Vestal Virgins: In ancient Rome, a cult of virgin women whose principal duty was to guard the fire of Vesta, Goddess of the Hearth. Women were selected for this priestess role between the ages of 6 and 10. Death was the penalty for failing to guard the fire or breaking the vow of celibacy.

Procol Harum tidbits: The group was named after a friend’s Burmese cat.

The name has Latin origins, but its exact translation is unknown

Whiter Shade of Pale is about a broken boy-girl relationship

The group was heavily influenced by classical music. “Whiter Shade of Pale” was inspired by Bach’s Wachet Auf (Sleepers Awake).

WORD

sang-froid [Fr. sahN-fRwA] n.  coolness of mind; calmness; composure: They committed the robbery with complete sang-froid

BIRTHDAY

Andrew Carnegie (1835), Eddie Shore (1902), Joe DiMaggio (1914), Percy Sledge (1941), Ben Stein (1944), John Larroquette (1947), Amy Grant (1960), John F. Kennedy Jr. (1960), Mark Lanegan (1964), Christina Applegate (1971), Donovan McNabb (1976), Dolla (1987)

STANDPOINT

One of my greatest friends is Joe. I’ve mentioned him before. He’s someone special.

And he’s also kind of this blog’s watchdog. When I miss a day (or three), or post something subpar, Joe’s the first one to let me know, whether through a scathing comment on a particular post, a verbal tirade on GMail chat, or an obscenity-laden phone call. Most of these responses center on his annoyance with the fact I call this the daily euneJeune, and I’m not exactly stringent about the whole “daily” thing.

I love it. Because it comes from Joe and he’s one of the few people out there in the world who knows me very well, and wants to be my friend anyway.

Also, Joe and I have two things in common: (a) We’re able to drink more alcohol than any two people at any bar anywhere, and (b) We’re most likely the funniest people you’ll ever meet. And, no, the alcohol has nothing to do with why we think we’re a goddam riot. Although it doesn’t hurt.

In any case, Joe and I have this routine of exchanging late night texts, mainly because each of us know the other is most likely awake and not sober. 99% of the texts’ subject material has to do with movie quotes. And of that 99%, probably 98% deal directly with the obscure black comedy, Clifford, starring Charles Grodin and Martin Short.

As a tribute to my friend Joe, I offer the following video clip.

QUOTATION

I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart so long.  If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can play together all night. → Bill Watterson

TUNE

I’ve always loved the lyrics and music of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” It came on yesterday at the perfect time. And, so, I now share it with you.

GALLIMAUFRY

→ As we all knew it would, Antarctica has declared war on New Zealand. Tired of living in the shadow of its more “tourist-friendly” neighbor, the frozen wasteland has launched hundreds of icebergs in a desperate attempt to get some headlines. Some experts are saying it’s not an attack at all and probably has something to do with global warming. Other experts are saying there’s too much ice in Antarctica and it’s natural to jettison some of the dead weight. The same experts also suggested people get off global warming’s back. However, all the experts agree the iceberg assault will have little effect on New Zealand, prompting a disheartened Antarctica to go back to the drawing board.

→ Finally, MTV makes a show I would actually watch  – about a squad of young Italian summertime renters at the Jersey shore – cleverly titled “Jersey Shore,” and wouldn’t you know it? There’s a group of Italian-Americans that wants to block it. Of course.

→ No new posts until Monday. What with the holiday and all. Also, be careful out there tonight. It’s the biggest bar night of the year. And drunk idiots make it suck pretty hard. Just take the following advice: Make sure to drive fast and take chances. OK. It’s not really advice.

CAMALEONTI was an Italian Music Group, famouse between ’60’s and 70’s, but the last album is pubblished on 2004.

Below, (1968) the most important Camaleonti’s song, copied from an English success: ‘Homburg‘, by Procol Harum ; that I think is one of best song ever…

To know more about  Camaleonti,  read  here

oder

jedes Stück hat seinen eigenen Reiz.

Today’s music video is ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ from Procol Harum.

This video was posted to You Tube by gazsmash

There is an old adage that goes, ‘If you can remember the 60’s, you weren’t there.’

For all those people who do remember the 60’s then this song is part of the fabric of those memories. This song is now recognised as a standard, not just from the 60’s but from the whole of popular music culture through the ages.

