Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Out of the swirling ocean of psychedelia, which included Jefferson Airplane's 'Somebody to Love' (a Top Ten hit in May) and The Doors' 'Light My Fire' (June's #1 hit) there had arisen a dark and mighty leviathan with a strange and magical name: PROCOL HARUM. The name, misspelled from the Latin, translates as 'Beyond These Things.' The original owner of that name was somebody's cat. And like a cat, fame nuzzled up warmly and then abruptly walked away. Inscrutably, critics trashed the golden band's follow-up single 'Homburg' for either being, or not being 'A Whiter Shade of Pale.' Management and personnel problems added to the bad luck. Other bands made a big splash and didn't repeat. Jefferson Airplane, to cite one example, disappeared from the charts completely after 1967's 'Somebody to Love' and 'White Rabbit.' But 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' was THE hit of 1967 and it burdened the band with a legend they couldn't live up to.

"All hands on deck, weve run afloat! I heard the captain cry
explore the ship, replace the cook: let no one leave alive!
Across the straits, around the horn: how far can sailors fly?
A twisted path, our tortured course, and no one left alive

We sailed for parts unknown to man, where ships come home to die
No lofty peak, nor fortress bold, could match our captains eye
Upon the seventh seasick day we made our port of call
A sand so white, and sea so blue, no mortal place at all

We fired the gun, and burnt the mast, and rowed from ship to shore
The captain cried, we sailors wept: our tears were tears of joy
Now many moons and many junes have passed since we made land
A salty dog, this seamans log: your witness my own hand

lyle_from_minneapolis wrote:
Nowadays, such lyrics are called vague, and when you try to pitch a song with vague lyrics, your chances of making a sale are very slim indeed.... And perhaps the King of All Vague Lyrics is this very song, "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Just a gorgeous song.

jps wrote:...I saw then about 10 years ago, till great IIRC.

On 12 March 1791 the Scots poet, Robert Burns, wrote a poem called Tam o’Shanter (A tale). The poem tells a story about a drunken, womanising man who witnesses a witches' party in an old church, whilst riding home after a serious drinking session. In an introductory letter to the poem it is mentioned that the poem is to be presented to Captain Grose. Mention is also made within the introduction, to another poem "To all ye ladies now on land" the night before an expected sea engagement … (prose summary in Modern English)

During 1966 / 1967 Keith Reid (full name Keith Stuart Brian Reid – a guid Scots label there by the way) modernised this poem, and Gary Brooker (and Matthew Fisher) added some of the most haunting music the last millennium has produced. Reid's type of song-writing was similar to another musical artist, David Bowie, in that he would cut up lines of text, mix them up then re-assemble the textual mix. I believe this is why the song starts about three-quarters of the way through the poem.

Consideration should be given to the fact that the two pieces were created 176 years apart. The same words and phrases take on different connotations over the centuries.