Procol Harum: A Whiter Shade Of Pale, a deeper shade of controversy
- Ron Counte
- Jun 12
- 5 min read
Ron Counte
May 15, 1967 was a truly auspicious day for Paul McCartney. For two reasons. With his friend Eric Burdon, the Animals singer, he attended a Georgie Fame concert at the Bag O’Nails club in London where he met his future wife Linda for the first time. Later that evening they all decamped to the Speakeasy Club where a new single, released three days earlier, was played over the PA system. He was stunned. The track was A Whiter Shade of Pale. ‘We said, this is the best song ever, man,’ recalled McCartney. That’s quite something given that he had just finished the Sergeant Pepper album. It’s hard not to agree, though.
The statistics speak for themselves. In 2004 it was named as the most played record of the past 70 years on UK radio. It is one of the most covered songs of all time with over 1,000 versions registered on the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society database. It regularly appears near the top of any list of the greatest singles of all time. There is no argument about its brilliance. But every other aspect of the song and its creation is surrounded by controversy.
Let’s start with the title. According to Guy Stevens, the impresario who came up with the band name Procol Harum, he used the phrase at party at his house in the summer of 1966. As everyone was leaving he said to his wife Diana: ‘You’ve turned a whiter shade of pale. I think you’d better go to bed.’ Lead singer Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid were both at the party.
Reid disputed this. He claimed to have come up with the title himself after hearing some banter at the party about a woman looking pale, maintaining that the actual phase was not uttered by Stevens or anyone else at the time. Stevens was a colourful character whose involvement with the band came to an end when he was busted for possession of marijuana in April 1967 by none other than Detective Jack Slipper, later of Great Train Robbery fame, and was jailed.
The next issue concerns the music which inspired the celebrated organ introduction. It features a descending bassline which is extremely common in popular music. One example is Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman which also includes a not dissimilar organ sound and a similarly soulful vocal. However, the influence most commonly associated with the track is Bach’s Air On A G String which shares melodic similarity together with a descending bassline, albeit in a different key.
There is dispute even about this. Brooker claimed that the intro came from his unsuccessful attempt to play Air On A G String after hearing the jazz version by Jacques Loussier featured in the Hamlet cigar TV commercial. This could very well account for the bass pattern. But Matthew Fisher, who played the Hammond organ on the track, said he was inspired by another piece by Bach, the choral prelude Sleepers Awake. It is possible that the intro was influenced by two different Bach works played by two different band members.
And who played on the single? It was recorded before the band was fully formed. Robin Trower and BJ Wilson from the classic line-up had yet to join. A variety of drummers had played on recording sessions with Brooker around that time. Bobby Harrison believed it was the version featuring his drumming that was released but Bill Eyden was credited.
And what about the issue of who should be acknowledged as having written the song? Until 2009 it was credited to Reid, who undoubtedly wrote the enigmatic lyric, and Brooker as composer of the music. No mention of Fisher.
Fisher had been unhappy about this state of affairs ever since the music was published in the Sixties. Certainly that iconic organ solo is a powerful component of the song’s appeal, so one can feel some sympathy with Fisher who composed it. On the other hand Brooker claimed to have written the song before Fisher joined the band. There were apparently some early acetates prior to Fisher’s arrival but these have been lost and so there is no way of knowing for sure how much of that melody was composed by Brooker and how much by Fisher.
Judging by the rest of the band’s output it seems to me that the solo is far more likely to have been Fisher’s creation. If you listen to Repent Walpurgis on the band’s debut album it is similar in style to Whiter Shade and solely credited to him. Fisher also composed an organ piece called Separation, a 1968 film soundtrack, which later appeared on his Journey’s End album. Again it is melodically and thematically in the same vein as Whiter Shade. Given Fisher’s classical training and keyboard virtuosity I believe the melody belongs to him.
Fisher first brought his case to law in 2005 and was initially unsuccessful largely on the grounds that he had waited too long to open proceedings. However, the House of Lords, in its final legal judgment before the creation of the Supreme Court, disagreed. Accordingly he won the case and was entitled to a co-credit on the song and a share of all future, though not past, royalties. Brooker was disgusted with the decision and said that as far as he was concerned he would want his name taken off the credits. That would have been an expensive decision… and never happened.
Finally, we come to the biggest question of all. What on earth does the lyric mean? What’s all this about 16 vestal virgins, the light fandango, cartwheels across the floor? Reid was rather puzzled why anyone should be unclear about their meaning. I guess to him ‘The truth is plain to see’ but the rest of us continue to speculate. My assessment is that the words are evocative rather than literal and that Reid was trying to create the mood of a sexual liaison tinged with regret.
Brooker pointed out that there were two additional verses of the song, dropped for timing reasons, which would have made everything clear to everyone. Here they are. Make up your own mind.
She said ‘I’m home on shore leave’
Though in truth we were at sea
So I took her by the looking glass
And forced her to agree
Saying ‘You must be the mermaid
Who took Neptune for a ride’
But she smiled at me so sadly
That my anger straightaway died
If music be the food of love
Then laughter is its queen
And likewise if behind is in front
Then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
Seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightaway quickly
And attacked the ocean bed
Glad we cleared that one up. What cannot be questioned is the sheer power and impact of this timeless track. I have been lucky enough to have performed it live numerous times and experienced the strength of reaction it generates. People simply love to hear it. As a Hammond enthusiast I may be biased, but for my money A Whiter Shade of Pale is the greatest song ever recorded. Man.
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