Tag: Procol Harum

Music throwback: Boredom by Procol Harum

Boredom shows up on the A Salty Dog album that came out in 1969.

In the 1970s, I owned a greatest hits album by Procol Harum, for some reason, on cassette. I don’t remember the title – there are so many of them! – but it ended with a live version of Conquistador. Eventually the tape wore out, as cassettes were wont to do, and I replaced it with a 2000 CD, imaginatively called Greatest Hits.

I was gobsmacked when I got to the song Boredom. I was unfamiliar with it, as it wasn’t on my cassette. The lyrics began:

Some say they will and some say they won’t
Some say they do and some say they don’t
Some say they shall and some say they shan’t
And some say they can and some say they can’t

Back in high school and early in my college days, I tried my hand at songwriting. I didn’t think they were very good, and I seldom shared them with anyone. I had them in a notebook which is now lost or at least misplaced.

One was called Inconsistent:

The most consistent thing about me
Is my inconsistency…

But here’s the chorus (or a variation thereof)

If you think I will, well, then I won’t
If you think I do, well, then I don’t
If you think I can, well, then I can’t
If you think I shall, well, then I shan’t

And it goes on from there. The very specific use of the word “shan’t” makes me think that I must have heard the song Boredom on some FM radio station late at night and inadvertently purloined it.

Boredom shows up on the A Salty Dog album that came out in 1969. Technically I DO own it now, since some friends of mine gave me their LPs when they were just holding on to their CDs, but I’ve actually never played it, apparently.

Listen to:

Boredom
A Salty Dog, arguably, my favorite PH song

And for good measure:
Conquistador, from the live album, which actually got to #16 on the US Billboard charts

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum is 70

My friends would muse about whether there really WERE 16 Vestal virgins.

procolharum Gary Brooker, the guy with the mustache, is the founder, keyboard player, and lead singer of the progressive rock group Procol Harum through its entire run (1967–1977, 1991–present).

I have three LPs by the group, all from 1972 or earlier. But I had a cassette greatest hits, which I absolutely loved before it wore out.

I now own a greatest hits album on CD which is a different collection. And it was on that disc I heard the song called Boredom, the B-side of the 1969 single The Devil Came From Kansas, for the very first time

It contains the lyrics:

Some say they will and some say they won’t
Some say they do and some say they don’t
Some say they shall and some say they shan’t
And some say they can and some say they can’t

This made me do a double-take, because I had written, many years ago, a song called Inconsistency, which rhymed “shan’t” and “can’t”.

“Brooker also toured with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band in 1997 and 1999.”

My favorite Procol Harum songs:

8. Whiskey Train (1969). This is just a hard-rocking tune that is different from what I associate with the group.

7. In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence (1968, B-side of Quite Rightly So). Love the syncopation of the organ line.

6. Homburg (1967, #34 US, #6 UK).

5. Quite Rightly So (1968, #50 UK).

4. A Whiter Shade of Pale (1967, #5 US, #1 UK). The first big single. Vestal was a suburb of Binghamton, NY, my hometown. When I was 14, my friends would muse about whether there really WERE 16 Vestal virgins.

“In July 2009, [original Procol Harum organist] Matthew Fisher won a British court judgment awarding him 40% of the music royalties from 2005 onwards for 1967’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, which had previously gone 50% to Brooker for the music and 50% to [Keith] Reid for the lyrics.” Coincidentally, Fisher and I share a birthday.

3. Shine On Brightly (1968) Love this from the very first notes. Surprised it wasn’t a single.

2. Conquistador (1972, #16 US, #22 UK, with different B-sides). From Live In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. WAY better than the studio version.

1. A Salty Dog (1969, #44 UK). Maybe it’s a Pisces thing, but this song has viscerally affected me from the first hearing.
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Coverville 1080: Creedence Clearwater Revival and Procol Harum Cover Stories

Favorite cover by original artist QUESTION

I’m really struck by Lesley Gore’s remake of You Don’t Own Me from the 2005 Ever Since album.

Sometimes, an artist will cover his/her/their own song. Frank Sinatra, among others, did it quite a bit over his long career.

What are YOUR favorite songs by the same artist? I’m not going to get too strict here. If you want to pick Layla, originally done by Derek and the Dominoes then subsequently unplugged by Eric Clapton, that’d be acceptable, since Derek WAS Eric. Speaking of Clapton, I prefer the live version of I’m So Glad from Goodbye Cream to the studio version on Fresh Cream.

I had this cassette of Procol Harum’s greatest hits and it included a live version of Conquistador, with an orchestra. Years later, when I got a similar CD, it had the studio version; not nearly as impressive.

Listen to Crying by Roy Orbison, a fine song, but the version by Orbison with k.d. lang makes me, well, cry.

I always preferred the remix Mustapha Dance by The Clash to its antecedent, Rock the Casbah.

Just listened to a Ladysmith Black Mambazo album. They do a couple songs from Graceland, Homeless and Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes, sans Paul Simon, but with Sarah McLachlan and Melissa Etheridge, respectively. Can’t find these online, unfortunately.

I’m really struck by Lesley Gore’s remake of You Don’t Own Me (this is a live take, not the version I really wanted from the 2005 Ever Since album), recognizable as the same song as the classic original, but different.

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