Jacques Tati Swings! by Tosh Berman

 

Jacques Tati Swings! by Tosh Berman

Procol Harum - "Procol Harum" 2019 Reissue (Fly Records)

 

I first bought this album in the year it was released, which is 1967. For over 50 years, I have purchased "Procol Harum" over and over again. I have four different editions of the record on vinyl, and at least one in the CD format. Why I love this album since I was 13-years old is a bit of a mystery to me. Most of the music on "Procol Harum" is sad to me, and I'm attracted to melancholy melodies and performances. Perhaps it's the inner-goth in me or that the music brought images to my head. To this day, I really don't know what the lyrics for"A Whiter Shade of Pale" are about. I haven't even bothered to read them. There also have been a few covers of this song, and every one of them is a good one. Of course, Procol Harum's take on their song is the best. Gary Brooker, the vocalist, composer, and pianist, has a soulful singing voice. The lyrics by Keith Reid are rich in imagery and detailed with specific descriptions of incidents or objects. I dwell on the mystery, but I don't want to know or have the answers. Procol Harum's music lingers like a faint appearance of marijuana. I remember reading an interview with Robbie Robertson of The Band putting down "A Whiter Shade of Pale" as an imitation of the song "When a Man Loves a Woman" and thinking he's an idiot. To this day, I can't really listen to The Band due to what he said about my favorite song. 

If one has to choose one edition of this classic album, it would be "Procol Harum" reissued in 2019 by Fly Records (distributed by Forced Exposure in America). It's a double album set. The first disc is the original album in mono. The second disc is a collection of b-sides and some a-sided singles that didn't make it onto an album release. The other great classic Procol Harum song is "Homburg." For one, I love the idea of a song named after a hat. It's a beautiful melody, and there are two versions of it on the album. The seven-minute version is superb. Perfection in every manner possible. Plus, there are Italian language versions of "Quite Rightly So" and "In The Wee Small Hours of Sixpence." After so many years, I now feel satisfied with having this one version of a perfect album. 

Flashback: Issue no. 4, Winter 2013

As mentioned in another post, I'm absolutely fascinated with the magazine "Flashback," which is edited by Richard Morton Jack, with good music journalists, especially Richie Unterberger.  The focus of the publication is Underground rock music from the late 1960s to the 1970s.   Reading "Flashback" is very much like being in a dark room with one light bulb, and no awareness of what's happening outside that room on a regular basis.  Life stopped around 1975 or so, and your only reference is obscure recordings by even more obscure artists.   For instance, the front cover is the band Trees, which I'm sure most of you never heard of them.  Nor have I, they're a British folk-orientated group that recorded for British Columbia Records, and made two albums in 1970.   33 pages, with no ads, but plenty of photos, documents, images of contracts, and various flyers for gigs, but insightful journalism on the band by David Biasotti.

In this day and age of Twitter and online publications, it's fascinating that there is a magazine like "Flashback" that is beautifully printed and designed, and obsessed with bands that fell through the cracks of fame and attention.  Each article on a band runs from 20 to 30 pages, and all are clearly written to be the last word on the subject.  Researched to a maximum level, only a music geek can appreciate.  For those who only have a passing interest in pop music history should move on to the current Rolling Stone or some other mass-market publication, because "Flashback" is a beautiful and endlessly informative love feast on music and artists that are important, but never got their fame or sales in the marketplace.

Issue number 4, besides the interesting piece on Trees, also has a long article on the band Mandrake Memorial, which of this date, I actually located their debut album (which is on its way).    From Philadelphia and they were very much part of the psychedelic scene in that city.  Also is a memoir by Beverly Martyn, a singer who worked with, and married John Martyn.  A harrowing account of her life with the horrifying John which is depressing, but good to hear she's still about making music (as of 2013, my issue here is old).

There's a great piece on exploitation albums from the late 1960s and early 70s that were a knock-off of major hits of the time, including music from the underground scene.  Anonymous musicians who recorded such albums as "Blow Your Mind," "Hair The 31 Flavors," "Light My Fire" by the Firebirds and so forth.   And to top it off there's an excellent and lengthy article on various obscure mono and stereo recordings and which ones are better.  And if you can even purchase such records from the psychedelic era without being pushed into the poor house.  The reviews are plentiful, and very in depth with a focus on CD Boxsets as well as on artists like Harry Nilsson (who is probably the most known figure in this magazine to a general audience).

Each issue, so far, has a feature on a British music publication, and here we "Go."  I never heard or seen this magazine before, but as a publisher, and a fan of music publications, I find it obsessively fascinating on all accounts.   "Flashback" are moments of perfection, and an incredible guide to music I would never be aware of, or ever being in their presence.  I got my issues from Forced Exposure.

Forced Exposure website:  https://www.forcedexposure.com/Home.aspx