Novum words competition

The winner and the answer

Info about Novum, 2017's new Procol Harum studio album, is in the BtP / Gary Brooker interview which broke the news 
 

Congratulations to Craig Carty, from Arkansas, America, who has opted for the signed album as his reward for correctly guessing that 'A' was the interloper.

He was not alone ... 'A' was by some margin the most popular answer (perhaps there are promo copies of the album now in circulation?).

Commiserations to the many people who, therefore, didn't win, and thanks for playing.

Kudos to those sage folk who waited until after the Royal Festival Hall concert before sending their entry ... and who listened to Steve Wright on Radio 2 ... their odds were reduced from one-in-twelve to one-in-eight (and those who had numerous e-mail addresses, or copious compliant relations, were able to cover all available possibilities without too much difficulty).

We liked entries specifying 'D for Difficult' or 'F for Futile', and we were interested by various bits of rationale that were offered: "Obviously 'A' is the odd-one-out because the line does not scan" was one that didn't quite hold water (you can sing that line to the tune of A Whiter Shade of Pale or of Homburg).

Here are the sung-lines correlated with their songs of origin, except in the case of  'A', but there's no prize for guessing where that line came from.