PROCOL HARUM

As the Summer Of Love’s Aquarian energies proliferated across the globe, Southend’s finest former R&B group were there to furnish one of its most glorious and enigmatic variations. Rooted in Bach, a dope dealer’s

Siamese cat and house party inebriation, their soulful, poetic masterpiece took the world by storm. Yet with a writing credit dispute waiting in the wings, they found it impossible to top. “A Whiter Shade Of Pale p py , y members, friends and onlookers. “But it did become a weight around their neck.”

Interviews by MARTIN ASTON • Portrait by TONY GALE

Tony Gale/Alamy Chris Copping: The organiser of a band competition in Southend had the idea of putting the best guys, who’d taken part, together, which became The Paramounts. We played covers, stuf like Jerry Lee Lewis. Robin Trower: We had a singer but he didn’t last long, so we invited Gary [Brooker], who had a great voice and was playing piano with a friend of my brother’s. [Coasters cover] Poison Ivy [Number 35 in January 1964] earned us a name, but the work dried up. We backed Sandie Shaw for a month, but I was getting more into blues, so in 1966 I left. But that was a good thing, because Gary went on to form Procol Harum. Keith Reid: I was 10 or 11 when I frst became fascinated by lyrics, but I couldn’t see how to

➣ emulate anyone until Dylan. Back then, you could go around the ofces, so I met people like Mickie Most, and Chris Blackwell. Chris introduced me to Guy Stevens, who became my mentor. Guy introduced me to some heavyweights, like Stevie Winwood, who was starting Trafc and turned down using my lyrics. Guy loved The Paramounts too, so I met Gary, who had plans to become a songwriter. Roland Clare: Southend was seething with artists of all diferent kinds. Gary could have written with Viv Stanshall, who lived a couple of miles away, but he was introduced to Keith, and Gary was a frm believer in fate. KR: I sent Gary maybe a dozen lyrics. We wanted to get songs recorded by other artists, but nobody was interested. [In spring ’67] I told Gary, “We have to form a band.” We used to score dope from a guy who had a Siamese cat called Procol Harum, which he said meant ‘beyond these things’ – a very loose translation as we discovered! We had our name, but we also needed a Hammond organist, as all the records we liked had that Hammond-piano combination. Matthew Fisher: I’d just left Screaming Lord Sutch’s band and bought a Hammond with a Leslie tone cabinet. I was hoping to make some serious money, so I placed an ad in Melody Maker. Keith responded, so we had a rehearsal with the band as it was then: Gary, David Knights [bass], Ray Royer [guitar] and Tubs [Bobby Harrison, drums]. I didn’t realise how good Gary’s voice was until we demoed A Whiter Shade Of Pale.

KR: Like A Rolling Stone had come out, and my thought was we should have a really long song too. It’s a fallacy [that Guy Stevens originated the phrase “a whiter shade of pale”]. I’d been at a party at Guy’s house, and he said something about his wife Diane looking a bit ropey. He didn’t say, “She’s turned a whiter shade of pale”, that’s what I translated it into. It was all written in order, all four original verses. Franky Brooker: Gary wrote the music on his father’s piano. He says he was infuenced by Bach [notably Air On The G String, popular from the Hamlet cigar ad of the time]. It really stood out, because it’s an unusual song but you can immediately hum it. KR: A Whiter Shade Of Pale was originally 10 minutes long. In rehearsal, we’d decided to cut one verse, and we cut out another verse during the recording. I didn’t mind, I was just happy to be making a record. MF: Ever since I saw the flm 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea when I was nine, I’d been obsessed with pipe organs and Bach, and as soon as we started rehearsing A Whiter Shade Of Pale, I’d found the perfect vehicle [for that]. Conquistador was the band’s frst great white hope [for a single], until I played along to A Whiter Shade Of Pale, and things switched around. KR: David Platz at Essex Music [publishers] said, “That’s a hit, we’ll make a record.” The band were worried about some sibilance in the recording, so [PR man] Tony Hall got it played on Radio London, to see how it sounded. Afterwards, the phones went berserk, and Deram started selling records the next day! [The single hit UK Number 1 on June 14, 1967, staying for six weeks]. RC: I was 14, living in the provinces. I remember hearing this voice from my tinny transistor radio. Most pop lyrics were trite but this was more Lewis Carroll or Edward Lear. It was a new, authentic way of looking, like dreaming out loud. Tony Visconti: I met [AWSOP producer] Denny Cordell by chance in New York. We both worked for the same in-house company, and he played me an acetate of A Whiter Shade Of Pale. I nearly fainted. It was so beautiful, and I couldn’t believe that what I took to be an R&B song and a black singer was coming out of the UK. It reminded me of Wilson Pickett, but mixed with Bach. Everything about it – the organ, Gary’s soulful voice, Keith’s lyrics, the mood – were breathtaking [it hit US Number 5 in early July]. KR: We went to America [in October ’67]. We’d always end with Repent Walpurgis, because it’s too heavy to be followed, whereas you could follow A Whiter Shade Of Pale. We’d regularly play New York, and if we had time of, we’d head up to Woodstock, through Albert Grossman, who we talked to about managing us, and got friendly with The Band, and we’d jam with them. People in America would give you loads of drugs, like Owsley Stanley, the big acid guy in San Francisco, he gave us a carrier bag-full – DMT, STP, everything you can imagine. They’d destroy you if you took them. CC: The song was perfect for the psychedelic times. Not that I think A Whiter Shade Of Pale was infuenced by drugs, though “as the ceiling few away” had a vibe. KR: We weren’t hard drinkers, and just recreational when it came to drugs. But [AWSOP] didn’t come from a drug experience, and I hadn’t taken acid or was stoned when I wrote it. The lyric is quite literal, like a little flm, with things getting crazy in a crowded room. The other stuf, about vestal virgins… people fnd it hard to understand that you can let your imagination run free.

