 Procul Harum (1967) [ larger cover art ] |
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We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
The crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said there is no reason
And the truth is plain to see
But I wandered through my playing cards
Would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might just as well have been closed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
| Sweet_Virginia | Posted: May 17, 2013 - 05:52 Thanks to wikipedia "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is the debut song by the British rock band Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967. The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June 1967, and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it reached No. 5 on the US charts, as well. One of the anthems of the 1967 Summer of Love, it is one of fewer than 30 singles to have sold over 10 million copies worldwide. With its haunting Bach-derived instrumental melody, soulful vocals, and unusual lyrics—by the song's co-authors Gary Brooker,Keith Reid, and Matthew Fisher — "A Whiter Shade of Pale" reached No. 1 in several countries when released in 1967. In the years since, it has become an enduring classic. It was the most played song in the last 75 years in public places in the UK (as of 2009), and the United Kingdom performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited in 2004 recognised it as the most-played record by British broadcasting of the past 70 years. Also in 2004, Rolling Stone placed "A Whiter Shade of Pale" No. 57 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time." |
| sirdroseph (Yes) | Posted: May 17, 2013 - 05:51 kingart wrote: Who on the PLANET could follow Debussy with Procol Harum? Thinking of sitting on the 1967 summer lawn in Clark NJ reading Steinbeck and listening to this on WABC. Everything was beautiful. That is called a predictability lull in my library playlist!  |
| Dave_Crick | Posted: Apr 19, 2013 - 06:20 Absolute classic - great vocal and organ playing. |
| flyboy (Sarah Palin's Hometown) | Posted: Mar 20, 2013 - 14:21 Thanks to RP, this has been welded in my mind to the end of Air - Talisman. I think if Bill didn't play this after Air, I'd think there was something wrong with the song. As an organ player myself, this is a great song to listen to. |
| onelittlemoose (Mooseville, Canada) | Posted: Mar 20, 2013 - 14:21 How I love that organ. Absolutely timeless. |
| unclehud (now 50 feet above the planet in Boston) | Posted: Mar 15, 2013 - 11:49 Well! That was the shortest version I've ever heard. |
| ambrebalte (Beijing) | Posted: Jan 11, 2013 - 18:57 Stingray wrote: 12, of course! And an incredible album (like all early Harum-stuff)
PS 23 "1-voters". What to do with them? Hot oil or tar and feathers? ;) Glad to see you are still here and kicking! |
| notfadeaway (earlybob land) | Posted: Jan 11, 2013 - 18:47 what a sound! ....nice job guys! |
| notfadeaway (earlybob land) | Posted: Jan 11, 2013 - 18:42 Last waltz at the Dance-Orama |
| tonypf (Honolulu) | Posted: Jan 11, 2013 - 18:39 angelomisterioso wrote: Where else are you going to hear Debussy followed by Procol Harum. 💫 It works! |
| Baketown (Maryland) | Posted: Dec 11, 2012 - 09:38 Classic! |
| ziakut (Slightly North of Obvlivion) | Posted: Dec 11, 2012 - 09:37 Rather hear something else follow Debussy...than a tired and overrated song. Oh boy! |
| angelomisterioso (no longer secret location north texas) | Posted: Oct 09, 2012 - 16:07 Where else are you going to hear Debussy followed by Procol Harum. 💫 |
| Stingray | Posted: Oct 09, 2012 - 16:06 12, of course! And an incredible album (like all early Harum-stuff)
PS 23 "1-voters". What to do with them? Hot oil or tar and feathers? |
| kingart (Brooklyn NY) | Posted: Oct 09, 2012 - 16:06 Who on the PLANET could follow Debussy with Procol Harum? Thinking of sitting on the 1967 summer lawn in Clark NJ reading Steinbeck and listening to this on WABC. Everything was beautiful. |
| dw (PHill, CA) | Posted: Sep 27, 2012 - 16:05 A true classic....never tire of it.  |
