Procol Harum Album: “Greatest Hits [Metro]”

... I thought that anything that was compared, in signifcance, to the Guttenberg Press ought to be worthy of further investigation.

I had been a casual fan of Procol Harum during my youth (the 60's) but I was not overly familiar with their music. Although, I had always felt that their tunes 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' and 'Shine on Brightly' to be, perhaps, two of the finest examples 60's explorative rock. I must admit to never having owned a single disc of theirs. As a matter of fact, I do not believe that until very recently I had ever listened to one of Procol Harum's albums in it's entirety.

... I picked up this disc only to realize just how great a band they were. For the most part, this disc is utterly brilliant from beginning to end musically and lyrically. The scale of the sound, the sheer surrealistic brilliance of the lyrics and the extraordinary depth of emotions therein left be stunned, elated and emotionally electrified. This is, simply, one of the great bands of all time. A stellar example of what popular music can be but seldom is.

'Shine On'

sonics 8/10

This Greatest Hits Album of Procol Harum has not impressed me. All the songs are there, but are really two-dimensional. Its as if they had been cut from some demo tracts and are devoid of PH's lead ins, background sounds, and depth. I got this album almost principally for their great song Conquistidor and was really dispointed with it - no big horn, no orchestra sound. It may be the band didn't leave great cuts behind after disbanding, but that's pretty hard to believe. You will certainly hear all the greatest hits, but if you are after great sounding album look somewhere else.

there's too much from the first album and not enough from the second, if you're going to have a 19 track anthology, i guess you shouldn't have about half of it come from the first record, as strong a record as it was nonwithstanding. i'd have liked to have seen skip softly my moonbeams, lime street blues,simple sister, grand hotel, and a long gone geek. i guess they couldn't put post 1970 recordings and there is a weird version of one of the very greatest procul harum tracks- the moving, stately, and just plain brilliant QUITE RIGHTLY SO. a whiter shade of pale and a salty dog are wonderful numbers, but this one belongs in the procul harum hierarchy as well. thgis band was one of the very earliest , and best art rock or classical rock bands, though they also delved into r and b type stuff, psychedelia, and much more. this collection is good, but it is incomplete. you'd probably be better off with a different best of, or, if you are a big procul harum fan, you might want to shell out for the 3 cd westside collection, which features many unreleased cuts, b-sides and alternative takes, as well as their first four albums- procul harum, shine on brightly, a salty dog, and home. this was one of the bands from england that , although commercially successful, somehow wound up being quite underrated. gary brooker and matthew fisher were excellent piano and organ players, and brooker's vocals are very effective. the band's lyricist keith reid's dylan influenced lyrics would perhaps be called by some, but i find them interesting, quirky, and distinctive. bassist david knights makes solid contributions, particularly on my aforementioned favorite track quite righly so, and drummer b.j. wilson was also good, in fact, he was jimmy page's original choice for that post in led zeppelin. fisher and wilson also played on joe cocker's debut with other noteworthy english rock players. and robin trower was a talented and intriguing guitarist who later went on to solo success. procul harum's music from the late 60's/early 70's remains interesting , enlightening, and fresh today.

Like a fawn I was born anew while listening to this masterpiece. As far as as human achivements are concerned, i would place this just under Gutenberg's printing press. Stunning throughout, with a guaranteed epiphany to follow a few hundred listenings or so. What is this epiphany? That this CD is God incarnate.