Talking about Exotic Birds makes me a bit sad. Because it was the last fully satisfying Procol album. The new release is awesome as it includes the 1974 KZEW broadcast...I gather Chris Copping heard it recently and thought they really gelled as a group. Re: Marvin's post. I can see why Matthew did not like Dave Ball. I always thought he was playing lead by "connecting the dots" rather than "feeling the music". Kind of ....get the charts of Robin's chords and play those....
Exotic Birds and Fruit....many Procol fans consider it one of their top albums. Chris Copping and Mick Grabham have praised it; I think Mick said he prefers it to Grand Hotel because he had time to learn the songs first. On the other hand, I recall Gary Brooker saying he thinks Grand Hotel was the best album from that lineup. I'd agree with that, whether or not he said it. Anyway, As Strong as Samson is the standout track for me (as well as one of John54's favorite songs). It ranks up there in Procol's top 10, give or take. In general, side 1 is one of their all time best. Nothing But the Truth is just a bit below Samson. Beyond the Pale and The Idol - and The Thin End of the Wedge - are almost as good. The album levels off a bit for me after that, though not quite as big a drop-off as side 2 is on Broken Barricades. New Lamps for Old is very good but not quite great and Fresh Fruit is pretty good. I prefer Monsieur R Monde to the earlier Monsieur Armand but I'm not wild about either. I'd prefer to have Drunk Again in its place. I've never cared all that much for Butterfly Boys, aside from the guitar solo - and drumming. BJ's drumming is fantastic through most of the album, especially Samson. All in all I'd rank the album just a bit below Grand Hotel - and also 2003's The Well's on Fire (I suspect that might not be a widely held opinion).
Good review Marvin. I will admit that Butterfly Boys, Fresh Fruit, and Monsieur R Monde are not my favorites on the album, but are pretty good and don't bring down the album. I like that it is just not Grand Hotel part II but has its own, more rocking, groove. I love the way the KZEW broadcast ends with New Lamps for Old just kind of bursting out as the DJ is trying to wind things down. So that song goes up a notch for me because of that. For those who purchased the new version; how do you rate the KZEW 1974 Dallas concert? Is it on Tommy?
I was not thinking of getting the new CD of EBaF as my Salvo CD sounds fine but you've got me thinking now!
My review of Exotic Birds and Fruit, from another music forum: "Ain't no use in preacher's preaching when they don't know what their teaching. The weakest man, be strong as Sampson, when you're being held to ransom." Strong as Sampson should have been the Procol Harum song that knocked A Whiter Shade of Pale out of the British public's mind. At least for a little while. It was a song unusual for Procol Harum as it was filled with catchy hooks, great emotional singing from pianist Gary Brooker, and was extremely topical to Great Britain in 1974. Late 1973 was the year of the dreaded "three day work week" in Great Britain as the coal miner's union "held the country to ransom" according to the then conservatives. And what did Chrysalis Records do? They released the song almost two years after the fact. A song that would have trumped the Strawbs' similar bash on unions, Part Of The Union, in spades. But one song does not make an album, so let's start at the beginning. Dispensing with an orchestra and choir for accompaniment as they did on 1973's Grand Hotel, Procol Harum kept the music for this album in house and got out some of their big guns out in doing so. Exotic Birds and Fruit from 1974 was one of Procol Harum's most solid and fully formed later day albums (the eighth) and lacked the stale pretention and lack of emotion found in their previous album Grand Hotel. One of the first songs recorded for the album, track number 8 on the original LP, was a swipe at the Chrysalis Record label management entitled Butterfly Boys, which did not go over well with the Chrysalis brass who wanted the lyrics and song title changed to Government Boys, as the Chrysalis label utilized a butterfly on their record logo. The band refused to budge and the lyrics remained. Did Procol Harum shoot themselves in the foot by doing this? Probably, but that led to a looser and more relaxed album where anything was fair game. Brooker and company found it easy to rock out on Exotic Birds and