| testpilot | Posted: Sep 13, 2012 - 06:00 Excellent tune (thanks, Bach), inane hippy lyrics... anything can pass for poetry these days - as long as it's vague enough someone will mistake it for wisdom. |
| eswiley2 | Posted: Sep 13, 2012 - 05:56 ThePoose wrote: I remember more than one sweet young girl melting—figuratively and literally—as I held her and swayed to this tune at the end of the dance. So... that was YOU I was dancing with???? |
| 4merdj (donde el viento se devuelve) | Posted: Aug 07, 2012 - 15:36 What a classic!! 8>>9  (Longer version in Pandora's Box) |
| hayduke2 (Southampton, NY) | Posted: Jul 12, 2012 - 08:12 a special piece of music, though I flashbacked to a goofy kevin costner stoner flik called Fandango |
| kingart (Brooklyn NY) | Posted: Jun 10, 2012 - 16:11 Memories. A 100% classic. Very few songs remind me more strongly of my youthful summers. I don't know whether to be wistful or to jump for the freedom and joy of it all. Musically it's an 8, for all else it's a 20. |
| macbags (atlanta) | Posted: Jun 10, 2012 - 16:11 HEAVEN HERE I COME. |
| jchap5 (West Chester, Ohio) | Posted: Jun 10, 2012 - 16:09 Cannot get enough of this song - original, covers - it is all good! Thanks RP! I have spent the better part of a whole day listening and learning. |
| valeriogonzalez (Quito, Ecuador) | Posted: Jun 05, 2012 - 10:08 Some pretty good music today on RP  |
| BLADERUNNER (Port City on the Cape Fear) | Posted: Mar 07, 2012 - 11:14 Ah memories......my older brother, who was a good musician, taught me the organ solo from this tune, back when the song was first played. recently i was in this organ/piano store, and remembered enough of the music to play it fairly well. surprised me big time, since i can't always remember what i had for lunch yesterday. |
| jagdriver (Just a nod and a wink south of Paradise) | Posted: Mar 07, 2012 - 11:13 ccwcool wrote: Brings me back to being an 8 year old boy laying on the floor listening to CKLW on my transistor radio and being mesmerized by this incredible song. This was a standard at Detroit's Grande Ballroom (think SF Fillmore) during intermissions and such. I can never hear it without being instantly transported back there, before remnants of The Summer of Love faded forever after Altamont and such.  |
| Proclivities (Carrboro, NC) | Posted: Mar 02, 2012 - 06:51 Stratocaster wrote: I daresay you are outnumbered by a factor of approximately 101,688 to 1. I suggest a good detox, a hard shake of the head, and a complete re-evaluation of your value system. I'm not sure what sort of calculations you employed to arrive at that factor, but I daresay it needs "re-evaluation" - there are less than 1,600 votes on this song. I like this tune, personally, but I can also understand how some might find it tiresome and/or dated. I usually don't agree with that poster's tastes, but just because someone's tastes to not correspond with those of the masses does not mean that those tastes require the therapies you prescribe above. Most of the music I like is not embraced (or even known) by the majority of the population - in general, the most popular music is not the best music - it is often the opposite. |
| Hasan | Posted: Mar 02, 2012 - 06:38 First time I ever danced slow was to Whiter Shade of Pale. 10th grade. 1967. Last school dance before the summer vacation. Exams over with. Steamy hot — inside and out. The dj must have played W.S. o P. 20 times that night. Who minded? Least of all — who cared they were singing about sea-sickness!! Who noticed? |
| DaveInVA (In a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA) | Posted: Feb 04, 2012 - 18:34 A Shiter Pade of Whale - still love it after all these decades..... |
| hencini | Posted: Feb 04, 2012 - 18:27 Stratocaster wrote: I daresay you are outnumbered by a factor of approximately 101,688 to 1. I suggest a good detox, a hard shake of the head, and a complete re-evaluation of your value system. Lolz... : ) |
