The distinctive recording went to No.United Kingdom and hit the top 10 in the United States, casting the mold somewhat for progressive rock on its way to becoming one of the enduring classics of the 1960s and of the entire rock era the most-played song ever in public in the U.K.; a staple of classic-rock radio, and one of only a few dozen singles to sell over 10 million copies worldwide.
The music was originally credited to bandleader Gary Brooker, although decades later, keyboardist Matthew Fisher would be added officially as a co-composer for his signature organ solo. ![]() Like many residents of the heavily bombed-out area, Brookers family moved out to the suburbs. But Reids family stayed put perhaps as immigrants they were most comfortable living among their own people. He was, however, released several months later after promising to leave the country; with his younger brother, he promptly immigrated to England, leaving behind his parents, whom he would never see or hear from again and whose fate remains a mystery. While she raised Keith and his older brother, Michael, in an observant home, Keith rebelled against the traditional rite of passage, once telling an interviewer that having had his fill of Holocaust stories and having suffered anti-Semitism in primary school, a bar mitzvah was out of the question. The last thing you wanted to do as a kid was to stick out, but I just stuck out, Reid told Stars of David author Scott Bernarde. ![]() They scored a moderate British success in 1964 with their version of Poison Ivy, written by the American-Jewish songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who were responsible for numerous Elvis Presley hit records. By 1967 the Paramounts had split up, and Brooker and Reid teamed up as a songwriting duo. A Whiter Shade Of Pale was one of their very first efforts; other than keyboardist Fisher, the recording didnt include any other members of what would become Procol Harum. Even guitarist Robin Trower, who went on to garner independent fame, had yet to join the group. A few songs came close, including Conquistador, which, even if you think you dont know it, you would recognize if you heard it (or at least I did). Still, the group released a half-dozen albums, which is on a par with the output of such likeminded groups as Yes, Genesis and the Moody Blues. While his idol was the American Jewish songwriter and Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan, his lyrics relied more on a superficial surrealism, perhaps inspired by his love of French avant-garde films and the art of Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. Many assumed his lyrics were inspired by or about drugs, but as the bands in-house intellectual, Reid scoffed at the notion, insisting they were derived from books, not drugs. Its widely agreed upon that a friend had a cat named Procol Harum and the name stuck. The cats name, however, is believed to be a corruption of the phrase procul harun, procul, being Latin for beyond or afar, and Harun, being an Arabic name derived from the Hebrew Aharon. Those virgins, of course, were Roman, although Reid seems to have added 10 to the original six. He writes frequently about the intersection between popular culture and Jewish themes.
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