A Whiter Shade of Pale

A Whiter Shade of Scott?

Yan Friis writes
The three original Walker Brothers albums are now out on CD, with loads of bonus tracks. Most interesting is the classic Portrait (1966) that now also includes all the 1966 singles plus the Solo John / Solo Scott EP. Lines notes are extracts from the book Scott Walker; A Deep Shade Of Blue (1994) by Mike Watkinson and Pete Anderson.

Now let me quote:
'A couple of days earlier, Scott insisted on using the sound of an enormous pipe organ on his latest composition. 'Scott,' laughed Johnny Franz. 'You're mad, but go ahead.' Engel duly dragged Franz and Guest down to the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square, where an unearthly organ refrain was recorded and ultimately used on Scott's Archangel (a B-side to Deadlier Than The Male) a full six months before Procol Harum's ground-breaking A Whiter Shade Of Pale.'

And
'It is a pity that the soaring Archangel, complete with doomy organ refrain built around a Bach fugue, was relegated to the B-side as the record failed to make the Top 30.'

Sounds interesting? Well, let me tell you, Archangel is simply a delight. Deadlier Than The Male was indeed only a Top 40 hit in England during December 1966 and January 1967. Although it did reach No. 25 in the more reliable (at the time) NME charts.

Did Matthew listen to the B-side? Did Gary?

The plot thickens (even more)

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