● Keith Reid

● Matthew Fisher

MF: I’d cherished the idea that a pop record could be constructed along the same lines as a Bach chorale prelude, and the frst thing I’d seen on the sheet music to A Whiter Shade Of Pale was the frst eight bars of my organ solo… but, “Music By Gary Brooker.” Gary was totally dismissive and uncompromising: he said, “That’s just a piece of Bach.” He couldn’t relinquish total ownership of the music – he was the big star, and I was a nobody. TV: Without Matthew’s quasi-Bach organ intro, I don’t think it would have been such a hit. But Denny and Gary would have said: “that’s an arrangement, you didn’t write the words or melody.” Writers are very reluctant to give up anything: songs are their retirement and inheritance.

RT [who joined in July ’67]: Gary and Keith seemed thick as thieves. It was their band – they created the songs and the ideas. I wasn’t aware of Matthew’s unhappiness; I wasn’t much of a mixer.

KR: The trouble was, we had various managers, but no one astute enough to advise us. We thought Homburg was the right follow-up, though it didn’t blow the doors of [it reached Number 6 in October]. Later, we realised “why the hell didn’t we release [debut LP track] Conquistador?” RT: A Whiter Shade Of Pale was impossible to follow, because you’ll never have another worldwide smash like that. But I think audiences respected what we were doing. They had to listen to our set, or they wouldn’t get to hear A Whiter Shade Of Pale at the end!

TV: A Whiter Shade Of Pale was a serious, poetic song, and the band wanted to be taken seriously and not be seen as a pop band. Dylan remained Dylan even though he had hits, and that was Keith’s goal. MF: I was always making noises about leaving, and I’d always dreamed of being a producer, and I ended up producing [May ’69 LP] A Salty Dog, and then I left [in September 1969]. If I’d got the recognition for A Whiter Shade Of Pale, I’d probably have stayed and swallowed the fact that Procol was no longer churning out hits. After I left, Gary gradually stopped playing it. I can speculate why: subconsciously, he realised a lot of what people liked about the song was my contribution. Gary couldn’t appreciate that what worked was the combination of what we did, which neither could have done on our own.

CC [who replaced Fisher]: When we played A Whiter Shade Of Pale, it never sounded as good as with Matthew. It’s an absolute classic, but it did become a weight around their neck. KR: I went through a period when I couldn’t stand hearing it. It frustrated us that people just couldn’t get past the song. We had our ups and downs after. We’d been at the point of disbanding many times, and the gigs in 1977 were miserable, so things just faded out. FB: Gary wanted to do something on his own, so he went on tour with Ringo, then Eric Clapton, and started recording solo albums. KR: I moved to New York in 1984, working with other songwriters. A friend at Atlantic Records kept saying, “Get the band together, there’s a lot of interest.” Gary was interested, but I said, “We need Matthew and Robin, that’s the Procol people want,” and they were both into it [both reunited with the group in 1991]. MF: I was tired of the studio, and I did like playing Procol songs. But in 2002, Bobby Valentino successfully sued The Bluebells over his violin part to [1984 smash] Young At Heart, so I started investigating copyright specialists, and in 2004 I took Gary to court, and won. Gary thought it was me getting even with him, but it wasn’t personal. Otherwise, the world would never know my contribution. FB: Gary felt let down that he never got the wider recognition that he deserved. On the radio, they always play A Whiter Shade Of Pale, as if it’s the only song they wrote. But when it was the song’s 50th anniversary, Procol were barely mentioned, and Gary wasn’t interviewed on TV. Probably now he’s gone [he died in February 2022], they know they should have, but now it’s too late. KR: Later I came to realise how great A Whiter Shade Of Pale was, and how lucky we were to have a hit that big – it’s sold over 10 million. That it lives on to this day is like getting an MBE. It can’t just be nostalgia, because young people are fans too. So, any time I hear it now, I love it. M

● Robin Trower

● Chris Copping

● Tony Visconti

● Franky Brooker