All Hands on Gus

Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

Word of Mouth Parade

Not a collaboration between Brooker / Reid and Gus

The following exchange on the Procol email list began with a reference to a Newsgroup post mentioning the amazon.com review of Word of Mouth Parade by Gus, which listed Brooker / Reid as co-writers of the title track.

I got the Gus CD and played the title track -- credited on the liner notes to Gus, Greg Wells, Keith Reid and Gary Brooker. It's a pleasant tune - not really Procol-ish....

all hands on deck
all feet off the dash
this is not a test
of love, decide you scream belief
as love it cuts you bend and bleed
so wide awake and lost
in the meaning of it all
you're tired of the talk in you're head
Hey, you're out along the word of mouth parade you're too tied up, tied up in ways
You're out along the word of mouth parade you're too tied up, tied up

all hands on deck
by the skin of your teeth
this is house arrest
of love goodbye you scream please
as love it cuts you bend and bleed
you're still hidin' from a ghost
and the feelings you hate most
you're fire to the wood she said
Hey, you're out along the word of mouth parade you're too tied up, tied up in ways
You're out along the word of mouth parade you're too tied up, tied up
Hey, you're out along the word of mouth parade you're too tied up, tied up in ways
You're out along the word of mouth parade you're too tied up, tied up
You're out along the word of mouth parade you're too tied up, tied up

Notice the credits on this version -- and the obvious connection to Keith ... my hypothesis is that the song was written by Gus and Greg Wells, but at the last minute they added Brooker / Reid to the credits because of the use of that line. Others have said it before Keith, of course, but I guess the fact that it opens the song could be construed as a lift from A Salty Dog ... I hear no reason for Gary to receive credit though -- if my hypothesis is correct and the four of them really didn't collaborate on the words / music and that one line is the only Procol connection ...

I emailed Gus with this question -- others might want to do the same -- his address is at the above URL...

This is my first post to the list, so please be gentle! There was a radio interview with Gus on the program "World Café" that was broadcast last week, which I've roughly transcribed. Might shine a light on the situation here in case Gus is too busy to reply to us. Joan, your assumptions about the last-minute songwriting credit seems spot on.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't GB always received co-credit Keith on ASD? Also, does anyone know the story behind Almo Sounds which released Gus's album? It appears this is the same Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss behind A&M, which is another PH link to all this. Well, more in the interview which follows.

World Café
I find this really intriguing -- that due to as far as I can assume, just one line -- you had to give credit to the guys from Procol Harum for this.

Gus
Y'know, they say that writers have antennas and you pick things up through the air, transmitted, whatever that malarkey of pretentiousness. I guess it was true because I came up with the chords [strums], and I was just in my apartment in Seattle [Gus sings: "all hands on deck" and the host laughs.] Y'know, and I was['nt?] thinking anything. I wrote the song, it was a great process. Of course, you work with people like Jerry Moss who've been in the industry for a while; he was the one who raised the flag. And one line -- I didn't think that it would be that big of a deal, I thought they'll do something fair y'know. They asked for a considerable chunk of the song.

WC
Well, that's what happened with The Verve, they didn't make any money using just the string arrangements from a Stones song. Well, let's play it so people know what we're talking about. It does have a little bit of that chord progression as well. ["Word of Mouth Parade" plays] That is the title track "Word of Mouth Parade" which Gus shares co-writing with Keith Reid and Gary Brooker on. Did anybody ever talk to them?

Gus
Yeah. I didn't, I personally didn't. What could I say to them? Thanks for only taking that much? But their song is a great song.

Joan says 'others have said it' before Keith, ie the opening line. As I understand it the origin is an old English folk song [apart from it being a basic maritime call] "All Hands our Captain Cried' which also spawned the tune used for the pre-Procol Bunyan lyric Pilgrim's Progress.

As for legal niceties this is not like the Verve case as they did take a bit of an arrangement. It is more like when Van Morrsion got money off 'Wet Wet Wet' merely for using one three word phrase that he had used 'sweet little mystery'. All I can say is it's just as well for Van that Dion Fortune and WB Yeats don't come back to life and have his mindset or he'll be broke and ditto for Bach, Shakespeare, the navy and Guy Stevens re Gary and Keith.

Fwiw I think Gus could have got away without crediting them if he'ld toughed it out: it's only FOUR words and one of them is 'on'. Mind you, you might get a stupid judge [no harm intended to all the judges on this list].

Thanks for your very informative post about that Gus song, and also about the A&M connection -- I hadn't noticed that about Alpert and Moss' new record company!

<<<Please correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't GB always received co-credit Keith on ASD?

<<<Yes but it's clearly stated that Keith wrote the words and Gary the music, so I don't see where Gary's name should be on Word of Mouth Parade when it's only a matter of words, not music, from ASD being in the Gus song... (But I don't know if there's some legal mumbo jumbo that joins G&K in being credited no matter what parts are excerpted -- does anyone know?). Frankly I don't think Keith deserves credit either -- that phrase "all hands on deck" wasn't even written by him but rather "in the public domain" at the time he inserted it into ASD ... I think Gus should have deleted that line from the song rather than give up a big chunk of his publishing.. maybe he can still do that on future releases, if any...

I mentioned an Echo and the Bunnymen song with the old "all hands on deck" in it and have now belatedly realized this is an early 80s song and for your minor amusement attach the words which are closer to A Salty Dog than the Gus was.

All at sea again
And now my hurricanes have brought down this ocean rain
To bathe me again
My ship's a sail
Can you hear its tender frame
Screaming from beneath the waves
Screaming from beneath the waves

All hands on deck at dawn
Sailing to sadder shores
Your port in my heavy storms
Harbours the blackest thoughts
I'm at sea again
And now your hurricanes have brought down this ocean rain
To bathe me again

My ship's a sail
Can you hear its tender frame
Screaming from beneath the waves
Screaming from beneath the waves...

Procol Harum

Beyond the Pale

Word of Mouth Parade

Not a collaboration between Brooker / Reid and Gus

Beyond
the Pale