Procol Harlum

Procol's Ninth is the eighth studio album (ninth including Live) by Procol Harum, and was released in September 1975. Produced by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Procol's Ninth featured a slightly different direction from the previous album, with a much more stark sound than Chris Thomas's more elaborate productions. According to an interview with guitarist Mick Grabham, conducted by Roland Clare for the 2009 reissue, Leiber and Stoller focused less on the production sound and more on "the structure of the songs".

British rock group Procol Harum began life as a psychedelic band and evolved into one of the leading acts in art rock and prog rock, all without changing much about their essential approach. Lead singer and pianist Gary Brooker gave the group their trademark sound with his downbeat vocals and lush melodies, while primary lyricist Keith Reid added words that often pondered the unpredictability of fate in songs like "A Whiter Shade of Pale," "A Salty Dog," and "Conquistador." Their music was executed with keen skill and passion, and the band was also one of the first to experiment with large-scale orchestration, as well as performing on-stage with a full symphony ensemble.

After 10 albums with Procol Harum, lead singer, composer, and keyboard player Gary Brooker launched his solo career with this album. Of course, there were Brooker's familiar characteristics – the steady piano work, the butterscotch soul voice. But he switched lyric partners for this set (except for the title track), trading longtime Procol wordsmith Keith Reid for Pete Sinfield, who had performed the same function for Procol contemporaries King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Brooker also tried a couple of tunes by Stiff Records pub-rocker Mickey Jupp (Jupp's versions are better) and Murray Head's "Say It Ain't So, Joe" (Roger Daltrey's version is better). The result was a varied set that succeeded in sounding like something other than Procol Harum's 11th album, although it did not demonstrate that Gary Brooker solo was going to be an improvement over the group.

Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of an expanded 3CD edition of the acclaimed Procol Harum album “Exotic Birds And Fruit”. Released in April 1974, the album was the product of a series of recording sessions beset by power cuts, the result of industrial strife during the winter of 1973. his new expanded three CD edition of “Exotic Birds And Fruit” includes the original album (with two bonus tracks), along with two additional discs featuring the band’s entire performance for BBC Radio One’s In Concert show from March 1974.

Of the legendary bands Great Britain birthed during the 1960s, none sound remotely like Procol Harum. From their emergence with the single version of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" months before the world heard the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, they were prog before prog, psychedelic before the world knew what it was, and a rocking R&B outfit…

It makes no bones about it in the packaging so it would be churlish to get upset, but this collection of first album-era stereo mixes and alternate versions is strictly for Procol Harum collectors only. The ten-track CD has previously unissued stereo mixes of five songs from the Procol Harum album; an instrumental version of "Pandora's Box," date of original recording not given (good distorted guitar and organ dueling, though); "previously unissued alternate stereo mixes" of "Wish Me Well," a song from the Shine on Brightly album, and the single "In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence"; a long version of "Repent Walpurgis," another song that appeared on Procol Harum; and the alternate stereo version of "A Whiter Shade of Pale."

With its pop adaptations of Bach and its album with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Procol Harum was an early advocate of a marriage between rock and classical music. So, this album of Procol Harum music recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and (on the title track) the Sinfonia of London, with former Procol Harum vocalist/pianist Gary Brooker singing on seven of the 12 tracks and producing, and with former Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower and organist Matthew Fisher appearing on a version of "Repent Walpurgis," would seem like a more comfortable combination than similar recent collections devoted to the Rolling Stones and Yes…

The best collection yet devoted to Procol Harum's classic early period ties together the many facets of their sound and their early history, including numerous outtakes and all of the music on four albums from 1967 through 1970. The clarity of the sound makes the first album - which was roundly criticized, especially in England, for having been cut in mono in late 1967 - seem a lot more muscular and progressive here than it did in its original release form. The producers have tampered with the song order on A Salty Dog, moving that record's title track in amongst disc three's single sides for time considerations while still leaving "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Homburg" off of the first CD (the original commercial flaw with the debut album in England was the absence of either of those songs, and the seven-month-plus delay in getting it out)…