[.ca] 30th Anniversary Anthology

it's time to wake up again:
This collection has reactivated neural clusters in my brain that had long been put to sleep by post-Procol Harum musics. PH's oeuvre is so deep, so musically and intellctually satisfying, practically no other band compares. I really do wonder, though, what they sound like to someone who has never heard them before? To me this music still sounds vital. Yes the packaging is cheesy but then the price is right. I throw away the jewel boxes anyway and stash the bare CDs in folders holding 84 discs at a time anyway ...

Worth it for the bonus tracks:
The first 4 Procol Harum albums have been released in various CD formats now, most containing bonus tracks (different takes, outtakes). This collection brings you the first 4 albums on the first 2 CD's and the third CD is filled with tracks that didn't fit on the first 2 plus a stack of bonus tracks. Sound quality is great and the bonus tracks are really interesting.

Primo!:
Only two complaints: 1) I have to put the third CD on if I want to hear "Salty Dog" with the rest of the album. 2) Broken Barricades wasn't on it. But thank the gods in the heavens it's available again separately. This was the band that moved me the most in my misspent youth, and their most important work is here. What a band! Play "The Band" next to them, and you get some nice reverberations, but these guys are more moving to me. They were just an irreproducible mix of talent.

Four Classics in One Convenient Box:
Procol Harum practicallly invented "classical rock", and few groups have had the kind of musical alchemy that this band did: Matthew Fisher's classically-trained organ, Gary Brooker's bluesy vocals, Robin Trower's emerging guitar-god chops, and Keith Reid's intriguing lyrics. This set includes their first four album releases, representing perhaps their best work. Their self-titled debut album established Procol Harum's baroque sound with classically-infused tunes such as "Conquistador" and "She Wandered Through the Garden Fence". It is interesting that the original UK release omitted their smash single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale", but that was standard practice in the UK recording industry in those days, to omit singles from the subsequent album release. (If memory serves me, the US release dropped the track "Good Captain Clack" in favor of "Whiter".) Also of note is the fact that the album is entirely in mono, a strange production decision considering it came out in the same era as stereophonic sprees such as "Sgt. Pepper" and "Pet Sounds". (There are stereo takes of some of the songs on the third disc.) For my money, "Shine on Brightly" was their best album, and one of the 60's rock masterpieces. Trower really begins to emerge as a force here, as evidenced on tracks like "Rambling On" and the suite "In Held Twas In I". (According to the liner notes, the latter work was a big influence on the Who's "Tommy.") The album's theme of self-searching and discovery echoes the Moody Blues' "In Search of the Lost Chord", and production-wise, its ambition rivals "Sgt. Pepper". "A Salty Dog" is another classic, a more subdued concept album for the most part, but with satisfying tunes throughout, including the lushly-orchestrated title track (a hint of the Edmonton Orchestra collaboration to come), the searing guitar of "The Devil Came from Kansas", and the gentle ballad "Too Much Between Us". The band carries the sea-voyage theme very effectively here. (The producers of this set made the annoying decision to leave off the title track on this disc, for "time constraint" reasons, and instead included the single version of "A Salty Dog" on Disc 3.) "Home" is a bit more uneven than the previous two albums, and marked the departure of organist Fisher. But there are still highlights, including "About to Die", the mini-suite "Whaling Stories" (whose seagoing theme could easily have fit on "A Salty Dog"), and the amazing "Whisky Train", one of Trower's greatest moments and one of the best damn rock songs ever. Disc 3 would be for completists only, if not for the inclusion of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and "A Salty Dog". Also, "Homburg", the followup single to "Whiter", is worthy of inclusion. I agree with another reviewer that it would have been nice to drop some of the "alternate takes" in favor of squeezing in their excellent fifth album, "Broken Barricades"; maybe licensing was an issue. But make no mistake: this is a fine three-disc compendium of Procol's early work, and an essential addition to the collection of any fan of the "progressive rock" era.

"In held Twas in I" alone is worth the prize:
The epic 15 minutes or so "In held twas I" is a psychedelic masterpiece which gets better every time, and which has become my number 1 of this 3CD compilation! The well known A whiter shade of pale, conquistador, Homburg, Magdalene, are great as well, but was it necessary to include one or two "alternative takes" of each of them? I would rather have included some tracks of "Exotic birds and fruit".

• Conquistador
• She Wandered Through the Garden Fence
• Something Following Me
• Mabel
• Cerdes (Outside the Gates Of)
• Christmas Camel
• Kaleidoscope
• Salad Days (Are Here Again)
• Good Captain Clack
• Repent Walpurgis
• Quite Rightly So
• Shine on Brightly
• Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
• Wish Me Well
• Rambling On
• Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)
• In Held 'Twas in I: Glimpses of Nirvana/'Twas Teatime at the Circus/In
• Milk of Human Kindness
• Too Much Between Us
• Devil Came from Kansas
• Boredom
• Juicy John Pink
• Wreck of the Hesperus
• All This and More
• Crucifiction Lane
• Pilgrims Progress
• Whisky Train
• Dead Man's Dream
• Still There'll Be More
• Nothing That I Didn't Know
• About to Die
• Barnyard Story
• Piggy Pig Pig
• Whaling Stories
• Your Own Choice
• Whiter Shade of Pale
• Lime Street Blues
• Homburg
• Good Captain Clack
• Quite Rightly So
• In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence
• Salty Dog
• Long Gone Geek
• Monsieur Armand \o*\c\oOuttake\c
• Seem to Have the Blues (Mostly All the Time) \oOuttake\c
• Whiter Shade of Pale \o#\c\o*\c
• Whiter Shade of Pale \o#\c\o*\c\oInstrumental\c
• Homburg \oAlternative\c\o*\c
• Homburg \o#\c\o*\c
• Conquistador \oAlternative\c\o*\c
• She Wandered Through the Garden Fence \oAlternative\c\o*\c
• Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone) \o#\c