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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
, guitarist Ray Royer (temporary) and bassist David Knights. The British rock band, from Southend, England, first performed as The Paramounts.Robin Trower formed the Paramounts and would later include his Westcliff High School friend Gary Brooker. The Paramounts disbanded in 1966 to pursue individual projects and Trower formed a three-piece band called the Jam (not to be confused with the later group with Paul Weller). That was short-lived and Trower then joined Brooker's new band Procol Harum following the success of their debut single "A Whiter Shade of Pale" in 1967 and remained with them until 1971. He appears on the group's first five albums.
The band has been recording and touring in various incarnations since 1967. They recorded "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
and it was released May 1967. That classic, which they are still identified with, has a structure reminiscent of Baroque music with its countermelody based on J.S. Bach's cantata no.140
played by Fisher on his Hammond organ. Brooker's vocals were often mistaken for being those of a black "soul" singer. Keith Reid's mysterious lyrics opened up all kinds of interpretations.
"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
in 1967.
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 on guitar. That lineup is what most Harum fans consider to be the "classic" lineup.
Their first album, the eponymous Procol Harum
, was recorded soon between the two hit singles, but wasn't released until early 1968.
The second album was Shine on Brightly
(1968) and the third was A Salty Dog
(1969). It was their first album to sell well in the UK and the title track was an FM radio hit in the U.S. Procol Harum became known as an art-rock band with some classical roots.
Some of those classical roots were ripped up when Matthew Fisher quit Procol Harum in 1969 after the release of A Salty Dog, which he also produced. He rejoined the band in 1991 for the album The Prodigal Stranger and released two more albums with them, One More Time - Live in Utrecht 1992 and The Well's on Fire.
The band has been recording and touring in various incarnations since 1967. They recorded "A Whiter Shade of Pale"
and it was released May 1967. That classic, which they are still identified with, has a structure reminiscent of Baroque music with its countermelody based on J.S. Bach's cantata no.140 played by Fisher on his Hammond organ. Brooker's vocals were often mistaken for being those of a black "soul" singer. Keith Reid's mysterious lyrics opened up all kinds of interpretations."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
in 1967.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
on guitar. That lineup is what most Harum fans consider to be the "classic" lineup.Their first album, the eponymous Procol Harum
, was recorded soon between the two hit singles, but wasn't released until early 1968.The second album was Shine on Brightly
(1968) and the third was A Salty Dog (1969). It was their first album to sell well in the UK and the title track was an FM radio hit in the U.S. Procol Harum became known as an art-rock band with some classical roots.Some of those classical roots were ripped up when Matthew Fisher quit Procol Harum in 1969 after the release of A Salty Dog, which he also produced. He rejoined the band in 1991 for the album The Prodigal Stranger and released two more albums with them, One More Time - Live in Utrecht 1992 and The Well's on Fire.
Drummer BJ Wilson died in 1990.
A sad update: Founding member, piano and lead singer, Gary Brooker, the only constant member of the band and the main songwriter, died on 19 February 2022.
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 continues to tour and often performs with orchestras.
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:
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
continues to tour and often performs with orchestras. 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)
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
Actually Matthew Fisher produced A Salty Dog and left the group after that album. Not the Shine On Brightly album, as stated in the above article.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. We stand corrected - and the post stands corrected too. Thanks for the comment.
Delete