Fruit on the bombastic and catchy album opener titled Nothing But the Truth. This song rocks even with a string accompaniment. The only song on the album to have one. Following directly is an eastern European themed song tilted Beyond the Pale. Part homage to those "strange instruments that look like the inside of a piano", according to Brooker, and part tongue in cheek, the boys have more fun trying to make pitch shifted piano, mandolins, acoustic guitars, and even a banjo sound like a cross between bouzoukis and zithers, and they succeeded wonderfully, while lyricist Keith Reid congered up visions of a Europe seldom seen (or imagined?) by Western man. Another hook laden song with a dramatic chorus, Beyond the Pale is the perfect opener before the magnificent Strong As Sampson's heavy bass and drums roll in. Drawn in by a mesmerizing organ and piano melody in the verse and Brooker's emotive and hook laden chorus, the song is capped off with a blistering organ solo by Chris Copping. Strong As Sampson couldn't have been performed better. The band were truly angry that so much of their recording time was eaten up by energy strikes, that they mean every word they sing and their anger and frustration is released in every note played on the song. Going beyond the immediate topic of strikes, Reid lays down his most damning lyrics ever, aimed at crooked psychiatrists and lawyers, misinforming clergy and the never ending Middle East conflict between Arabs and Jews. The theme of greed continues on the song The Idol, and truthfully, we've all heard this before, but again, Brooker, Reid and company sound sincere in their disgust about obsessive gain. Not as powerful as Strong as Sampson, the song pales in comparison, but is fascinating for it's complex chord structures and multi dubbed piano parts. Following directly is the the most outre song on Exotic Birds and Fruit. The Thin Edge of the Wedge is built up on numerous overdubbed arpeggios and exotic figures from Mick Grabham's electric guitar with eerie piano and percussion highlights. It's one of Procol Harum's darker songs and Brooker is totally convincing relaying some of Reid's most malevolent lyrics. It's difficult to imagine Neil Young making the recent guitar layered album tilted Le Noise without a nod to this eerie psychedelic outing. Monsieur R. Monde is a raging rocker that shows off drummer BJ Wilson and bassist Allan Cartwright to great effect as well as showing the muscle of Grabham when he really wants to rock out. Unlike his predecessors, which includes the great Robin Trower, Grabham seems to serve the songs instead of competing with them and this particular song is the better for it. Fresh Fruit is a fun bouncy number penned almost entirely by Brooker and is filled with witty double entendres. New Lamps For Old is the perfect closing track for this album as it's slow organ and piano bring to mind early Porcol Harum and shows that the band remember where came from musically. The original vinyl release of Exotic Birds and Fruit was flawed and hard to listen to due to poor mastering, but any new remaster from Castle Records to Salvo have proper EQing that lets producer Chris Thomas' dense but dynamic sound mix shine. 4 stars.
I've noticed that quite a few Procol Harum songs have a very jerky kind of rhythm, but As Strong as Samson just plain swings!
I think Chemically wrote a great review. One area that I would disagree is that I never thought the vinyl sounded off. I was always surprised by how good the CD releases have been; and I have had a few. Friday Music, Salvo, and now Esoteric/Cherry Red. I may have had others but only these came to mind. Something I never quite figured out. The alternate version of Samson seems different to me on the CD releases than on vinyl. The vinyl has almost a country sounding guitar from Mick; that is buried in the mix on CD to my ear. Any other thoughts?
Thanks! I wish I stayed around to fix the formatting as it went off during copying and transfer, but c'est le vie. I have an original UK pressing and it sounds quite harsh and shrill. Perhaps your copy is an American pressing.
Do you mean the single edit that's on some CD releases? I've never heard this on record. About the 2 shows in the recent release, I think one of the shows is the same as the BBC In Concert one that was previously released on standalone CD (previously booted on a record as Tales with Tangrams). The KZEW show is definitely better than this one.
