There's enough material for five BBC albums. This and the second one consist of songs performed in various BBC studio sessions. The remaining three albums are full concerts. That was a typical pattern, with full concerts becoming common starting in the early 1970s.
There has never been any kind of official BBC album. However, some songs have been released as bonus tracks. For this album, all but one of the songs (plus the bonus track) come from bonus tracks.
The exception is the song"Conquistador." This recording isn't from the BBC at all. It's a key song (and a minor hit) that the band played at the BBC around this time period, but the recordings apparently didn't survive. However, I found a version performed on a French TV show without a cheering audience, so I used that. Unfortunately, for a portion of the song, the lead vocals microphone was turned off. But I was able to find another soundboard quality recording of the song (I forget from where exactly, it's been a while), and I used that to fill in the missing portion, which if I recall lasted for a verse or two. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in the title.
Speaking of "[Edit]," there are a few more songs with that in the title. These recordings are from the time period when BBC DJs were commonly talking over the music. Procol Harum got off fairly lightly, with only four songs with that problem on this album. I suspect that's because the band played for more serious BBC shows where the talking was less compared to the pop based shows where there could be talking over nearly every song.
This album is 39 minutes long, not including the bonus track.
Regarding that bonus track, the instrumental "Repent Walpurgis," it comes from the same BBC session as some others here (tracks 5 through 8), but it's officially unreleased. In this case I can understand, because the sound quality is poor. Thus it's just a bonus track.
01 Morning Dew [Edit] (Procol Harum)
02 Mabel [Edit] (Procol Harum)
03 A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum)
04 Homburg [Edit] (Procol Harum)
05 Good Captain Clack (Procol Harum)
06 She Wandered through the Garden Fence (Procol Harum)
07 Kaleidoscope (Procol Harum)
08 Conquistador [Edit] (Procol Harum)
09 Quite Rightly So (Procol Harum)
10 Ramblin' On (Procol Harum)
11 Shine On Brightly [Edit] (Procol Harum)
12 Skip Softly [My Moonbeams] (Procol Harum)
Repent Walpurgis [Instrumental] [Edit] (Procol Harum)
https://www.imagenetz.de/kWCBj
The cover photo comes from 1967. That year, it seems every band tried to wear the most colorful and outrageous looking clothes possible, and Procol Harum was no exception.
Looking forward to all of these, thanks! Procol Harum seems like a natural for the BBC treatment.
ReplyDeleteExcellent BBC addition! Many thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're are back to the BBC series!
ReplyDeleteI don't recall that "prog rock" existed as a category prior to the first Procol Harum LP in 1967. Hence they were not influenced by it, b/c they singlehandedly created it. Harrumph!
ReplyDeleteThe term "progressive" started around 1968 in the UK to describe the heavier underground music being heard in the clubs but not on Top of the Pops. Initially, progressive encompassed post-psychedelic rock, blues and jazz based music, including bands like Fleetwood Mac and Jethro Tull, both of whom were into playing electric blues at the time. Later, the term crossed the pond to the US and morphed into "prog"...taking on connotations of fantastical songs, complex time signatures and Rick Wakeman wearing a cape. For better or worse, it is the latter meaning that stuck.
ReplyDeleteAs to Conquistador above, the Procols played it at two different BBC sessions in the 1960s; once on "Pop North" in June 1967 and a few months later on the Dave Symonds Show in October of the same year. The first session was prior to Robin Trower and BJ Wilson joining the band. Conquistador was not a hit for Procol until 1972 when it appeared on the Live album with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
The Procol BBC logs don't show A Robe of Silk being played at any BBC session in the 60s so I am curious as to where the recording above came from.
Also, I don't know what distinguishes a "serious" BBC show from an unserious one but DJs talked on radio shows back then (whether initial broadcast or rebroadcast) in order to let their audience know who and what they were hearing, which makes sense as promotion the entire point of doing a BBC show in the first place. Indeed, the DJ chatter is part of the charm in hearing these recordings played back today.
After listening to A Robe of Silk I don't think its a BBC performance at all. It's the same as the studio version (from 2002's This Well's on Fire). Possibly a rough mix but definitely the same performance.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w86yC0B9UPA
Thanks for the feedback. I removed the prog rock reference. I updated the info about the song Conquistador. And I removed A Robe of Silk. You seem to know your stuff, so I trust you on that.
DeleteAnd we'll have to agree to disagree about the BBC DJs.