Procol Harum
through Home constitutes one of the
finest four-album runs in Rock—reasonably in the same league as Rubber Soul through “The White Album”
(damn you, Yellow Submarine!) and Aftermath through Beggars Banquet (no, that is not a massive typo). 1971’s Broken Barricades broke that spell with
indifferent songwriting and some of Keith Reid’s worst lyrics (“Luskus Delph”
may set the record for ugliest lyrics matched with prettiest tune), and from
there, Procol Harum’s output was pretty hit or miss.
Interestingly, Esoteric Record’s latest wave of expanded
Procol reissues focuses only on the hits—at least as far as the seventies are
concerned. Grand Hotel and Exotic Birds and Fruit are by far the
band’s best two post-Home albums, the
former displaying the group at their appropriately grandest and the latter at
their most soulful. While neither hits the heights of those first four albums, songs
such as “As Strong As Samson”, “The Idol”, “For Licorice John”, and “Grand
Hotel” can stand side by side with “A Whiter Shade of Pale” or “A Salty
Dog”.
Perhaps in an effort to bury a low point among two high
ones, 1991’s The Prodigal Stranger is
also tossed into the latest campaign. From that first super-gated drum fill,
you’ll suss that this is not the Procol Harum you’re looking for. The soulless
soul choirs and synthetic production that was already dated in the year we were
all smelling Teen Spirit has not deepened with age, and the BIG pop choruses
are no better. This one is only for those who are terminally addicted to Gary
Brooker’s voice, which remains in gorgeous form.
Since I only received MP3s for review purposes, I cannot
give a full assessment of the sound, but after running them through Audacity, I
can report that the files are brickwalled, though Exotic Birds and Fruit is not as extreme as Repertoire’s edition
from 2000.
There’s a lot of variation in terms of the bonus tracks. Grand Hotel receives five while The Prodigal Stranger gets only three. Exotic Birds and Fruit, however, swells
to three discs, making it the most appealing collection in terms of the quality
of the original album and its supplements. Aside from the good B-side “Drunk
Again” and an off-putting remix of “As Strong as Samson” that lowers the key
for no sensible reason, the triple-disc Exotic
Birds includes very professional live sets recorded for the BBC’s In Concert series and Texas Radio. As
well as pricking up your ears for versions of such peak-period classics as
“Homburg”, “Whaling Stories”, Long Gone Geek”, “Cerdes”, and “Mabel”, be sure
to listen for the weird yelping of some goofball in the audience at the BBC show.
Grand Hotel’s more
austere selection of bonuses includes a version of the title track without its
signature sumptuous strings and alternate versions of “Bringing Home the
Bacon”, “Toujours L’amour”, “Fires (Which Burn Brightly)”, and “Robert’s Box”,
none of which are radically different from the familiar recordings. The rougher
sound of the two demos appended to The
Prodigal Stranger should provide a respite from the main attraction’s
slickness, but weak songwriting, poorly recorded drums, and overuse of
synthesizers remain issues. A live version of “Holding On” recorded for German
radio in 2003 is probably the best thing on the entire disc by default, though
we can finally hear the mileage on Brooker’s pipes and the song still stinks...
but let’s not end on a sour note when the other two albums are so terrific, Grand Hotel and Exotic Birds and
Fruit remain essential albums by one of British Rock’s most essential
groups.
