Procol Harum • Something Magic

Esoteric's press release offers the following details:

Procol Harum’s ‘Something Magic’ gets the reissue treatment this month [October 2020] with signed postcards by Gary Brooker available with pre-orders!

We are proud to be reissuing a new re-mastered 2 CD edition of the classic album Something Magic by PROCOL HARUM. First released in March 1977, the album introduced a new band line-up of GARY BROOKER (vocals, piano), B.J. WILSON (drums), CHRIS COPPING (bass), MICK GRABHAM (guitar) and PETE SOLLEY (organ, synthesiser) and was recorded in Miami with producers Ron and Howie Albert.

Although the album would feature a host of marvellous tracks such as Strangers in Space, Skating on Thin Ice and Something Magic and the Mick Grabham / Keith Reid composition The Mark of the Claw, relationships between the band and their producers grew strained when the Albert brothers rejected a number of other tracks written for the new album. As a result, Gary Brooker suggested the inclusion of a lengthy piece he had been working on with lyricist Keith Reid: The Worm and the Tree. This orchestrated piece would dominate a side of the album and was the first composition of this scale that Procol Harum had recorded since In Held ’Twas in I (on the 1968 album Shine on Brightly).

Following the album’s release (and a final US tour with bassist Dee Murray replacing Chris Copping), Procol Harum disbanded, eventually reforming in 1991 with the release of the album The Prodigal Stranger. At the time of its release SOMETHING MAGIC stood apart from the emerging Punk rock movement and was unfairly overlooked by critics. However, the passage of time has revealed the excellence of the album.

This new edition of SOMETHING MAGIC has been newly re-mastered and includes 14 bonus tracks comprising the rare B-side Backgammon and two live-in-the-studio recordings of You’d Better Wait and This Old Dog, originally written for the album. The set also includes an additional disc featuring Procol Harum’s performance for the BBC TV and Radio series Sight & Sound In Concert from March 1977.

This stereo BBC radio recording has been re-mastered from newly-discovered masters and appears on CD for the first time. It includes the complete version of A Whiter Shade of Pale which was cut in the original television broadcast of the set.

DISC ONE
SOMETHING MAGIC: RE-MASTERED

1. SOMETHING MAGIC
2. SKATING ON THIN ICE
3. WIZARD MAN
4. THE MARK OF THE CLAW
5. STRANGERS IN SPACE
6. THE WORM & THE TREE PART ONE:
INTRODUCTION / MENACE / OCCUPATION
7. THE WORM & THE TREE PART TWO:
ENERVATION / EXPECTANCY / BATTLE
8. THE WORM & THE TREE PART THREE:
REGENERATION / EPILOGUE
BONUS TRACKS
9. BACKGAMMON (B-side of single)
10. YOU’D BETTER WAIT (live studio recording)
11. THIS OLD DOG (live studio recording)