. Musically it is a little over-embellished and over-dramatised in places – but it is progressive rock after all!

What’s interesting, and significant, is that while others tended to simply layer orchestration onto existing songs, Brooker reimagined the piece, allowing the orchestra to function as an integral, driving force rather than just a decorative element. The best selling of all the band’s albums, its success led to concerts with the London Philharmonic at the Rainbow, and the LA Symphony Orchestra.

 

Personnel changes brought in Mick Grabham on guitar, and a lineup that would remain settled until the band’s demise later in the decade. The musical tension between Trower and Brooker was replaced with a greater stylistic coherence, with Grabham’s playing being less powerful, but more suited to new directions.

Grand Hotel, the title track from their 1973 album, is one of their most ambitious, dramatic, and evocative pieces of work. Brooker had clearly drawn some lessons and inspiration from his success with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Sweeping orchestration, waltz-like rhythms, and rich lyrical detail captures a world of European decadence, nostalgia, and faded aristocracy. There are dynamic shifts in the song as it moves between intimate moments and dramatic flourishes. Again, we seem to be in the territory of a film soundtrack. The song ebbs and flows like an elegant ballroom dance. Like just about every song that the band wrote, the lyrics give the listener much to mull over and try to interpret. The song is ambiguous in its message – is it celebrating an era of elegance, mocking it, or mourning it? The answer seems to be a mix of all three.

Again, Chris Thomas is behind the mixing desk, shoehorning his production duties here between those of Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure and John Cale’s Paris 1919. Indeed, the latter album which features the UCLA Symphony Orchestra owes much to Procol Harum’s orchestral collaborations.

The track stands as one of Procol Harum’s most successful songs in musical terms. There is an ambition and musicianship that is exemplary, matched with a vivid piece of Reid storytelling. The song showcases their ability to weave together band and orchestra in a way that feels seamless rather than forced. In contrast with others furthering their symphonic ambitions at this time, the emphasis is on witty operatic flourish rooted in the story being told rather than long tedious solos.

We hear echoes of this song in 10cc’s One Night In Paris and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, and therefore it stands as a significant feature in the landscape of 1970s rock – and indeed in our culture: the song apparently inspired Douglas Adams to write “The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe”, the second book in his “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” series. Oh, and I forgot to say … there’s a rather large choir involved too.

 

Choirs were going out of fashion by 1975. And orchestras. And long tedious solos. A cultural change was underway that was to sweep away virtually all of the music described as progressive. Music was getting back to basics. And so was Procol Harum.

While Chris Thomas concentrated his producer talents on Roxy Music, Procol Harum returned to the studio with iconic US songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in his place. The resulting album, Procol’s Ninth, was far more stripped back in its approach with the producers focussing their expertise on tightening the songwriting and the band explored styles that brought them close to soul and jazz fusion territory.

Commercially, the best we can say is that the album was a big hit in Finland. While the album had patchy sales, the single from it – Pandora’s Box – gave them their first top twenty hit since 1967. And their last ever hit. Written and initially recorded for their debut album, the song was not included, but for Procol’s Ninth was reworked with a fresh energy.

No orchestra, no piano driven melody, no dual keyboard interplay, no complex structure, Pandora’s Box is a bright and playful song with tight rhythms and an almost Latin looping musical motif. You may have to go and lie down in a darkened room when I say this, but this song isn’t bad to dance to.

This is a song that is driven by rhythm and groove with BJ Wilson’s drumming being a delight throughout. The song may (or may not) explore themes of temptation, curiosity, and the consequences of unlocking hidden forces. It is, in short, a beautifully crafted underrated gem of a track.

 

 

Why Procol Harum Still Matter

I still don’t know why I bought tickets. I heard that Procol Harum were doing what was to be their last tour in 2017, including a night at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall. To be honest I’d not really listened to them since the 70s, and I’m not one for musical nostalgia, but something pulled me along. And I’m very glad I saw them for one last time.

Gary Brooker was the only original member performing, and the band he’d assembled mixed some recent songs with those from their classic period. The evening was very enjoyable, and Brooker’s voice was wonderful. It gave me the opportunity to reflect on where they fit in to our musical culture, and what they contributed.

Procol Harum never quite fit neatly into any category – they weren’t fully psychedelic, fully progressive, or fully blues-rock. This probably accounts for their very uneven commercial appeal. Instead, their music benefited from the creative tension between all of these genres and occupied a unique space between progressive musical ambitions and the energy of rock music.

They are often remembered only for A Whiter Shade Of Pale, which in itself demonstrated that pop music could push back the boundaries that had constrained it until then. It could draw on classical influences and embrace surreal poetic storytelling. As such, they helped to create the foundations of so-called prog rock. But their catalogue is far richer and more varied than many realise. They blended high art with rock, wrote mysterious, poetic lyrics, and created songs that remain fresh and inventive today.

It may now be deeply unfashionable, but there is innovation and beauty in these songs, and some lessons to be learned – if we can be bothered to look for them. For example, how orchestration can be integral to the musical idea, rather than a decorative flourish on the side. And if drumming is your thing, then BJ Wilson provides some expert tuition.

In short, these ten songs offer the perfect starting point into a band that deserves far more recognition than they’ve ever received. If you’re ready to skip the light fandango and turn some cartwheels across the floor, then please give them a listen.

 

 

 

 

Procol Harum, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 2017 – Photo: Mike Press

 

Procol Harum official website

Procol Harum comprehensive fansite with discography

Procol Harum biography (AllMusic)

Mike Press is a music and social history writer who lives in Scotland. He is one half of the Walk on the Wild Side Soho music project.

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