6 thoughts on “A Whiter Shade Of Pale”

  1. what about the clips from the Viet Nam War? how do they fit in? there’s another version of the song with a real corny video of the boys bopping around London looking all Sgt Pepperish.

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    • How do they fit in? Damned if I know. The song was released in around 1967 so Vietnam was on everyone’s radar at the time; but as far as I know, none of Procol Harum has ever said that it referred to Vietnam. As you said, I thought the other video was too corny, and I chose this one because it added to the mystery of the song. There are a few very good versions from just a few years ago of the lead singer Gary Brooker performing the song, and he is just as good as he was all those years ago.

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    • The Annie Lennox version is very respectable, told from the POV of the woman in the song. The circus video is probably closer in illuminating the intention of the lyrics’ meaning than most other videos. Keith Reid, the writer said that it was a record of a drunken seduction and affair, and that comes across in the Annie Lennox version.

      Here’s another Annie version that I like even better:

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  3. Thanks so much, Jack. I always loved that song so much and Procol Harem. I rarely go back to the 1960s songs that I loved back then because it breaks me up. As I have said before, I had o much hope back then–I thought–that obviously we could really make a revolution. Didn’t happen…. I know the song has nothing to do with that. But…”so it goes”!!

    Thanks anyhow! 🙂

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    • That is one huge difference I see between the youth of the 60s and today; we actually thought we were going to see the revolution happen.

      Now, not so much. Not there isn’t a huge amount of resisting happening nowadays–but even those doing the resisting don’t seem to be too hopeful of it succeeding.

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