Procol Harlum

Procol Harum's debut album is amazingly engaging, considering that it was rushed out to capitalize on the hit title track. The material was all already written (before the hit, in fact), but the group recorded the LP in just two days, simply to get a long-player out, and came up with one of the more pleasingly straightforward releases in their history. The range of sounds here is the widest ever heard on one of the group's albums – "A Christmas Camel" isn't that far from the old Paramounts, the group tackling a sound inspired by Bob Dylan (and derived specifically from his "Ballad of a Thin Man"), while "Salad Days" and "Kaleidoscope" are hard-driven psychedelic rockers, stripped down to the basics, with no pretensions.

Procol Harum is the self-titled first album by British rock band Procol Harum, released in June 1967. The original Deram release of the LP included a large poster of the album cover artwork by Dickinson. Though the album was recorded on multi-track, it was issued in mono-only in the UK, and in mono and rechanneled stereo in the US. Despite extensive searching, the original multi-track tapes have not been located and thus a stereo mix of the original 10 tracks may never be possible. Several alternate takes (marked + in the list, below), however, have been mixed into stereo and are available on CD. All songs written by Gary Brooker (music) and Keith Reid (lyrics), except "Repent Walpurgis" written by Matthew Fisher, after works by French organist Charles-Marie Widor and German composer Johann Sebastian Bach. more…

This was the "reunion album" for Procol Harum in 1991, but recorded without B.J. Wilson, who died in late 1990, and this album was dedicated to him in the C.D. booklet notes. For this reunion, the members were Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher, Robin Trower and Keith Reid, plus session musicians or musicians who previously recorded and toured with Gary Brooker as a soloist. The sound of the album is an "updated" Procol Harum for the 90s, with female backing vocals in some songs, and some synthesizers (not listed in the credits).

IN CONCERT is a masterful package capturing a phenomenal live show. Procol Harum, after all, have the kind of repertoire that naturally lends itself to the orchestral situation, and, of course, this isn't their first dive into those waters.