I don't say this to be a jerk, but why anyone gives any credibility to the fatuous and inane notion of a RRHOF blows my mind. Does Iggy and the Stooges belong? The Modern Lovers? Television? NY Dolls? There are bands that are incredibly influential, but with very small followings, and why anyone cares who gets authenticated by some committee of arbiters I simply don't understand. It's Rock and Roll, man ! But back to Procol Harum. What an interesting group. I still haven't gotten far enough to comment on the record where I was first exposed to them. And I apologize if I was out of line when commenting on your post. It's kind of a sore subject with me, haha.
I heard "Going For a Song" as Fisher's sardonic take on "Blue Suede Shoes." Rather than "You can burn my house, steal my car, drink my liquor from an old fruit jar", we have lines about scratching up his Lamborghini and driving a plow across his golf course, ironically knowing that he wouldn't have those things without "That song."
Going back a bit, this is a great review! I had always heard Home as a concept album about death, and I thought I may have been reading too much into it, but maybe not. The cover art really clashes with the dark subject mater (or maybe they were trying to take the edge off of it). As a side note, I remember seeing a cassette version of the album that was mistitled "Whoosh!" on the spine.
Yeah, I saw "Whoosh" on a cassette version of home also. Maybe A&M records in the US? With regard to the alt version of Samson; yes that is the one that is on a few CD collections as a bonus track. But to my recollection the mix on the original vinyl (on 45) highlighted Mick playing a very country-fied guitar. At the time I always thought Drunk Again should have made the main release. I recall it being the flip side of Nothing But the Truth. I think they left off the "is it on Tommy" from the 45 version.
Tough to keep up with this thread, but I'll try to opine and briefly look at the offshoot solo records. Fisher's Journey's End was sandwiched in here and I thought that was quite a solid LP. Marie, Suzanne and Hard to be Sure were really fine tracks. LP sounded wide amidst Fisher's production with Geoff Emerick's engineering help. Was a light affair especially compared to the darker I'll Be There and the disposable 1980 Self-titled effort. Trower's debut Twice Removed was close-to-revelatory. He settled on a guitar sound and deeply explored it. He smartly hired a vocalist with James Dewar adding healthy weight to the lyrics and melodies. The title track, Daydream and I Can't Wait Much Longer were standouts. Set him on his hypnotic solo path.
I sense an urgency to move to solo Fisher and Trower debuts so here's my review of Procol's Ninth in an effort to speed things along: A natural follow up to Exotic Birds and Fruit, Procol's Ninth does have it's flaws. Having dispensed with producer Chris Thomas, whose productions were getting denser by the record until the reverberant "wall of sound" found on Exotic Birds and Fruit was the resulting cut off point for the band. Seeking out uber American R&R producers Leiber and Stoller, Procol recorded their cleanest and most uncluttered record since A Salty Dog. And what does work on Procol's Ninth, works wonderfully, while what doesn't is hardly bearable. Namely the album's closing track, a cover of The Beatles' Eight Days A Week. It truly is bad enough to make one twinge. However, eight of the album's ten tracks are good, with the two worst placed at the end, so ending this listening trip early seems unencumbering. The leadoff tack Pandora's Box, with it's exotic mix of marimba, guest flute and more of Keith Reid's esoteric lyrics, let PH have one more UK hit, getting as high as number 16 on the British charts. Fools Gold seems like more of Reid's and Gary Brooker's laments about chasing riches and the eventual fall back to earth that worked so well for the group on Exotic Birds and Fruit. Brooker's vocals are as convincing as ever, but it seems like we've heard this all before. Indeed. With Exotic Birds And Fruit, we have. Taking My Time is a bluesy number, naturally suited to Brooker's voice, and has the unusual accompaniment of brass. Many have said, including guitarist Mick Grabham, that the band sound like Chicago on Procol's Ninth, but in fact, the brass is more New Orleans style jazz and fits even better wit the later bluesy track I Keep Forgetting. Yes, as many have said, Chris Copping's organ is relegated to the background, but if Procol Harum fans have not heard enough organ played on the previous hundred PH songs, then they truly deserve a cigar. R&B and blues is also central to the excellent The Unquiet Zone which features Reid's take on the ravages of war, and some of Grabham's best guitar playing on the album. And this is saying a lot as he's stellar throughout the whole album and has an ear for melody and tone quite similar to Tull's Martin Barre if Ian Anderson would have let him cut loose a bit more. The Final Thrust and The Piper's Tune are quintessential Procol Harum. The former featuring stately piano from Brooker and the later featuring Lowery Organ in place of bagpipes. Both work well with more of Reid's pessimistic lyrics to give the songs that special Procol Harum gravitas. The less said about the last two tracks, Typewriter Torment, and the afore mentioned cover of Eight Days A Week, the better. The only thing I find off putting about Procol's Ninth is that I can only play it as a follow up to Exotic Birds and Fruit, as it has the same vibe but lacking the bombast I love so much about Exotic Birds and Fruit. I would never play it at any other time. With that in mind, 3 stars seems right for this good but non essential album from the once mighty Procol Harum. PH would go on to make one more album in the seventies, the dismal Something Magic before the band broke up. An album not even worth reviewing simply because the lack of objectivity that drove band to record a cover of Eight Days A Week only became worse by the time the band recorded Something Magic. Truly sad.