It was released in 1967 by the English band Procol Harum, their first single, and even though the band had a relatively long history, this song is the only one remembered when referring to the band.

Gary Brooker wrote the song in conjunction with Matthew Fisher. Popular culture has it that the main theme closely resembles music from Johann Sebastian Bach, particularly the Aria from Bach’s Third Orchestral Suite, sometimes called Air On A G String, but that reference is only in passing, and simply provided the inspiration for the song. The song was originally composed with 4 verses, but only 2 appeared on the Single Release.

The song went to Number one, virtually across the whole Western World, and since then, regularly makes close to the top of best songs ever recorded.

The band has follow up hits with ‘Homburg’ and ‘Conquistador’, but it was difficult to match something like that earlier ‘monster’. They produced Ten albums before splitting, only to reunite in the mid 90’s. One of those albums is the beautiful one they did ‘Live’ with The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra which I have in my collection of 500 or so LP’s. By this time Fisher had left the band replaced on organ by Chris Copping.

The song has been performed in concerts by the band since then, and this clip today is from the time not long after it was first released. Brooker is seen here playing the piano and doing the lyrics, and in one part of the clip, you can see Fisher playing the organ which gives the song that haunting effect.

The organ of Fisher’s choice here was a Hammond organ, an organ particularly popular with bands of the time as keyboard of choice. Bands with big careers were often among those few who could actually afford one of these top of the line specials, and they were played by a variety of the top keyboard players of those famed bands. Rick Wright from Pink Floyd used it prolifically, as did Tony Banks from Genesis, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Gregg Allman, Elton John, Steve Winwood, Jon Lord from Deep Purple, John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin, Rick Wakeman from Yes, and most notably, Keith Emerson from Emerson Lake and Palmer, Keith at one time reputed to own three or four of them, and that constitutes a large lump of cash, and these band’s used to take those huge heavy organs on tour with them everywhere, so much were they respected as an instrument. The list of Hammond owners from popular music is a very long one indeed, and they were also popular with Jazz players as well, notably Count Basie.

This song IS one of the most remembered things from the 60’s, a Classic in the true sense of the word.

Er zijn mij nog een paar ‘schaduwhits’ te binnen geschoten. Eerder noemde ik ‘Never Marry a Railroad Man’ als een prachtig lied van Shocking Blue dat geheel overshaduwd wordt door de megahit ‘Venus’. Door zo’n schaduwhit op het juiste moment ter sprake te brengen geeft u te kennen dat er met u qua muziekkennis niet te spotten valt. (Haal vooral ook uw neus op voor de megahit.)

Uw mag van mij gratis & voor niks ook de volgende voorbeelden gebruiken.

1)     ‘Homburg’, van Procol Harum: tien keer beter dan ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’. Spreek uw minachting uit voor ‘A Whiter Shade’, ‘want dat deuntje heeft Gary Brooker van Bach gejat.’ Of was het een andere pruikenkop?

(Merkt uw gesprekspartner op dat ‘Homburg’ óók van Bach gejat is, begin dan een college over de begrippen imitatio en aemulatio.)

2)     ‘Take time to know her’ van Percy Sledge: honderd keer mooier dan ‘When a man loves a woman’. ‘When a man’ is sentimentele rommel; ‘Take time’ is daarentegen een door merg & been gaand relaas van bedrog, niet naar je moeder willen luisteren, en daar later spijt van krijgen. Heerlijk!

Er zijn er ongetwijfeld meer te bedenken, maar pas op, het luistert nauw. Om te beginnen moet de uitvoerende artiest nog wel over een minimum aan ‘street credibility’ beschikken, en de megahit die alles overschaduwt moet eigenlijk gewoon goed zijn. Het heeft natuurlijk geen enkele zin uw muzikale kennis en uw superieure smaak te etaleren aan de hand van pulp.

Stel, iemand steekt de loftrompet over ‘Hotel California’. U kunt dan wel tegenwerpen dat ‘Desperado’ veel beter is, of iets dergelijks, maar daar wint u echt niks mee. Beter kunt u meewarig uw hoofd schudden en iets mompelen als: de Eagles, tsssss.

Of een nog duidelijker voorbeeld van verspilde moeite: toen ik een jaar of 10 was en mij al serieus voor popmuziek interesseerde (ik hield van zowel de Beatles als de Stones want ik was toen al een ruimdenkend mens), had ik voor het eerst en het laatst een conversatie met mijn oom, die mij toevertrouwde de Cats wel aardig te vinden. Nooit meer een woord gewisseld met de beste man.

