Procol Harum
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=134474
Printed Date: February 21 2025 at 21:04
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Procol Harum
Posted By: B Bill (the sailor)
Subject: Procol Harum
Date Posted: February 19 2025 at 14:22
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Is it time that the Exotic Birds and Fruit album is universally accepted as the greatest album of all time? Has there ever been a better opening lyric (albeit extemporised) as “Is It On Tony?”. OK, Kevin Ayers’ “Just sitting here, picking the holes in my sneakers” must give it a run for its money. And Gong’s “What Does It All Mean Brian?”. Starting off with a question lures the listener in. “To Be Or Not To Be?” who cares? Discuss |
Replies:
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 19 2025 at 22:39
| No. Procal Harum - a lot of great songs but never nailed an album imo. Personally I like 1977's Something Magic. That was an excellent prog album but punk was just around the corner. It was to be another 14 years before their next release. |
Posted By: Valdez
Date Posted: February 19 2025 at 23:07
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Where’s my continental bride? My continental slip and slide. Grand Hotel is a masterpiece. ------------- https://bakullama1.bandcamp.com/album/sleepers-2024 |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: February 19 2025 at 23:17
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One of the great progenitors of prog, regarding A Whiter Shade of Pale -- A trailblazer showing rock could and would evolve, and simply one of the best albums of its time. One that reminds us the active and forward progression of rock was becoming not just a genre or even a movement, but an all-encompassing reality. A Grand Era of Prog that was not to be denied by critic nor listener when the artists were in charge of the art if not the asylum, represented here in one of its earliest stages, lovingly preserved for our pleasure and revelry. ------------- "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy |
Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: February 20 2025 at 01:46
One of my favourite albums.  ![Procol Harum – Grand Hotel – Vinyl (Gatefold, LP, Album), 1973 [r6228213] | Discogs](https://i.discogs.com/EvMoRwjZJY-3UKfJIJCiy-xVXR4NK4xouEUeTTzU9Y4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:593/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTYyMjgy/MTMtMTQ0NzY2OTg4/NC0yOTUyLmpwZWc.jpeg "Procol Harum – Grand Hotel – Vinyl (Gatefold, LP, Album), 1973 [r6228213] | Discogs") |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 20 2025 at 03:00
Procol never made a perfect album or even a very very good one, IMHO, and especially not after Trower left the band I've always had the feeling Brooker tried to keep the band alive with albums he dominated alone after Edmonton. I have no fave between Hotel Fruits & Ninth, but Magic is certainly very embarrassing. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
B Bill (the sailor) wrote:Posted By: MortSahlFan
Date Posted: February 20 2025 at 09:21
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I like them, but the greatest album? No. That's "Beyond The Pale" ------------- https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 20 2025 at 20:52
Erm
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Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 21 2025 at 02:21
  Symphonic-weenie stuff, IMHO   That sidelong suite was a terrible and unforgivable faute de gout in 77, much more so than ELP's sidelong epic in Luv Bitch in a few semester later. . ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: February 21 2025 at 20:29
| I find it (The Worm and The Tree) quite interesting personally but it was perhaps weirdly out of place in the punk fuelled year of 1977. I wouldn't call it 'embarrassing' though. ELP is totally another story though. The bands were kind of related through the albums Shine On Brightly and Ars Longa Vita Brevis (The Nice) providing 2 of the earliest prog epics back in 1968 and released in the same week. I suppose the comparison is therefore valid. Never before occured to me that they (Brooker and Emerson) had topped and tailed the prog epic era. Weird that! |