Disco de Procol Harum: “Salty Dog/Home”

I have all of Robin Trowers solo music and enjoy it all. It's just simply excellent. This Procol Harum stuff I just have a hard time warming up to. Now that I have these two albums, plus Grand Hotel, I will continue to listen to them and see if it strikes a cord in me. Other music that I shined on in the 70's has become some of my favorite music these days. Staying open-minded is a prerequisite to growth in my life today, and this is in all areas, including music.

I recently tried to listen to my Best of Procol Harum vinyl LP and found it was too warped to play - which sent me to the internet (Wikipedia and Amazon as usual) to see what my options were. I chose to solve the immediate problem by ordering a 2-for-1 CD of A Salty Dog and Home, since they both feature Robin Trower. It was waiting for me when I got home from work last night, so I quickly loaded them into my iPod Nano - that's The Way We Listen Now.

Robin Trower has such a gorgeous psychedelic tone...the question for discussion is, how much he was influenced by Jimi Hendrix, and I think the answer is, not so much. Great `60s era guitarists like Trower, the late Terry Kath of Chicago, and Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears...many others (Jorma!) all came up about the same time, and had a bright, fuzzed-out sound that people used to describe as "acid rock." It still sounds excellent - better in fact than most everything on the charts right now. And Gary Brooker's vocals reminded me of The Band (check out the chorus on Track 2 of A Salty Dog.) Procol Harum was a great band that could effortlessly downshift from near-Classical music to dirty electric blues without grinding any gears.