Procol Harum

Cleaner recording is appreciated as it is more alive. Two CD set has lots more stuff. Nice packaging and booklet.

CD came in great condition and as described.

A trip down nostalgia lane.

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE 2015 2 CD EDITION."To be listened to in the spirit in which it was made." Original back cover liner notes.CD 1--tracks 1-10 are the original album. The original vinyl album was available only in mono in Britain because mono was still the dominant format until sometime in 1968. Tracks 11-20 are extra tracks with things like another version of "A Whiter Shade..", the single "Good Captain Clack", an instrumental, "Pandora's Box", a couple of alternates, and a previously unreleased "Salad Days...".CD2--all tracks are bonus recordings. A longer version of "A Whiter Shade..", and "Homburg" in stereo, plus "Repent Walpurgis", a 1971 stereo mix of "Conquistador", along with several other stereo mixes make up tracks 1-10. Tracks 11-13 are BBC recordings from Easybeat in 1967 including "Morning Dew", "A Whiter Shade...", and "Mabel". Tracks 14-17 are live BBC performances from 1967, on Top Gear--"Homburg", "Good Captain Clack", "She Wandered Through The Garden Fence", and "Kaliedoscope". Both sessions are previously unreleased."The first album wasn't in stereo because the producer didn't like stereo at the time." Mathew Fisher.The remastered sound is very good. Is it better than the 2009 editions? Possibly. But sound is so subjective so I'll leave that argument to audiophiles. It's safe to say that it's at least as good. The 22 page booklet is really nice--a good essay from band biographer Henry Scott-Irvine, along with some good period graphics. The "poster" is a nice keepsake and has a nice graphic on one side and lyrics on the other side. The discs snap inside a four-fold package with slots for the poster and booklet. As it happened I had just listened to the new 2 CD set (also on Esoteric) by Junior's Eyes before Procol's album, and I was struck by some similarities between both bands. I'm in no way saying the two bands are equal, but I came away with the same feel after hearing both albums. As a long time fan of British bands from the late '60s/early'70s, both Procol Harum and Junior's Eyes do share a certain vibe--instrumentally and lyrically. Check out Junior's Eyes.Chances are if you're reading this you're already familiar with the band and album. So there's no point in dissecting the music. The album is still a touch point for many music fans (like me) who were around at the time. The mix of blues, classical, rock, and progressive sounds--along with some psyche-tinged lyrics by Keith Reid has kept this album from being simply a curio of those by-gone days. I still own the original album without "Homburg" and "A Whiter Shade...", and remember looking at the song titles when I got home from the record store only to find those tunes missing! So I had to buy the A&M version also. Oh well. But hearing the original album is a different listening experience--and not soley because the two most popular tunes are missing--but ti's easy to understand why the original album didn't make much headway until the new version was retitled and reissued.But this album will always be a signpost of that period when music was changing seemingly every week. But unlike many other time-locked albums, Procol Harum's first album (and possibly their first three albums) are still well worth owning. Am I thrilled that I get to purchase a lot of this music over again? Well, yes and no. If you're satisfied with the 2009 sets you may not feel the need to own this new set. But if you're a real fan of the band, this could be an essential purchase. To each his own.And can you wonder what it was like to hear Procol Harum live alongside other bands of the period like the Moody Blues, Moby Grape, Ten Years After, Country Joe & The Fish, Fairport Convention, Love, the Bee Gees, The MC5, Pink Floyd, Santana, the Grateful Dead, The Move, etc., and all for relatively little money? Procol and The Move?! Wow.Me, I'm going to listen again and review the 3 CD set (including the rarely heard mono version of the album) of "Shine On Brightly." More music fans need to know how good this band's first few albums were--and still are. AS OF A FEW DAYS after writing this review--the Esoteric 3 CD "Shine On..." review is buried in all the reviews for the various versions of the album because Amazon doesn't differentiate between the various releases--so the new review is under the "most recent" heading--after you go to "see all reviews". And both "Home" and "A Salty Dog" will be reissued in mid-August of 2015, each as 2 CD sets.This is a good summer for reissues. Fans of the band Taste (with Rory Gallagher) should watch for a 4 CD set (released under the Polydor/Universal label) of the band's two albums along with two discs of some previously unheard studio and live tracks (titled "I'll Remember"), packaged in a nice hardback book style, with a great booklet. As I said about the first Procol Harum album being something I remember from the original LP days, I still own the albums by Taste (bought as "imports" as they used to be called in record stores) and being slightly floored by how powerful Taste was. Enjoy.

