William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

From: Broken Barricades ; Year: 1971; Genre: Progressive Rock Another performer on my mind I had today that I thought I would choose a song from, (Robin Trower), but instead I picked one from a band he was in, which is Procol Harum. This track comes from the final record from Robin Trower's first run with the band until the early 1990s. Song for a Dreamer was one he wrote in reaction to the death of Jimi Hendrix, which happened about a year prior to the album's release. As expected, there's a lot of excellent guitar work throughout this 5+ minute song.   Hear Song for a Dreamer on YouTube.       My song pick 1 year ago today: Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Watching Over You   My song pick 2 years ago today: The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia   My song pick 3 years ago today: Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO) - Givin' It All Away My song pick 4 years ago today: Rush - Summertime Blues My song pick 5 years ago today: The Fatback Band ...

From: Procol Harum ; Year: 1967; Genre: Progressive Rock For the last few days I've had a bunch of Procol Harum's music running through my mind off and on; as per usual I'm taking it as a sign I should pick one of their songs. Anyway, this was more or less the second hit from the band following up their monster hit Whiter Shade of Pale, and it also followed almost the same formula too, but not as well. All in all it's a pretty good second hit for the band. Hear Homburg on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Faces - Stay With Me My song pick two years ago today: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Oh Susannah My song pick three years ago today: Miles Davis - Freedom Jazz Dance My song pick four years ago today: Boston - More Than a Feeling My song pick five years ago today: David Bowie - Suffragette City My song pick six years ago today: Slade - Mama Weer All Crazee Now My song pick seven years ago today: Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) - Prologue...

706 ( Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale ) Yesterday, I found out that Procol Harum's organist Mathew Fisher won his court battle for royalties and recognition as co-writer of A Whiter Shade of Pale , a writeup can be found here . His Bach inspired counter-punctual line on the Hammond organ really made the song what it is; it is nice to see that he is getting official recognition for his work after all of these years. I cannot believe that I have not chosen this song yet and I have not chosen a Procol Harum song for a while either; definitely time to do so. Here is a music video with the studio version on YouTube. Here is a recent live performance on YouTube. +

I heard this track today on the radio and figured I should choose it; it is quite complex in arrangements and has kind of a brooding feel to it. I like how they use strings in the beginning then builds and builds until the song climaxes at the chorus and then begins to build again with the next verse. There is a lot going on in parts of this song, however nothing is lost in the mix and it makes a single great sound. Here is the studio version on YouTube. Here is a live performance from Sight & Sound on YouTube. Here is a live performance from 2001 on YouTube. +