"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"

 

So, I just got this Shine On Bartly album...finally...and it's pretty sweet. Maybe not as sweet as the debut, but sweet nevertheless. "Skip Softly (My Moonbeans)" is just CRAZY. Am I sensing a Strange Days influence with all the carnival references?

 

Anyway, so what's up with this "In Held Twas I" thing? It's not just a proto-progressive suite, it IS a progressive suite. It's got multiple movements, spooky conceptuality, nicely used sound effects...it's like a minature Wall, eleven years too soon. So why isn't it remembered fondly, around the fireplace, in smoking jackets and with wine whilst gazing at the hunting trophies? NO, instead, we recall that whole Days o' Future Pissed, which is WAY less proggy than this.

 

And what was the reaction to the record at the time? I wasn't there, you have to understand. On holiday.

 

Unfortunately for Procol, their catalog has been in disarray forever, and the product can be spotty.  Missing songs.  Sub-optimal sound.  Someone (Rhino, are you listening?) needs to purchase the catalog, at least the Trower years, and give them a proper remastering.  Then I for one would buy the whole lot.

 

But of course given that the original band members are, 40 years later, still suing each other over composer credits, probably does not help.

 

Indeed they did.  I prefer the original, though.  But isn't that always the way it is?

PH's early material has been endlessly recycled to the point that one can be easily blase about it due to the mishandling (compared to, say, Genesis who have not been burdened with endless compilations, really), but listening to their debut they were ahead of their time. 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' is the most obvious example of their classical/rock crossover, but 'She Wandered Through The Garden Fence' and the doomy instrumental 'Repent Walpurgis' is in a vaguely similar mode, IMHO. 'In Held 'Twas In I' is their most adventurous piece, and I would argue one of the most adventurous pieces in rock music up to that point. I certainly feel it had an impact on Genesis' 'Supper's Ready', to name but one.

 

I think the band's classical/rock fusions were more subtle than The Moody Blues' were. I think Procol Harum's music has generally stood the test of time better; there are moments of pure hilarity on The Moody Blues albums to be had nowadays (mainly the 'poetry'; even though on Procol Harum's 'In Held 'Twas In I' there is a narrated section, I think it's much more tongue-in-cheek than The Moody Blues' ones), and I find the string arrangements on 'Days Of Future Passed' to be a bit tedious, plus there is very little actual integration between the band and the orchestra. This unfortunate 'band plays a bit, orchestra plays a bit' trait was used as the template for Deep Purple's similarly non-cohesive 'Concerto For Group And Orchestra'.

Hell yeah!