It's hard to go back to a pre-1967 musical mindset and listen to this brilliant debut from a band thatpre-prog-rocked the world. One has to put into perspective that The Monkees and Paul Revere and the Raiders were top pop sellers, and the alternative (if one didn't want to hide behind the fantasy that The Beatles and The Stones could say it all) was the early touring days of The Who and Cream. And then there was "A Whiter Shade of Pale" with an organist who eschewed a Vox Continental organ for a B3, a pianist who knew how to insert depth into mystical lyrics, a guitarist who could overload his amp and not overload the sound, and a bass player and drummer who knew that competition with the front men was not an option: they had enough to do with holding everything together perfectly. Ah, Procol Harum.The recordings are as clean as one could hope from a hastily recorded magnum opus, and the extra 11 tracks actually complement the original English issue. The first album had so many variants, it's normal to think the version one heard first is the best. I do wish "Whiter Shade of Pale" started off the album as it did on the American issue, but with the magic of 21st century buttons that's easily rectified. Then again I saw Procol Harum on their first American tour and they didn't play "Whiter Shade of Pale" that night at the Village Theater: they had already moved on. Yes it would be great if the original members gathered to perfectly recreate the original sessions with 21st century technology (as Michael Oldfield eventually did with Tubular Bells 2003), but that ain't gonna happen. We're just lucky to have this record of a record that reached out to make music something new, something previously unheard, something that lasts for forty years.

I only knew about the song "A whiter shade of pale". Listened to the entire CD and it was better than I thought it would be.

Oh this beautifully remastered gem by Esoteric is a masterpiece! If you like Procol or if you have never heard of them and want to get some great music, this is the album. Loaded up with bonus tracks and the remastering make it one great package. Their number one hit, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is included here as well as "Kaleidoscope" and "Outside the Gate of Cerdes". There are several bonus tracks including their second British single "Homburg"- another masterpiece. A real bluesy number that they used for a sound check at the Original Electric Factory in Philadelphia, "Understandably Blue" is a true blues classic that is sure to please. So, if it is Procol Harum you want and want to start off right-this is it! This, by the way, is the two disc deluxe eition. The BBC Tracks here are really done well, in specific, I would have to say "Kaleidoscope". Although , in length it is shorter than the studio version, it is done with quite a bit more vigor. I also, happen to love their version of "Morning Dew", a true masterpiece. Also, there is an extended earlier version of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" that clocks in over 6 minutes in length. It,too, is a classic. On disc one there are ten bonus tracks of which the first four encompass the first two singles "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Homburg" and their b-sides respectively. The two singles are followed by a series of redone studio tracks from the original album and a couple tracks that never came to light on vinyl. A TRUE CLASSIC !!!!

En su momento más clásico.

Takes me back

Album che raccoglie quasi tutti i migliori brani dei Procol Harum.La qualità sonora del disco è eccellente e sono soddisfatto dell'acquisto.

Que contar de la para mi la mejor canción de la historia, y tengo en el altar a muchos grupos y cantantes,Discazo irrepetible

Jeder Song dieses dieses über 50 Jahre jungen Albums ist eine Perle, von den melancholischen "Something follows me", dem genialischen "A Christmas Camel" bis zu dem " Repent Walpurgis"- Instrumental mit Bach-Zitat und und dem nicht ganz unbekannt gebliebenen "A whiter shade of pale" und dem majestätischen "Homburg" und den schnelleren, witzigen Songs wie "Good Captain Clark". Gary Brooker hat eine unvergleichliche Stimme, sein Klavierspiel ist nicht virtuos, aber kultiviert und individuell, fast nie klischeehaft. Die Songs haben alles etwas Schlüssiges, Folgerichtiges, Ungezwungenes, sie stanzen einem nicht einen Refrain ein, sondern entwickeln etwas. Und dann diese Texte, geheimnisvoll, mehrdeutig Geschichten erzählend! Procol Harums Hauspoet Keith Reid wäre eigentlich auch ein Kandidat für den Literaturnobelpries gewesen, aber Procol Harum waren nie groß in Mode; wurden immer auf den einen Erfolg reduziert, sie schwebten immer immer über den ganzen Popkram, denn ihnen ging es um die Musik, nicht um die Pose ... ein Album, das durch seine Qualität verrät, in welche trivialen Abgründe die Popmusik in die letzten fünfzig Jahre abgesunken ist ...