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Procol Harum circa 1967 |
In April 1967, Gary Brooker formed one of my favorite bands of all time, Procol Harum, with poet/lyricist Keith Reid, Hammond organist Matthew Fisher
The band has been recording and touring in various incarnations since 1967. They recorded "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart and made it to #5 in the United States. The song sent them out on the road and their live debut was opening for Jimi Hendrix
Their follow-up single was "Homburg" which was #1 in the UK but not a hit in the U.S. That recording after included former Paramounts B.J. Wilson on drums and Robin Trower
Their first album, the eponymous Procol Harum
The second album was Shine on Brightly
Some of those classical roots were ripped up when Matthew Fisher, who produced Shine on Brightly, departed the band soon after its release.
Another former Paramount, Chris Copping, joined on organ and bass in 1970, and from late 1972 until 1977, the group's guitarist was Mick Grabham. Grabham replaced Robin Trower who went on to record a number of hard rock albums, several of which were produced by Fisher.
The band fronted by Gary Brooker
There have been a number of explanations for the unusual name. I have been a fan of the band since the beginning. (Ask me one day about my weekend as a roadie for Procol Harum and Mott the Hoople.) I have collected the origin stories and here's the etymology.
Guy Stevens, their original manager, suggested the name based on a friend's Burmese cat. They thought it was Arabic, but found that it was Latin. Then they were told that they had misspelled it and that it should be procul harum.
What does it mean? One translation was "far from these things." But I have also seen students of Latin say that the phrase is "dubious, since procul is followed by the ablative case not the genitive."
Translating it as "beyond these things" sounds good for a 1960s band, but then I read that "beyond these things" would translate as procul his.
Another translation I have seen is that it means "of these far off things" (harum is in the feminine, genitive, plural) but procul would not be followed by a genitive in Latin.
The definitive source of Procol Harum knowledge (including current members and tour dates) is ProcolHarum.com . That site has an interview with founder Gary Brooker that includes this answer about the name:
We didn't invent it, our manager at the time 'phoned up and said he'd found a name. We said, 'What is it?' 'Procol Harum.' 'Oh, great.' And it sounds like us, in fact, sounds like what we sound like, so that was that. He didn't just pluck it out of the air, it was the pedigree name of a cat of a friend of his. And ... er ... of course everyone went, 'What does it mean? What does it mean?' We didn't know it, so we had to find out. We did find out that we actually had got the name wrong over the telephone, we spelt it wrong. But in Latin, the cat's name was 'Procul' with a 'u' and 'Harun' with an 'n' on the end, 'Beyond these things' in Latin. We got round to saying that Procol Harum in fact meant 'Beyond these things', which was a nice coincidence: at least it didn't mean, 'I'm going to town to buy a cow' or something.
MORE
- Robin Trower http://www.trowerpower.com
- Matthew Fisher http://www.matthewfisher.com
- Shine on Brightly
- Exotic Birds & Fruit
- In Concert With The Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir
- Best of Procol Harum
- 30th Anniversary Anthology
Greatest Hits: Procol Harum
- Secrets of the Hive: The Best of Procol Harum
- Procol Harum: In Concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra & Choir
- Procol Harum:Live at the Union Chapel
- All This & More
- In Concert With Danish National Concert Orchestra
- Procol Harum: Live
(DVD)
A Salty Dog was their THIRD album, Shine On Brightly was the SECOND one.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. Information changed. Thanks.
The silliest claim was from an old friend who thought it meant, "Without women"; in other words, 'men only'. I think he was confusing 'harum' with 'harem' and botched 'procul' to mean 'without' in the sense of 'lacking' whereas, it meant 'without' in the sense of 'outside' or 'beyond' as in 'There is a green hill far away without a city wall'. He used to call stag nights, 'procul harum noctes'. I tentatively told him he was mistaken, but he wouldn't have it. There ought to be a punishment for Latin abuse. :P
ReplyDeleteA Salty Dog
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gL4GApQHKE