Enfin, u moet natuurlijk lekker luisteren naar de muziek die u mooi vindt, en zich niets aantrekken van betweters die denken dat ze de goede smaak hebben uitgevonden.

Chart Position: 16

• Recorded live with the Edmunton Symphony
• Lead vocals: Gary Brooker
• Written by Gary Brooker and Keith Reid
• Original studio version released on LP in 1967
• Later recorded by Killdozer (1996)

As many of you remember, we’ve had a longstanding tradition here putting up a new song every day, counting down our Top 666 Songs of Alltime list all the way to #1, until we were forced to break with that tradition about three weeks ago. Since it now looks like we may not be in a position to put up a new post every day til about November 1, here are the songs in the list which take us up to that point where we will hopefully resume daily activity here:

284. Procol Harum – Homburg

Very British, very stately, very subtle slap at authority from 1967, ominous organ and piano beneath Gary Brooker’s deadpan voice and one of lyricist Keith Reid’s best early ones. The single had to wait til 1974 to be released on album on Procol’s Best; mp3s are everywhere. The link above is the unintentionally hilarious original promo video.

283. Stiv Bators – A Million Miles Away

Haunting, majestic epic, the best song and sort of title track to Bators’ solo debut Disconnected, recorded as the Dead Boys were self-destructing around 1980 but not released til a few years later. RIP.

282. The Vapors – News at Ten

Furious, exasperated punk rock from the classic New Clear Days lp from 1979 (the same one that spawned their lone American hit, Turning Japanese), a generational battle taken up close and personal: “Still I can’t hear you!!!”

281. Al Stewart – Man for All Seasons

One of the popular 70s British art-rock songwriter’s most epic moments – and he had a bunch of them. This is a classic of existentialist rock, one of his smartest, most philosophical lyrics, slide guitar in the background providing lusciously ominous atmospherics. From the Time Passages lp, 1978, frequently found in the dollar bins at your favorite used vinyl purveyor.  Mp3s are everywhere (the link above is a torrent of the whole album).

280. The Dead Boys – Detention Home

Never recorded in the studio, this careening, menacing number was a live showstopper and one of the punk legends’ best songs. The best version is on the classic Night of the Living Dead Boys album from 1981, Jimmy Zero and Cheetah Chrome’s guitars screaming with feedback as the late Stiv Bators snarls his murderous lyrics.

279. Roxy Music – Out of the Blue

Haunting, swaying minor-key art-rock anthem, one of Bryan Ferry’s darkest numbers despite the upbeat lyrics. The studio version on the Country Life lp isn’t bad, but in concert the band went nuts with it. The link above is a tasty live clip from 1976. There are also delicious versions on the Roxy Music Live lp from the same year as well as the 2002 live reunion double cd, but the best is from the first live reunion cd featuring one of Phil Manzanera’s most exhilarating solos ever.

278. The Doors – The End

Listen closely: this is a pop song that morphs into a raga. Sure, it’s a “classic rock” standard, but deservedly so. Ray Manzarek’s swirling, funereal Balkan organ in tandem with Robbie Krieger’s evil guitar runs over John Densmore’s equally evil, crashing drums make the vocals almost an afterthought. “Mother, I want to fuck you!!!” Whatever.

277. The Church – Life Speeds Up

This macabre Syd Barrett-inflected epic was a mid-80s concert staple for the extraordinary, still vital Australian art-rockers. As Steve Kilbey has noted, the studio version on the 1988 double lp retrospective Hindsight is a bit stiff, but it’s still great. And there are bootlegs out there: Church fans are obsessive and generous with their files.

276. The Damned – Plan 9 Channel 7

The punk legends’ best song is this ornate, darkly anthemic masterpiece. The lyrics don’t make much sense – they seem to be about falling asleep with the tv on – but the raging guitar against a haunting organ backdrop are one of the high points in goth music. There are a million live tracks kicking around, many of them excellent, but it’s the 1979 studio version from the impressively diverse Machine Gun Etiquette lp that’s the classic.

