Procol HarumBeyond |
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Brooker, Fisher, Whitehorn, Pegg, Wallace
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The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Simple Sister The King of Hearts The Truth Won't Fade Away A Salty Dog Whisky Train Last Train to Niagara Conquistador A Whiter Shade of Pale (with JS Bach / Bob Marley / Percy Sledge intro) As Strong As Samson |
Before the band played A Whiter Shade of Pale Gary entertained the audience with one of his characteristic spiels about Bach and so forth. Interestingly, he claimed that the introduction to AWSoP was adapted from the Prelude in D minor from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier Book II and played a so-say excerpt from it [mp3 here]. This excerpt is nothing whatever like Bach's actual piece [mp3 here] but its opening bars are strikingly similar – same key as well – to the start of AWSoP from The Symphonic Music [mp3 here] which came out two years later in 1995. On that disc the arrangement is attributed to Darryl Way (ex-Curved Air), but this 1993 excerpt raises the possibility that the inspiration for the minor-key introduction was Brooker's, not Way's. |
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Joan May writes to BtP that 'I think Gary confused Prelude in D minor with Orchestral Suite Number 3 in D major - the Air on a G String that Loussier jazzed up'; she also draws attention to Artsworld's Matthew Fisher reference in the following commentary: "Correctly, the Air from Orchestral Suite No 3 in D BWV1068. One of four parts, from one of four suites of pieces for small instrumental groups … featured in the film The Spy Who Loved Me, and in the UK in TV adverts for Hamlet cigars (in Jacques Loussier's hotel-lobby jazz arrangement [mp3 here]). Also heard in Sweetbox's slow rap single Everything's gonna be all right (1998). The tender, airy string theme from the Air, cleverly worked around the walking bass, has become probably the most familiar of all Bach's orchestral music. It's sometimes said that Procol Harum's 1967 hit single, A Whiter Shade of Pale, is based on the piece. It isn't, according to the song's writer, Matthew Fisher. The resemblance only extends to a vaguely similar bass line and harmonic progression." |
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10 |
Songs altogether: |
1 |
from Procol Harum |
0 |
from Shine on Brightly |
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1 |
From A Salty Dog |
1 |
from Home |
1 |
from Broken Barricades |
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0 |
From Grand Hotel |
1 |
from Exotic Birds and Fruit |
0 |
from Procol's Ninth |
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0 |
From Something Magic |
3 |
from The Prodigal Stranger |
2 |
non-album tracks |
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PH on stage | PH on record | PH in print | BtP features | What's new | Interact with BtP | For sale | Site search | Home |