Best of BJ : fans select tracks for a compilation album

Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

Fans recommend BJ's best (official) tracks

Further additions welcomed

Subj: [Procol] Best of BJ compilation: track listing
Date: 2000, May 22
From: roland@procolharum.com

BtP has just had an enquiry: what 12 tracks would be best to compile to introduce Barrie Wilson's work to a professional drummer who (bizarrely!) doesn't know Procol Harum already?

I will pass on people's considered suggestions ... it's an interesting question, I think (please stick to the official releases) ...

A Salty Dog
About To Die
Repent Walpurgis
Grand Hotel
A Souvenir of London
The Thin End Of the Wedge
Simple Sister
Playmate of the Mouth
All This And More
Skating On Thin Ice
Robert's Box
In Held 'Twas In I

As Strong as Samson
Broken Barricades
Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
The Final Thrust
Still There'll Be More
Kaleidoscope
Memorial Drive

I'm a little surprised no-one has mentioned Bringing Home The Bacon which contains that strange sort of gear change at the beginning.

Well, personally speaking, I hope we've only scratched the surface! I know BJ would want to include the Blue Danube, Adagio Di Albinoni and Mr Blue Day even though they might not be high on the list for fan appreciation. I also think Whisky Train is a must!

I think I was about 12 years old as my grandpa began to teach me how to play the drums. At that time I thought he was a very old-fashioned drummer. So I don't wanted to hold the sticks the way he told me (between thumb and forefinger at the left hand - no real rock-drummer would do that!), I don't wanted to play the snare as he showed me (I hated those Ruffs, Rolls and Paradiddles).

How often he told me "you don't have to play like a machine boy you're a musician". I wanted to play simple, quick, hard and loud. Two years later I heard PH for the first time. Whow, the drummer played like grandpa in a modern version and it sounded great! It was 1976 as I saw PH for the first time live at German TV. BJ hold the sticks the way grandpa used to do ...

BJ never has been a "drum-machine". His snare-drum-play was superb, also the way he used the cymbals. BJ played the toms in a very melodious way. My grandpa was about seventy as he got to know songs of PH and he was very impressed by the way BJ did his work.

What 12 tracks would be the best? An intersting question I thought, too. I wandered through my Procol-albums, listened to several songs and after some time I was sure: It doesn't matter what you choose. Every song shows BJ's hand - or should I better say drum-writing?!

PS: I'm sure meanwhile grandpa and BJ are playing together in heaven and I hope I have the chance to join them one day ...

Bringing Home the Bacon
Power Failure
A Salty Dog
Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)

Bringing Home the Bacon
Power Failure
A Salty Dog
Still There'll Be More
Whisky Train
The Devil Came From Kansas
Broken Barricades
Repent Walpurgis
Whaling Stories
The Unquiet Zone
With a Little Help From My Friends
In Held 'Twas In I

"When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are halfway there."
- Japanese Proverb

Date: 2000, May 22
From: cerdes@ulster.net (Cerdes-The Gatekeeper)

(please stick to the official releases) ...

Hey, that's not fair. BJ's best was always in person though the records are impeccable of course.

This is gonna' start to sound like the same thing over and over again, but ... A Salty Dog ... because of the way he 'plays' the silence between the percussion

About to Die ... because it's one of the first songs to show BJ's manic side coming out

Bringing Home the Bacon ... because, on first listening, you can't figure out what the heck's going on.

I don't remember who suggested this as I hastily deleted the email, but as this is a collection promoting BJ rather than Procol, Joe Cocker's With a Little Help From My Friends should definitely be included. This a song the man we're trying to lure into our little fan club has in all likelihood heard and appreciated the song before, and including it could help create one of those great hey-I-didn't-know-he-did-THIS-song moments. Also, the drumming on Little Help is exceptional, and helps show his range because the demands of the song are different than the demands of a Procol Harum song.

I for one find A Salty Dog a must and as Beverly says ... Whisky Train etc ... a must and well really just about everything he did but for my money the two that floored me finally about BJ and his drums ... official releases only ... and that was the only kind when first heard would be everything on Broken Barricades ... Power Failure is totally mind boggling except that they intentionally made a spoof out of the drum solo for some reason ... pressure from the road,studio?? The live versions are so much better.

Hope the Cerdes offer is taken here. But I'm also suprised no one listed Bringing Home the Bacon too ... one of the wackiest and mind boggling drum-alongs I ever heard. By far the best of the studio stuff next to ASD. Not many drummers can reach that zone for very long: even BJ blew it once in a while athough I remember at the Santa Monica Civic in '77 it being the real hghlight of the evening as for BJ's drumming. It was perfect and the whole arrangement by then WAS his little old drum set on the left ... or right if you were BJ;-]

With A Little Help From My Friends (Joe Cocker)
Conquistador (Live/Edmonton)
A Salty Dog (Live/Edmonton)
Nothing That I Didn't Know
About To Die
Your Own Choice
Bringing Home the Bacon
For Liquorice John
Fires (Which Burnt Brightly)
As Strong As Samson
The Idol
The Unquiet Zone

And I'm still longing for an official release of Live material that does BJ and Procol justice.

I haven't found the time to consider a personal selection properly, but I think Joan was the first to mention For Liquorice John, and I agree. The drums in that song are a real wonder.

Salad Days for its exquisite elegance and taste. No one else would have imagined to play what BJ did.

Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions for The Best of BJ : all forwarded to the original enquirer.

Would Palers like to suggest "The Ideal Set", of about two hours, for Procol Harum to play live in the year 2000?

Fans voted for their top ten PH songs in 1998 (http://www.procolharum.com/topten.htm) but this is a different question: the Ideal Set wouldn't necessarily be all favourite songs and hits : it could feature neglected masterpieces, dramatic contrasts, instrument-swaps, whatever you think fittest, and most closely corresponding to classic PH gigs in memory (or at http://www.procolharum.com/setlist0.htm)

Needless to say BtP can send the best of these to GB in the hope of whetting his appetite for the PH gig he's promised to play this year!

Repent Walpurgis - Procol Harum
With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker 1st Album
Just Like A Woman - Joe Cocker 1st Album
Shine On Brightly - Shine on Brightly
A Salty Dog - A Salty Dog
Whisky Train - Home
Still There'll Be More - Home
Power Failure - Broken Barricades
Simple Sister - Broken Barricades
Fires (Which Burnt Brightly) - Grand Hotel
Lady Day - Lou Reed Berlin
The Unquiet Zone - Procol's Ninth
Something Magic - Something Magic
A Salty Dog - Isle of Wight / Atlanta Triple CBS Album
Ghost Train - GB's Echoes In The Night
Hear What You're Sayin' - GB's Echoes In The Night

I've put some in from outside PH. The two Joe Cocker tracks show different styles in drumming and Just Like A Woman I like for the collaboration with MF and the very subtle playing of BJ in the background. I think Lady Day is one of his better performances of the 70s and so very BJ.

Nobody seems to have mentioned In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence. The most commonly-released version and the performance on the Dutch Best of CD make my hair stand on end each time I listen. BJ's playing at the end of the third verse in particular is a joy.

Procol Harum

Beyond the Pale

Fans recommend BJ's best (official) tracks

Further additions welcomed

Beyond
the Pale