Conquistador

The Secrets of the Hive
by Larry Pennisi / Cerdes

Extracting the Honey
by Clyde ‘AJ’ Johnson

Conquistador

There are easily over 30 versions, live predominantly, of this song in circulation at this point. It was problematical for me to begin this section since almost anything can suffer from overplay, even the greatest of musical moments. Due to its proliferation, Conquistador falls into that category. However, the disputation of a long-standing myth must precede any Conquistadorializing.

The version of Conquistador in this anthology was actually released in the early 1970s on a Flyback compilation and a Music For Pleasure (MFP) outing as well. It is therefore, not the newly discovered jewel that we were led to believe it is. The version contained in those vinyl valleys is mixed in pure stereo as is this. There are two fundamental differences. There is a different organ solo and the vocal in the original stereo releases is tinny and thinly mixed with an overly drenched echo burdening it. The rest of the mix is the same today as it was then though a tad smoother and digitally cleaned. The track is separated into glorious stereo with piano and organ taking their respective stances and exchanging glances in the right and left channels of the stereo field. This clean separation makes it all the more possible to actually hear the playing of both Brooker and Fisher. The drums, bass and guitar reside across the board, somewhere in media res, as Paul Williams once held about another of those magical tracks on that first album back in Crawdaddy-Number 12 in 1967.

After centuries of careful and considered listening, it is clear to this keyboard player's ears that the track is exactly the same recital, as far as Beloved BJ, Robin Trower and Dave Knights are concerned, as exists on the released version on the first album with the two exceptions noted above. The vocal difference notwithstanding, the organ solo is entirely dissimilar. On the official release, Matthew opted for a expansive, sweeping solo with the Leslie tremolo spinning fast. It is also appealing to mention that the first album is the only album with Fisher where he utilizes the Hammond's "Chorus" switch to warm the organ sound up. He implements this only on Cerdes, A Christmas Camel and Kaleidoscope. Chorus on a Hammond is a vibrato-like wash that causes an oscillation of the tones produced. It is NOT vibrato, however, in that it has a far more muscular tone to it and the tonal quavering is more spacious, wider and richer. Chorus is controlled by a series of rocker panels on B and C3s and by tabs on the M100/102 series.

Be that as it may, and a technical aside for your delight only, the introductory glissando of the official organ break is followed by 14 sets of triplets using only the notes C, B Flat and G as the basis of the solo. It is the intensity and unyielding reiteration of these notes that makes it remarkable. Followed by a series of jazzy, chunking, rhythmic chordal comps, the original solo resolves with the reintroduction of the now eminent passage that is played by Matthew over the song's G Minor to E flat 7^th "chorus" chords.

On the Pandora's Box version, the original solo is forsaken, only to be replaced by what appears to be an outtake that has a technical execution error in it. The alternate solo starts out grippingly with the Leslie again on high speed and is more technically agile and funkier in its machination than it's official counterpart. However, Matthew seems to struggle as he reaches for closure in the upper registers toward the solo's coda and just about misses hitting a note cleanly. To my ears this makes the solo sound awkward and loose. It is here that, in my opinion and after having actually played the solo note for note to understand its structure, the solo falls short and is very likely the reason that it was tossed aside. Still, errors notwithstanding, I feel that the official solo makes a far more definitive, encompassing statement than this alternate one…with or without digital discrepancies. I wonder what Matthew would think of this elucidation. I hope that I am somewhat close to the truth. Is the truth really plain to see? With Procol Harum … one never knows.

First hiss and then a voice "take one, Conquistador"…and we are off! Would imagine it really was the first take as far as the basic backing track which contains BJ’s drums, bass and Robin’s guitar. Here we have to imagine that like most studios of the day there was a 2- track sitting next to the four tracks. I doubt there were two four tracks in the same room although I could be wrong.

It may have been a matter of money but like I have said in this early days only Olympic or EMI where the Beatles recorded had several four tracks to play around with. The ‘first take" is LIVE drums, bass and guitar recorded in two-track live most likely (being that’s the way they did it in those days although it could have been accomplished to one mono track, we may never know the truth) and it does sound good.

Would have loved to have heard the stereo mix of this basic backing track but unfortunately most of them were erased after they were mixed into mono and bounced from the 2-track to one of the channels on the 4-track or visa versa. Standard going back then.

So we have the rather noisy mono backing track on one tack and three left over. One for Gary’s very clearly recorded vocals and one for organ and last but not least Gary’s wonderful piano (you can actually hear it breathe unlike the original where everything was so compressed together in mono you lose the detail but are still left with the definitive versions later at Olympic)!!

Piano panned to the left and the organ to the right … nice since we are sometimes naturally drawn to the right of center when listening. Unlike my colleague I like this version with this organ bit more than any other versions from the studio (not counting the live stuff here).

Only wish listening now that there had been a way to get Robin’s guitar work on a separate track but it seems with this set it was either the piano or the guitar which would end up on the mono backing track when bounced with the drums and bass…… if only…sigh!

I find it refreshing and much more accessible for my tastes ... and yes I can hear the small goof which just adds to the Mystic of the whole IMO. There you have it. A lives stereo mix where the organ and piano actually have room to move ,breath and come alive which should have been the case in ’67.

All in all I like the way this track unfolds and the way Westside has used just a small amount of compression since I believe it to be rather bass laden when it comes to the basic mono backing track. A bit laid back for some but you can hear this one breathe, swish and swirl around my head, something that is missing in the louder too compressed version on the original.

Robin's licks are not squeezed out by the compression here. In the original his lead is more up-front in the mix but lacks the depth and bass and midrange growl which we here in the next track on this album. But that’s another story since he was given his own track instead of being bundled with BJ and bass.

Still I tend to think this track is superior since I never did like the buzzy little sound of the original. Sorry Robin, it wasn’t your fault……just the producer’s.

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