On This Date, June 24th, in 1967: Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” entered the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart where it would later peak at Number 5 (In the UK it hit #1 on June 8th). Lyrically inspired a party the band members attended where everyone was tripping on LSD (I’m pretty sure The Beatles were at that party) the song was written by the band around a melody composed by the group’s organist, Matthew Fisher, who was inspired by the chord progression of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Orchestral Suite in D,” composed between 1725 and 1739. As of 2009, “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” is the most played song in the last 75 years in public places in the UK. What a great song.
I had no idea that’s what this song was about, but now that you say it, it makes total sense!
This was a rite of passage for me as a 12 year-old back in PA. I had an original copy of the LP and played it over-and-over-and-over again. The entire album is a TRIP! At the time, listening to those LSD lyrics and never having taken LSD still had a profound effect on my consciousness. In 1971, I was old enough to travel 50 miles to Pittsburgh for a Procol Harum show. Security was so loose back in those days that when PH ended their show and people had left the theater, we jumped up on the stage, went backstage and talked to Gary Brooker for a while as he sat on some road cases. We told him how much we liked his songs and he seemed amused that these kids were digging Procol Harum so much.
BTW… the air in the theater that night was so thick with pot smoke that I must have been as high as a kite without any toking at all. No wonder I had such a fuckin’ great time! “We trip the light fandango…”
The original LP had a note on the back which read “Mono reprocessed for stereo”.