{"id":7451,"date":"2015-08-29T16:35:16","date_gmt":"2015-08-29T15:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=7451"},"modified":"2015-09-16T18:18:56","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T17:18:56","slug":"procol-harum-scenester-lp-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/procol-harum-scenester-lp-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Procol Harum \u2013 Scenester LP Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Procol_Harum\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Procol Harum<\/h1>\n

A Salty Dog<\/strong>\u00a0(Esoteric Recordings ECLEC2504)<\/em><\/p>\n

Esoteric Recordings are busily re-releasing some very fine material in CD form, and one its latest and best is Procol Harum\u2019s 1969 best-selling LP, \u2018A Salty Dog\u2019. Long available in various editions, this one is a 24 bit digital remaster, and also has a sister release, with much extra material. It is the LP\u00a0plus\u00a0one extra I review for you here.<\/p>\n

By the time of \u2018A Salty Dog\u2019s release, Procol Harum were established as one of the UK\u2019s top cross-genre bands, with an international hit under their purple suede belt from their classic \u2018Whiter Shade of Pale\u2019. The eponymous title track of this CD is a departure their slice of baroque pop, however; the lush orchestration with its troughs and peaks sounding like the perilous sea voyage the song witnesses. The title track was also to have a life outside the confines of the original LP, in being memorably covered by Marc Almond in 1986 for his \u2018A Woman\u2019s Story\u2019 12\u2019\u2019 single.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Milk of Human Kindness\u2019 jaunty organ, soulful vocal and muted guitar provides a release from the title track\u2019s turgid delivery, soon settling into chirpy backing, in contrast with this tale of an emotionally draining relationship\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\u2018Too Much Between Us\u2019 calm, assured guitar and voice opening leads into a sensitive analysis of the emotional distance between lovers and friends alike.
\nThe attention-grabbing drum opening to \u2018The Devil Came From Kansas\u2019 shakes us from our torpor, its slow, heavy saturnine rhythm entirely apt for a song that may be about loss of direction in life, or the temptations that present themselves to the successful rock star.<\/p>\n

\u2018Boredom\u2019s gentle string strum, dancing marimba and winding recorder chirp gives a much needed lift, cloaking its song of frustrated expectations, whether from love, or life, or both.<\/p>\n

The aggressive blues of \u2018Juicy John Pink\u2019 is worthy of any of their more purist contemporaries, the vocal raw and throaty, the guitar strangled to within an inch of its life, the lyric a familiar tale of your own mortality\u2019s certainness, and your possible fearful destiny in the world beyond.
\nBack with tales of the sea, \u2018Wreck of the Hesperus\u2019 enlivening piano opening and cannon-shot drum beats perfectly set the scene for this song of dashed hopes and dangerous times on the mighty ocean.<\/p>\n

\u2018All this and more\u2019 leads us into a glorious, rising, \u2018Homburg\u2019 style melody, and a song of the renewing power of love over all trauma.
\n\u2018Crucifiction Lane\u2019s Biblical references fit well with this slow, soulful blues, the elegantly turning guitar riff reflecting the moribund lyrics. Whether it\u2019s about the saviour, or perhaps a more earthly character, I\u2019ll leave up to you to decide.<\/p>\n

\u2018Pilgrim\u2019s Progress\u2019 organ and voice double act evoke the band\u2019s aforementioned world famous hit, a reflective tale of the playing out of decisions, dashed hopes and unintended consequences with more highly evocative references to the sea.<\/p>\n

Bonus B-Side track \u2018Long Gone Geek\u2019 hits us with a steady rollin\u2019 blues rock riff in a jokey Wild West tale of an absurd jail break, and what it\u2019s doing on this otherwise worldly and uplifting LP is anyone\u2019s guess. BUY HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ProcolHariumHome\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Procol Harum<\/h1>\n

Home<\/strong> (Esoteric Recordings ECLEC2506)<\/em><\/p>\n

Another worthy re-release by Estoreric Recordings, is Procol Harum\u2019s fourth album. Still riding high on the success of their international 1967 hit \u2018A Whiter Shade of Pale\u2019, Procol Harum released their \u2018Home\u2019 LP in 1970. With its pop art cover, somewhere between a game board and a Peter Blake style collage, with the band running around\u00a0 as cartoon characters, this jokey cover disguised the largely pitch-dark material within.<\/p>\n

\u2018Whisky Train\u2019s taut, energetic lead guitar riff, cow bells and a strong vocal shuttle along like the steam train used as a metaphor for the hazardous journey of alcoholism. A song full of hopeful intent, it\u2019s a great way start to the LP.<\/p>\n

The Hieronymous Bosch-like atmosphere pf \u2018The Dead Man\u2019s Dream\u2019 opens with slow piano, a little nod to \u2018Homburg\u2019 in the music, with a brooding organ backing that builds up, the lyrics becoming ever more macabre as the song rumbles on.<\/p>\n

\u2018Still There\u2019ll Be More\u2019s threat of painful revenge careers about like a speeding lorry, the music a little jauntier than the jet-black lyrics would suit.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing That I Didn\u2019t Know\u2019s music comes as a relief, its gentle acoustic guitar opener, punctuated by dramatic drumbeats, building nicely, again at odds with the sad tale of a girl\u2019s fatal suffering.<\/p>\n

\u2018About To Die\u2019s gospel feel, with organ exclamations and lyrical allusions to Christ work well, in this song of religious self-certainty.<\/p>\n

\u2018Barnyard Story\u2019s slow, solemn piano and glorious swell are more like the Procol Harum of just a few years before, but hidden in a mysterious tale of the closeness of the barnyard to the boneyard.<\/p>\n

\u2018Piggy Pig Pig\u2019 continues this country-based theme, the heavy, heavy piano and drums, lots of echo and more mysterious, dirt, disease-ridden lyrics make for a strong track, the lead guitar work kicking in powerfully and ending in farmyard noises that sound more unnerving than comical.<\/p>\n

\u2018Whaling Stories\u2019 title, suggestive of another \u2018A Salty Dog\u2019 is soon complicated by jazzy tinkling of the ivories, (think about it) and sad, bluesy guitar licks. Anvil taps in the back ground, loud, exclamatory vocal performance and good, exciting riffs all work well, in this expansive high adventure story.<\/p>\n

\u2018Your Own Choice\u2019s\u00a0 jaunty, whimsical tale of life and love and drinking, and the hazards associated with them\u00a0 is a relief from the LP\u2019s generally morbid tone.<\/p>\n

Our bonus track has the US single radio edit of \u2018Whisky Train\u2019, in the then-fashionable, good, hard boogie, and all the better for it. BUY HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Procol Harum A Salty Dog\u00a0(Esoteric Recordings ECLEC2504) Esoteric Recordings are busily re-releasing some very fine material in CD form, and one its latest and best is Procol Harum\u2019s 1969 best-selling LP, \u2018A Salty Dog\u2019. Long available in various editions, this one is a 24 bit digital remaster, and also has a sister release, with much …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":7455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,6,128,71,74],"tags":[750,1160,580,1158,305],"series":[],"class_list":["post-7451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eyeplugs","category-features","category-hot-plugs","category-music","category-reviews","tag-cherry-red-records","tag-esoteric-recordings","tag-eyeplug-net","tag-procol-harum","tag-scenester"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7451"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7481,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7451\/revisions\/7481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7451"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=7451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}