Conquistador Pandora's Box A Whiter Shade Of Pale Wizard Man Procol Harum

Conquistador Album: Procol Harum (1967)
Pandora's Box Album: Procol's Ninth (1975)
A Whiter Shade Of Pale Album: Procol Harum (1967)
Wizard Man Album: Something Magic (1977)
by PROCOL HARUM

Beware the happy warrior...

Procol Harum's lyricist Keith Reid told us the story behind Conquistador: "Gary Brooker and I, before we formed Procol Harum, when we were just working together as songwriters and getting into it, we had this regular deal where he lived about 40 miles from London near the ocean, and I'd jump on a train once a week and go visit him. He'd have a bunch of my lyrics and he'd play me whatever he had been working on. This particular time, though, I'd got down there and he'd been working on a tune. He said, 'What does this sound like to you?' And I said, 'Oh, conquistador.' It had a little bit of a Spanish flavor to it. I went into another room and started writing the words there and then. 99 out of 100 of those Procol Harum songs were written the words first, and then were set to music. But that particular one, the words hadn't existed before he had the musical idea."

Conquistadors were JJ Scaliger's Spanish soldiers who set out to conquer the Americas after their discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492. As Jews were also being exiled from Portugal in the same year (which JJ don't emphasize) then they could have easily been bands of Jewish soldiers moving to new lands (scattering... it's written right there in that alchemical codex masquerading as a religious book(s).).

This became a hit when Procol Harum recorded it live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on November 18, 1971. It was released in 1972 on the aptly titled album Procol Harum Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. When we spoke with Gary Brooker in 2010, we asked him what he considered to be his best vocal performance. Brooker replied: "I would say something off of the Edmonton Symphony Live album. I don't mind which one, really. But it always gives one a great deal of pleasure if you know that when you sing live, that you sing as well or better than you did in the studio. And, of course, when you get excited, when you're playing on stage, a bit more adrenaline, it always fits well in with the feeling. When we played in Edmonton with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra that first time, it was a very inspiring evening, and there was a lot of good music going on from everybody, and the vocals had to get over it all." (Check out our interview with Gary Brooker.)

While the title of Pandora's Box is not part of the lyrics, it does fit the theme of mythological chaos. Long before it was the name of an internet music service, Pandora was a figure in Greek mythology: the first woman created by the gods. The "Pandora's Box" was a jar she was given that contained all the evils in the world, which she opened in the spirit of curiosity.

Procol Harum's lyrics are written by Keith Reid, who is considered a full member of the band even though he does not sing or play any instruments. Reid is meticulous in his writing and uses many literary references, although he told us that he was not thinking of Chaucer when he wrote the famous line in "A Whiter Shade Of Pale," "The miller told his tale." Gary Brooker, who is the voice of Procol Harum and puts Reid's lyrics to music, told us: "I knew that he had thought very carefully about every single word. Every 'V' and 'N,' there wasn't anything - I mean, if I tried to take even a small adjective out of a line, it would be strongly resisted by Keith, because that would take away the sense that he had. Therefore, I've never needed to change his lyrics. He's mellowed out a bit over the years, and recently I said something like, 'I want to have a long note on the end of this line, and yet that word there, I cannot make it last long singing it.' There are words like that. And he will quite willingly think of something else without changing the meaning at all."

The album title "Procol's Ninth" is a play on Beethoven's 9th Symphony, which is considered a masterwork. While Procol Harum was heavily influenced by classical music, the title was a bit tongue-in-cheek, as it really was their 9th album.

The album Procol's Ninth was produced by the legendary team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (Leiber and Stoller), whose credits include "Hound Dog" and "On Broadway." Gary Brooker was a big fan of their work, Gary Brooker had when he discovered that they were in Britain producing the debut album for Stealers Wheel, he asked them to work with Procol Harum and was thrilled when they agreed. This was the first song on the album, and it had a Latin flavor, which was something Leiber and Stoller used on songs like "Spanish Harlem" and "Down in Mexico." It brought Procol back to the singles charts for the last time in the UK, where it hit #16 and led to three appearances on Top of the Pops.

