While the recorded version is 4:03 long, it is composed of only two verses, each with chorus. Structurally and thematically, the song is unusual. I might have been smoking when I conceived it, but not when I wrote. But I was too young to have experienced any decadence, then. I suppose it seems like a decadent scene I’m describing. I wasn’t trying to be mysterious with those images, I was trying to be evocative. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene. I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story. Ĭontrary to the above interpretations, Reid was quoted in the February 2008 issue of Uncut magazine as saying: Other observers have also commented that the lyrics concern a sexual relationship. This is supported in Lives of the Great Songs by Tim de Lisle, who remarks that the lyrics concern a drunken seduction, which is described through references to sex as a form of travel, usually nautical, using mythical and literary journeys.
Claes Johansen, in his book Procol Harum: Beyond the Pale, suggests that the song "deals in metaphorical form with a male/female relationship which after some negotiation ends in a sexual act". The third verse has been heard in live performances by Procol Harum, and more seldom the fourth. The original lyrics had four verses, of which only two are heard on the original recording. He overheard someone at the party saying to a woman, "You've turned a whiter shade of pale", and the phrase stuck in his mind. Keith Reid got the title and starting point for the song at a party. Cover versions of the song have also been featured in many films, for example, by King Curtis in Withnail and I and by Annie Lennox in The Net.
PROCOL HARUM WHITER SHADE OF PALE SERIES
The song has been included in many music compilations over the decades and has also been used in the soundtracks of numerous films and television shows, including The Big Chill, Purple Haze, Breaking the Waves, The Boat That Rocked, Tour of Duty, House M.D., Martin Scorsese's segment of New York Stories, Stonewall, Oblivion, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's documentary series The Vietnam War and the 2022 limited series The Offer. In 2009, it was reported as the most played song in the last 75 years in public places in the UK. In 2004, the performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited recognised it as the most-played record by British broadcasting of the past 70 years and Rolling Stone placed it 57th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1977, the song was named joint winner (along with Queen's " Bohemian Rhapsody") of "The Best British Pop Single 1952–1977" at the Brit Awards.
In 2009, Fisher won co-writing credit for the music in a unanimous ruling from the Law Lords. Originally, the writing credits only listed Brooker and Reid. With its Bach-derived instrumental melody, soulful vocals, and unusual lyrics, the music of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was composed by Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher, while the lyrics were written by Keith Reid. In the years since, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" has become an enduring classic, with more than 1,000 known cover versions by other artists. One of the anthems of the 1967 Summer of Love, it is one of the most commercially successful singles in history, having sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Without much promotion, it reached number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The single reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June and stayed there for six weeks.
" A Whiter Shade of Pale" is a song by the English rock band Procol Harum that was issued as their debut record on.
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