275. The Church – The Maven

The Australian art-rock legends long ago proved that they didn’t need a major label behind them to succeed – in fact, the opposite is true, and this scorching, crescendoing broadside wastes no words in making that apparent. The clanging, crushing roar of what sounds like a thousand guitar tracks as the song reaches a peak at the end is one of the most majestic, sonically exquisite passages ever recorded, in any style of music. “Just turn the light off when you go, just tell the jury all you know,” Steve Kilbey snarls. From Sometime Anywhere, 1994.

274. Radio Birdman – Hand of Law

If you’ve been following this list from the beginning, you may have noticed that Australian garage-punks Radio Birdman’s classic 1979 album Radios Appear is very well represented here – and here we go again, with another cauldron of guitar fury, almost five minutes of paint-peeling, macabre, screaming intensity from Deniz Tek and Chris Masuak.

273. The Saints – Follow the Leader

The studio version (see the link above) on the Out in the Jungle album is decent, but when the band were at their peak – as a janglerock unit, for about ten years starting in the early 80s – they transformed this catchy, swaying number into one of their most beautiful songs. The version that opens the 1985 Live in a Mud Hut lp is transcendent, a feast of jangly guitar textures and lushly metallic overtones.

272. The New Race – Love Kills

The New Race were a Detroit supergroup of sorts, Ron Asheton and Deniz Tek on guitars, Warwick Gilbert of Radio Birdman on bass and Dennis Thompson from the MC5 on drums. They did a couple of Australian tours and then ruined what should have been a phenomenal live album with studio overdubs. But their two other subsequent live cds both effectively capture the band’s transcendent, unearthly power. This is one of Tek’s most vividly lyrical songs, a deathly winter road trip from Chicago to the Murder City. The stark, semi-acoustic studio recording by Radio Birdman is unforgettable, but the New Race version from The First To Pay, driven by Gilbert’s roaring, distorted bass chords, is even better. And very hard to find in a digital format other than the grooveshark stream in the title above. Here’s a live Radio Birdman take; here’s another.

271. Radio Birdman – Monday Morning Gunk

The original, released as a single by Radio Birdman mastermind Deniz Tek’s first Australian Band TV Jones in 1972 (and included on the 1988 Tek retrospective Orphan Tracks) is a blazing, somewhat woozily psychedelic masterpiece. Others prefer Radio Birdman’s even more scorching, professionally recorded version, released on the European version of the classic 1979 Radios Appear album some nine years later.The multitracked guitars of Tek and Chris Masuak on the solo are hit a literally unreal crescendo.

270. Howlin Wolf – Sitting on Top of the World

The iconic bluesman’s 1954 studio single hews much closer to the Mississippi Sheiks’ rustic version from the 20s that he probably learned it from. But believe it or not, his best version is on the 1969 London Sessions album with none other than Eric Clapton on guitar – given sufficient inspiration, even a hack can sometimes rise to the occasion. And it’s Bill Wyman’s casually soaring bass work that carries it over the top. Wondering who that tight in-the-pocket drummer is? It’s Ringo.

269. Bob Dylan – Positively 4th St.

The prototypical anti-trendoid anthem. Hypocritical as it may have been, Dylan had nothing but contempt for class tourism and most of the hippies who shared his comfortable upper middleclass background. And it’s obvious that a lot of them didn’t like him either since being one of them, he sussed them out. “You’d rather see me paralyzed” – how true. Download this with impunity because he isn’t getting any royalties from it. 

Ray Royer, guitarist, Procol Harum

Happy Birthday this week to:
Oct 04
1929 ● Leroy Van Dyke → “Walk On By” (1962)
1947 ● Jim Fielder → Blood, Sweat & Tears, sessions
1957 ● Barbara K. MacDonald → Timbuk 3
1962 ● Jon Secada

Oct 05
1936 ● George Jones Jr. → The Edsels
1938 ● Carlo Mastrangelo → The Belmonts
1942 ● Richard Street → The Temptations
1943 ● Steve Miller
1947 ● Brian Johnson → AC/DC
1949 ● Brian Connolly → Sweet
1954 ● Bob Geldof → Boomtown Rats
1957 ● Lee Thompson → Madness

Oct 06
1917 ● Bob Neal → Early Elvis Presley manager
1946 ● Millie Small → “My Boy Lollipop” (1964)
1950 ● Thomas McClary → The Commodores
1951 ● Kevin Cronin → REO Speedwagon
1954 ● David Hidalgo → Los Lobos