| Stratocaster (Bermuda) | Posted: Feb 02, 2012 - 02:47 johnjconn wrote: Dated Boring Tired Weak Give it a 4 I daresay you are outnumbered by a factor of approximately 101,688 to 1. I suggest a good detox, a hard shake of the head, and a complete re-evaluation of your value system. |
| ccwcool (O-HI-O) | Posted: Jan 30, 2012 - 14:17 Brings me back to being an 8 year old boy laying on the floor listening to CKLW on my transistor radio and being mesmerized by this incredible song. |
| bindi (North Carolina) | Posted: Dec 29, 2011 - 19:53 to me. . .timeless! |
| d-don (Oregon) | Posted: Nov 01, 2011 - 14:33 Good for the ears and what's between 'em. |
| sirdroseph (Yes) | Posted: Oct 27, 2011 - 12:13 terrapin52 wrote: I loved it when J.S. Bach did a cover of this Procol Harum tune. You should've seen Bach live! I saw him at the Fillmore in 1734, awesome! |
| gemtag (Texas) | Posted: Oct 27, 2011 - 12:12 This song and group defines the 60's for me. Along with Janis, Jimmy, Beatles, Animals.... Well, one of them anyway. Still a defining tune in the history of music. |
| wlpendley (New Mexico) | Posted: Oct 16, 2011 - 20:33 One of our very favorite songs — and thank you RadioParadise for pairing four of the tirebiter.com/beauty images with this one! |
| terrapin52 | Posted: Sep 30, 2011 - 21:02 I loved it when J.S. Bach did a cover of this Procol Harum tune. |
| hencini | Posted: Sep 25, 2011 - 20:11 Easily one of the five greatest songs of all time. Hell, this could be two of the five greatest songs of all time. There's are a couple cool "extra" verses that they have done live, apparently. Beautiful lyrics all. 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 |
| kaybee (Lost in the Wilds of Toronto) | Posted: Sep 15, 2011 - 17:36 kaybee wrote: The more I hear this album, the more I gotta get it. cheesemonger wrote: the miller- as in the Miller's Tale in the Canterbury Tales. It's the bawdy followup to the Knight's tale of courtly love. When I read the Canterbury tales in high school, the Miller's Tale was omitted.... Gee, I wonder why. OK, so I'm having trouble imagining this very serious, dignified sounding song and the Chaucer's flatulence obsessed miller. All along I've had visions of Keith Reid having some type of Lewis Carroll/ Walrus and the Carpenter type thing going on here. |
| Deadwing (Cincinnati OH) | Posted: Sep 15, 2011 - 07:06 And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale  |
| Misterfixit (Nashville) | Posted: Sep 15, 2011 - 07:02 Now, about those Vestal Virgins, he begs the question "Tell me why?" |
| Stingray (JULIAN'S NWO) | Posted: Aug 30, 2011 - 11:44 AndreasL wrote: I love it, but listen to the version of this song from DORO-German Heavy Metal Singer. This Woman is cool. You must SERIOUSLY be seriously drunk! DORO? Classical white german trailor-park trash? Her version - and the rest of her primitiv-metal -. should be forbidden for those who know the original! Doro - paaaah!!!! |
| Stingray (JULIAN'S NWO) | Posted: Aug 30, 2011 - 11:42 As 10 as WSOP is - I recommend to play other songs from this fantastic album - a clear 10 of it's own! |
| Alexandra (Here and Now) | Posted: Aug 30, 2011 - 11:26 It was so cool, not too long ago, getting to play the main keyboard solo of this song on a big, ginormous pipe organ in an old church-turned-into-a-house, for my 24 year-old nephew and his friend who had NEVER HEARD the song before......and then subsequently showing them the song on YouTube. They thought it was cool. |
| ThePoose | Posted: Aug 30, 2011 - 11:25 I remember more than one sweet young girl melting—figuratively and literally—as I held her and swayed to this tune at the end of the dance. |
| eswiley2 | Posted: Aug 25, 2011 - 11:03 Timeless... |
| HazzeSwede (Vinyl Land) | Posted: Jul 30, 2011 - 02:02 HazzeSwede wrote: HazzeSwede wrote: 16 21,23...I guess not RPeeps,has rated this # 1.  |
| On_The_Beach (Vancouver BC, Bud) | Posted: Jul 14, 2011 - 13:25 bluedot wrote: Actually, the melody was written by J.S. Bach. Just sayin'... J.S. Bach; is that the guy from Bachman Turner Overdrive? |
| AndreasL (Calden, Germany) | Posted: Jun 23, 2011 - 13:24 I love it, but listen to the version of this song from DORO-German Heavy Metal Singer. This Woman is cool. |