Procol Harlum

This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range, A Salty Dog was recorded in a reasonable amount of time, giving the band a chance to fully develop their ideas…

This whole album was an afterthought – Procol Harum had been invited to play a concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Da Camera Singers in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in August of 1971, at the tail-end of their last tour with Robin Trower in the lineup. Amid all of the preparation – including the writing of new orchestral arrangements by Gary Brooker and with a new lead guitarist, Dave Ball, just joining the lineup – Brooker decided that it might be a good idea to preserve a professionally made tape of the show and suggested that A&M Records, to which they were signed, might want to record the performance; the label agreed with just a week to go until the concert.

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)…

Procol Harum - A Salty Dog (1969) {2015 2CD Set, Remastered & Expanded Deluxe Edition}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 488 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 216 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 33 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1969, 2015 Esoteric Recordings / Onward Music / Cherry Red Records | ECLEC 22503
Rock / Art Rock / British Psychedelia / Prog-Rock

Esoteric Recordings are proud to announce the release of a newly re-mastered and expanded edition of the classic 1969 album A SALTY DOG by PROCOL HARUM. Released in June 1969, the record followed on from the huge international success of the band's debut single A Whiter Shade of Pale and the follow up single Homburg and the superb albums PROCOL HARUM and SHINE ON BRIGHTLY. One of the finest releases of the era A Salty Dog saw the exquisite song writing of Gary Brooker and Keith Reid honed to perfection on highlights such as the album's title track, The Devil Came From Kansas, Wreck of the Hesperus, The Milk of Human Kindness and more. Recorded at Abbey Road studios, the album captured the excellence of the musicians in the group, namely Gary Brooker (voice, piano), Robin Trower (lead guitar), David Knights (bass guitar), B.J. Wilson (drums) and Matthew Fisher (Hammond organ).