No urgency at all from me. We don't have that many Procol threads around here so no rush to make it all the way through. I was just wondering if we should mix in the solo albums chronologically or do them later on. I'm fine either way.
Procol Harum’s “Eight Days a Week” is quite possibly the worst Beatles cover of all time. Gary “Mic Hog” Brooker apparently loves the sound of his own ridiculously melodramatic voice so much he couldn’t even allow another singer to accompany him on a song that has some the most beautiful harmonies the Beatles ever created. He singlehandedly ruins the song. Words cannot describe how bad it reeks.
Oh, no biggie for me either. I just thought the last few PH albums of the seventies would fly by quickly but perhaps I'm being presumptuous.
The Beatles wouldn't have needed harmonies if they had a singer as good as Gary Brooker! Poor poor cover though. I Keep Forgetting is a fine cover though. Should have been a single.
Agree 100%! I Keep Forgetting could definitely have been a hit single. Especially is the UK as it would have followed Pandora' Box which was a top 20.
The version of I Keep Forgetting on the BBC (I always think of that show as Five and Dime....) is great. This album really disappointed me. It marked that the magic was definitely fading. I never new so many cool ways to say that I did not like Eight Days on this album. Hats off to this crowd.
Yeah, "Eight Days a Week" was pretty bad. I could see doing it once on-stage as a joke but not to put it on an album. I think it was Brooker who said they were just playing it as a warm-up in the studio and the producers put it on the record unbeknownst to them. I'm a little skeptical. I think they did play it on stage a few times after the album came out. I wonder if they decided to blame the producers (as he did later on with "The Worm and the Tree") after seeing how poorly it was received? Chris Copping said they would have been better off putting "So Far Behind" in its place, which would have made a big difference. "The Blue Danube" would have also worked better. In any case, the problem with that version had nothing to do with Brooker singing it solo. Aside from that, this is generally a very good album. Maybe just a step below "Exotic Birds and Fruit." "Pandora's Box" is definitely the standout track and the only one I'd rank among Procol's top 10 or maybe 20. "The Final Thrust" is probably my favorite track after that, though it seems most people hate that song for some reason. (In his Procol bio, Henry Scott-Irvine called this and "Without a Doubt" "duff" songs, or something like that.) I always liked BJ's little drum figure, maybe from his days with the Boys' Brigade. On the other hand, "Taking the Time" seems highly regarded but I never cared much for it. The horns remind me of "Playmate of the Mouth" which is one of my least favorite Procol songs. But I like the horns on the other songs - "Fool's Gold", "Without a Doubt" etc. As I mentioned in a different thread, whenever there are Doors threads, people always put down "The Soft Parade". I wonder if it's because of the horns, as with this album. "I Keep Forgetting" is an excellent cover and I'll take "Typewriter Torment" over "Butterfly Boys" any day. (I guess writer's block is one of the album's themes.)