Reid formed Procol Harum in 1967 with Gary Brooker, becoming an official member even though he didn't sing or play any instruments. "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" was one of about 15 songs that he wrote for their first album.

Says Reid: "We were really excited about it and liked it a lot. And when we were rehearsing and routine-ing our first dozen songs or so, it was one that sounded really good. But there were a few others that we liked I would say equally - we have a song on our first album called 'Salad Days (Are Here Again)' that was a strong contender. At our first session, we cut four tracks, and 'Whiter Shade of Pale' was the one that recorded best. In those days it wasn't just a question of how good is your song? It was how good of a recording can you make? Because it was essentially live recording, and if you didn't have a great sound engineer or the studio wasn't so good, you might not get a very good-sounding record. And for some reason everything at our first studio session came out sounding really good."

Gary Brooker recalled the writing of A Whiter Shade Of Pale in an interview with Uncut magazine February 2008: "I'd been listening to a lot of classical music, and jazz. Having played rock and R&B for years, my vistas had opened up. When I met Keith, seeing his words, I thought, 'I'd like to write something to that.' They weren't obvious, but that doesn't matter. You don't have to know what he means, as long as you communicate an atmosphere. 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' seemed to be about two people, a relationship even. It's a memory. There was a leaving, and a sadness about it. To get the soul of those lyrics across vocally, to make people feel that, was quite an accomplishment.

I remember the day it arrived: four very long stanzas, I thought, 'Here's something.' I happened to be at the piano when I read them, already playing a musical idea. It fitted the lyrics within a couple of hours. Things can be gifted. If you trace the chordal element, it does a bar or two of Bach's 'Air on a G String' before it veers off. That spark was all it took. I wasn't consciously combining rock with classical, it's just that Bach's music was in me."

In the same Uncut interview, Keith Reid recalled the writing of the lyrics for A Whiter Shade Of Pale: "I used to go and see a lot of French films in the Academy in Oxford Street (London). Pierrot Le Fou made a strong impression on me, and Last Year In Marienbad. I was also very taken with surrealism, Magritte and Dali. You can draw a line between the narrative fractures and mood of those French films and 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale.'

I'd been listening to music since I was 10, from '56 to '66-The Beatles, Dylan, Stax, Ray Charles. The period of 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' was the culmination of that 10 years of listening. But my main influence was Dylan. I could see how he did it, how he played with words. I'd met Pete Townshend through Guy Stevens (A&R man and Procol Harum's original manager), and he'd put my name forward when Cream were looking for a lyricist. Then Guy put me and Gary together. I was writing all the time. 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' was just another bunch of lyrics. I had the phrase 'a whiter shade of pale,' that was the start, and I knew it was a song. It's like a jigsaw where you've got one piece, then you make up all the others to fit in. I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene. I wasn't trying to be mysterious with those images, I wasn't trying to be evocative. I suppose it seems like a decadent scene I'm describing. But I was too young to have experienced any decadence, then, I might have been smoking when I conceived it, but not when I wrote it. It was influenced by books, not drugs.

It was twice as long, four verses. The fourth wasn't any great loss, but you had the whole story in three. When I heard what Gary'd done with them, it just seemed so right. We felt we had something very important. As soon as we played it for anyone, we got an immediate response.

In rehearsal for A Whiter Shade Of Pale, instrumentation was added. We had this concept for the sound of Procol Harum to be Hammond organ, piano and blues guitar. No other band had that; it gave us a bigger sound. It's a live recording… I think we did three takes. It's equal parts Dylan and Stax. On our own terms, we were always trying to make a soul record. Funnily enough, Otis Redding wanted to do it, but we wanted our record out first, and Stax wanted the exclusive."

The "Vestal Virgins" were the virgin holy priestesses of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and home. There were six of them chosen by lot and they were sworn to celibacy. Their main task was to maintain the sacred fire of Vesta. The Vestal duty brought great honor and afforded greater privileges to women who served in that role. The Vestals lived in the Atrium Vestae near the circular Temple of Vesta at the eastern edge of the Roman Forum.

