Happy Birthday Mr. Gary Brooker. At 66, your enduring classic “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” with your old band Procul Harum is still one of classic rock’s more melodic hits and today it has the unparalleled honor of being The Music Court’s song of the day.
“A Whiter Shade of Pale,” was released by Procul Harum as a single on June 8th, 1967. Gary Brooker took lead and in his haunting croon bellowed out the lyrics written by friend and poet Keith Reid. Now, one must understand the lyrics of this song are not like a usual rock classic. The lyrics are understandably wierd. Reid is a poet and it shows. Lyrics like:
And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale.
Yet, the reason behind the songs success is the miraculous pairing of the lyrics by Reid, the voice of Brooker, and the Bach like hammond organ of Matthew Fisher who, while having a suitable name (the song is about the sea), also had a keen ability to create a whistling ocean-like feel to the song. If one had to put a soundtrack to the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Samuel Coleridge this is what it would sound like and The Ancient Mariner would, of course, be Brooker. For this song strikes on a musical rarity. Brooker, Reid, and Fisher lull you into a mystical state where you feel entrapped by the music and the story and you cannot release yourself from its grasp until the four minutes come to a close.
Must Check Out This Video, Old Time Performance of “Whiter Shade of Pale”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbWULu5_nXI
The Music Court 
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