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Rating: In 1972, Procol Harum were somewhat on the decline, overshadowed by many other musical acts, all of which had flourished thanks in part to their pioneering role during those magical years for rock. However, they made a spectacular comeback with this live album, the document of a concert organized in Canada with a local orchestra and choir (and who knows why this awkward choice... perhaps it was simply the cheapest option!).
According to reports, the final orchestral and choral scores were refined by the conductor together with the band’s composer Gary Brooker, directly during the transatlantic flight from London to Canada. Many legendary concerts later immortalized on record (Woodstock, Live Aid…) struggled through chaotic and problematic organizational stages… and in its own small way, this one-off encounter between the English art-rock quintet and the orchestra and singers of Alberta is no exception.
Success was guaranteed, because if there’s one group made to be enriched by an orchestra, it’s the ever-so-symphonic Procol Harum. Take, for example, a song like “A Salty Dog”—on the setlist here—it was already perfectly suited to be played alongside dozens of classically trained musicians, considering it was composed just like that four years prior. In fact, it’s virtually indistinguishable from the studio version… Even the seagull cries are present, clearly thanks to a tape played on cue.
The album deserves credit for restoring and properly highlighting the song “Conquistador,” which in 1967 had strongly opened their debut self-titled album, only to be overshadowed by the immense success of “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” Here too, it opens the proceedings, benefiting from a brief but evocative orchestral interlude that builds up the atmosphere before bursting forth with all its thematic punch: great title, great lyrics, great bass riff, that instantly recognizable piano line, a quality rock-blues guitar solo (absent from the original). Drummer B.J. Wilson gets a little carried away by the adrenaline of kicking things off and noticeably accelerates the pace throughout the song… the conductor and orchestra follow suit, and the magnificent track gallops pompous and rocky all the way to its big finish, greeted by thunderous applause: imperfect, yes, but full of heart and energy. It was released as a single taken from the album and charted in America, making this record, when all’s said and done, the best-selling of their career worldwide.
Having discussed the supercharged and epic “Conquistador” and the ever-masterful “A Salty Dog,” the selection of two other songs “in the middle” of their catalogue—that is, “Whaling Stories” and “All This and More,” taken respectively from their fourth album “Home” and their third “A Salty Dog”—slightly lowers the overall level of this album. They are exquisite tracks, no doubt, but not particularly memorable, and even the rich orchestral treatment doesn’t change that.
The last track, which stretches across the entire second side of the original LP, is the lengthy suite “In Held ’Twas in I.” While many progressive fans hail it as a pioneering example of the multipartite suite—at the root or nearly so of all those that would soon follow (the original is found on “Shine on Brightly,” 1968)—to my ears it has always sounded interesting, but never quite strong enough in melody, arrangements, or the cohesion among its various sections.
The work would end here, but in its outmoded (not for me) CD version, three more songs performed that same night are added. These are “Luskus Delph” and “Simple Sister” from 1971’s “Broken Barricades,” and finally “Shine on Brightly” from the eponymous album. Clearly, they were considered less successful than the others… A shame, because the last two are among Procol’s finest works and would have boosted the album’s consistency.
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