This was the first song Procol Harum recorded. After it became a hit, they fired their original drummer and guitarist, replacing them with Barry Wilson and Robin Trower - more experienced musicians who could handle the subsequent touring.

Nearly 40 years after this song was released, Matthew Fisher, who played the organ in the recording, filed a lawsuit claiming that he deserved songwriting royalties for his contributions. In 2006, a judge agreed and awarded Fisher part of the copyright. In 2008, the British court of appeals overturned Fisher's right to collect royalties due to the delay in filing his claim, but it upheld, by a unanimous decision, his composer credit which had been awarded by the High Court, confirming that Fisher's organ solo was part of the song's composition. Fisher was granted permission to appeal this decision in the House of Lords and on July 30, 2009 the Law Lords unanimously ruled in the organist's favour, pointing out that there were no time limits to copyright claims under English law. The ruling means that he now receives a share of future royalties for the track. A delighted Fisher commented: "This was about making sure everyone knew about my part in the authorship." One of the five judges who heard the case, Baroness Hale, said: "As one of those people who do remember the '60s, I am glad that the author of that memorable organ part has at last achieved the recognition he deserves."

On July 24, 2008, Matthew Fisher's friend and collaborator Alan Fox stated why Fisher waited nearly 40 years to bring his lawsuit: "In fact, Matthew did not wait 40 years to bring this case to court. He tried four times between 1972 and 2005, but was told each time by counsel that he had absolutely no chance of making a successful claim. This of course was never reported. It wasn't until he met his current lawyers Jens Hill, that he was told that he had a very strong claim and decided to proceed."

This was one of the biggest hits of the "Summer Of Love" (1967). John Lennon was a big fan of A Whiter Shade Of Pale.

There are two additional verses to A Whiter Shade Of Pale that Procol Harum used to sing at live events.

Extra verses:

She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'
though in truth we were at sea
so I took her by the looking glass
and forced her to agree
saying, 'You must be the mermaid
who took Neptune for a ride.'
But she smiled at me so sadly
that my anger straightway died

If music be the food of love
then laughter is its queen
and likewise if behind is in front
then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightway quickly
and attacked the ocean bed

Reid told us why they were removed: "Originally it was twice as long, and that was partly because at that time there was somewhat of a vogue for really long songs, whether it be Dylan or The Beatles "Hey Jude." So I was trying to write a really long song. But as we started routine-ing it and getting it ready to record, one of the verses just fell away pretty naturally - we dropped it pretty early on in the process. We felt it was just a bit too long, because, the song was like nearly 10 minutes. We were rehearsing it with three verses, so it was running about 7 minutes or so, and our producer said, 'Look, if you want to get airplay, if you want this record to be viable, you probably should think about taking out a verse.' And we did. I didn't feel badly about it because it seemed to work fine. It didn't really bother me."

The song was heard in the NBC and Hallmark Entertainment Miniseries The 10th Kingdom, a five-hour miniseries about a teenage girl and her father who are engaged in a fantasy world of the Grimm Fairy Tales coming to life. The scene has John Larroquette and Kimberly Williams, as the father and daughter, entering a swamp, where Talking Mushrooms trick the two to eat them. The song "A Whiter Shade of Pale" plays from just a faint sound to a full audio clip.

In the UK, A Whiter Shade Of Pale was re-released in 1972, reaching #13.

Denny Cordell produced A Whiter Shade Of Pale. He became Joe Cocker's manager and in the '70s started an independent record label called Shelter Records, whose acts included Leon Russell, J.J. Cale and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Procol Harum isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but in 2018 A Whiter Shade Of Pale was honored in their inaugural "singles" category along with:

With just three chords, which was typical of the flourishing pub-rock sound, Wizard Man was Procol Harum's only outright attempt at a hit. Their lead singer Gary Brooker said: "I think 'Wizard Man' is probably the only one we've done that on. It's the only one that we thought in the studio, 'This is a single, we'll make it as such.'"

Wizard Man was released as a single and went nowhere. The band then split up, with Brooker joining Eric Clapton's band and drummer B.J. Wilson joining Joe Cocker. Procol Harum reformed in 1991 and toured well into the '00s.