Oct 07
1941 ● Tony Sylvester → The Main Ingredient
1945 ● Kevin Godley → 10CC
1949 ● David Hope → Kansas
1951 ● John “Cougar” Mellencamp
1953 ● Tico Torres → Bon Jovi
1968 ● Thom Yorke → Radiohead
1968 ● Toni Braxton

Oct 08
1934 ● Doc Green → The Drifters
1942 ● Reese Francis “Buzz” Clifford → “Babysittin’ Boogie” (1961)
1948 ● Johnny Ramone (John Cummings) → The Ramones
1949 ● Hamish Stuart → Average White Band
1950 ● Robert “Kool” Bell → Kool & The Gang
1965 ● C.J. Ramone (Christopher John Ward) → The Ramones

Oct 09
1937 ● Pat Burke → The Foundations
1939 ● Overton Vertis “O.V.” Wright → “That’s How Strong My Love Is” (1964)
1940 ● John Lennon
1944 ● John Entwistle → The Who
1948 ● Jackson Browne
1969 ● Polly Jean “P.J.” Harvey
1975 ● Sean Ono Lennon
1984 ● Nona Hendryx → Labelle

Oct 10
1946 ● John Prine
1946 ● Keith Reid → Procol Harum
1953 ● Midge Ure → Ultravox
1954 ● David Lee Roth → Van Halen
1961 ● Martin Kemp → Spandau Ballet
1967 ● Mike Malinin → Goo Goo Dolls

Click here to pre-order Mark Knopfler’s “Get Lucky (Deuxe Edition cd+dvd).  Release date 10/6.  Sample the songs before you buy.

Click here to pre order Joe Perry “Have Guitar, Will Travel”. The fifth solo album by the lead guitarist from Aerosmith…sample the songs before you buy. Release date 10/6

Click here to pre order Jack Bruce & Robin Trower “Seven Moons Live”.  Release date 10/13.  Also be on the lookout for the DVD version of the same title.

Click here to pre order Ian Hunter “You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic (30th Anniversary Edition)”.  Remastered with extra goodies (live cuts, demos, etc…).  Release Date is 10/6

Click here to pre order Bob Dylan’s “Christmas in the Heart”..deluxe edition with Christmas cards.  Release date 10/13

 Click here to pre order Kansas “There’s No Place Like Home”…the lads live with a symphony playing newer cuts and their classics.  Release date 10/13

Click here to pre order Sting “If On a Winter’s Night…”  a Holiday album from Mr. Sumner.  Release date 10/27.  Plus check a video of Sting talking about this upcoming release.

Click here to pre order the import version of Bon Jovi “The Circle”.  Release date 11/10.  Click here to buy the single “We Weren’t Born to Follow”

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Poxa, difícil encontrar alguém ligado em música que não conheça “A whiter shade of pale”. A música, que saiu apenas na versão americana deste álbum, foi um sucesso mundial e tornou a banda conhecida. Não é para menos – a categoria destes músicos ingleses é indiscutível. A fórmula do “pop barroco” foi levada à suas últimas conseqüências neste trabalho e coberta com um requinte sonoro destoante de muitos dos trabalhos delirantes e experimentais que rolavam naquele instante todo cheio de devaneios musicais e novas buscas. A dobradinha piano-orgão, as incursões da música clássica e os melodiosos vocais de Gary Brooker desaguaram com clareza em algumas vertentes desenvolvidas no rock progressivo nos anos seguintes. Refinamento total.

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TRACKS:

01. Conquistador
02. She wandered through the garden fence
03. Something following me
04. Mabel
05. Cerdes (outside the gate of)
06. A Christmas camel
07. Kaleidoscope
08. Salad days (are here again)
09. Good Captain Clack
10. Repent Walpurgis
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…Bonus track on USA lp release:
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11. A whiter shade of pale
…Bonus tracks on BGO release:
11. A whiter shade of pale (single)
12. Lime Street blues (single)
13. Homburg (single)
14. Salad days (alternate version)
15. Mabel (early version)
16. Cerdes (early version)
17. Something following me (early version)
18. Magdalene (my regal zonophone) (original version)
19. Quite rightly so (‘67 version)
20. Shine on brightly (‘67 version)
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Download

Um Aperitivo

Procol Harum – A whiter shade of pale