Procol Harum Album: “Shine on Brightly”

1968's "Shine On Brightly" is Procol Harum's second album, and it's another classic Bach-meets-rock hybrid from Gary Brooker & company. "Quite Rightly So" and the title track are both Harum classics. "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)" has a great ominous bounce to it. The gospel-esque "Wish Me Well" is another buried treasure from the band, as are "Rambling On" and "Magdelene (My Regal Zonophone)". Finally, Harum deliver the first of their two epic pieces in their catalog, the 17-minute "In Held Twas In I," a classical-rock suite containing 5 or 6 different movements, plus a couple of spoken word passages (Harum's other lenghty piece is the conceptual "The Worm & The Tree" from 1977's "Something Magic," but that's another review). "In Held Twas In I" is not for everybody---some fans say the various movements don't flow together too well---but I think it's a very adventurous piece, filled with lots of great moods & melodies. And, as one of rock's very first epic compositions, it's also quite groundbreaking. From start to finish, "Shine On Brightly" is another great milestone for Procol Harum.

As an album, "Shine on Brightly" is somewhat of a concept piece. It seems to chronicle the fall and subsequent rise of an ordinary individual as he/she progresses through paranoia and insanity to self actualization and nirvanic bliss. This journey is summarized in the epic eighteen minute "In Held 'Twas In I." But, more on that masterpiece in a moment. Six songs of individual importance, beauty, and weight lead up to Procol's opus. Of these, my personal favorites are "Quite Rightly So," "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)," and "Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)." "Magdalene" and "Skip Softly" are particularly beautiful in their lyrics, which seem deal with the redemptive qualities of music and the descent into a dark world of insanity, repectively. For me, however, the true highlight of the album is "In Held 'Twas In I," particularly the "Grand Finale." The composition never really lags or bores (like most Art or Progressive Rock epics), and always greets the ears with new and marvelous sounds. The Westside reissue again features songs that are either previously unreleased, B-sides, or alternate versions. Of these, the cynical "Seem to Have the Blues (Mostly All the Time)" and "In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence" are probably the strongest, although Gary Brooker does a nice job with the Italian rendering of the lyrics to "Shine on Brightly" in the rarity, "Il Tuo Diamante." All in all, Procol's second album is an exciting and magnificent Art-Rock production, worth owning not only for fans of the band but fans who admire intelligent lyrics and songwriting of a heightened quality.

The one star review is, unfortunately, absolutely correct!!! I thought I was going crazy or that my ears were shot. After researching it, I learned in fact that the speed was, in fact, too fast. So much for listening to or proofing their own product. One of my favorite Procol albums. I subsequently bought a Japanese import of it.

Salvo has done an excellent job packaging this CD. It includes great photos and notes. Sonically, the remastering is amazing. Salvo has put much work in attempt to deliver a quality product that a historic album like "Shine on Brightly" deserves. With their attention to detail and all the hard work they put into this CD, how did Salvo not notice they got the speed of the album terribly wrong? This remaster is running way too fast. Didn't they bother to listen to it when they were finished? Gary Brooker's voice just doesn't sound right at this speed and it makes this remaster unlistenable for me. I would like to know if Salvo has any plans to remedy this.

The early Association ("Along Comes Mary" and "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies") and the Left Banke ("Walk Away Renee", "Pretty Ballerina) started the baroque-rock ball rolling. Procol Harum picked it up and ran hard with it for their first two albums. This, their second, followed close on the heels of the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper' and was both influenced by it, and carried parts of its ideation to greater heights/depths.

The first song, the up-tempo "Quite Rightly So" combines baroque compositional rigor with stellar organ solos to rival even "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Its lyrics eschewed the earlier song's surrealism in favor of a more soul-searching text, on a smaller, less mystical scale than George Harrison's "Within You Without You" from 'Pepper'.

The title cut, "Shine On Brightly", follows with a serious return to the surreal, the lyrics upping the intensity via meandering metaphors winding around the listener like the coils of a brazen serpent. There is [weak]humor and/or irony in the psychological allegory that unfolds here. Glorious organ solos continue, intensified by Robin Trower's searing guitar licks, which inject their purgatorial eloquence and strident power.

With "Skip Softly My Moonbeams", the music and lyrics become more hellish - carrying over the brink into serious spiritual/psychological crisis. Sounds of a brutish and clownish nature enhance a sense of desperation not heard since "A Christmas Camel" on the first album. There only the lyrics told the complete story - the music was impassioned, but not so expressionistic like here - with sinister, percussive licks from Trower's guitar, Fisher's organ glissandos, and even the backup singer(s).

On "Wish Me Well", the bottom falls out - we enter the underworld. The music becomes a kind of 'psychedelicized' blues-rock.

The mood lightens with "Rambling On", though its humor remains self-effacing. The singer ruminates on the state of being trapped between worlds - it's like being lost inside a bad tarot reading (or dreaming of it). The combination of a slow vaudevillian sound punctuated by the churchy organ solo is hardened by the rock underpinnings of drums and guitars. The clown is ready to be hung out to dry.

"Magdalene, My Regal Zonophone" - a glimmer of light, or hope, or warmth in the heart turns out to be a calm before the storm. Gorgeously moving piano accompaniment [in waltz time, with warm bass guitar tones and snare drum] plays underneath, recapitulating hopes expressed by "Quite Rightly So"; but added to this glimmering openness is apprehension. As the song winds down and fades toward oblivion, in the distance someone comically/pathetically intones through a megaphone "Magdalene, my regal zonophone" a number of times, in rhythm with the band. It's really the now-dissociated protagonist of our saga, farther and further beside/outside himself.

"In Held Twas I" Spoken soliloquy to ominous simulations of Tibetan chanting - rollicking circus music - huge choral textures - tender piano nocturnes - and powerfully endowed guitar solos - all play their respective roles in this sublimely conceived conjuration. The whole builds its immense architecture in word and sound, mood and motive, sometimes in quiet serenity, other times as if howling, thunderously through the eye of the hurricane. All these motifs work together to symbolize the possibility of spiritual rebirth and redemption obtained through eclectic rather than narrow, dogmatic means.

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