SHINE ON BRIGHTLY

It amazes me how such an influential album can be so overlooked in the prog world, but there are many valid reasons. The foremost that Procol Harum would be forever seen as a top ten hit song band instead of the musical trendsetters that they actually were. At least with their second album from 1968 titled Shine On Brightly. This is still the same lineup that recorded their eponymous first album, with organist Mathew Fisher oozing wonderful musical notes and cues that surround almost every song on this album without smothering any of them. His calliope like swirls engulf the album's brilliant title track as guitarist Robin Trower seems to send out siren like notes on his guitar by Morse code. My Moonbeams is magnificent prototypical heavy prog with Wish Me Well reflecting the ever present British Blues scene a well as referencing, musically, the late Jimi Hendrix. Naturally, Trower is superb with this material.

Incidentally, Jimi would be lyrically name checked in and the album's most celebrated track, which is the side 2 song suite In Held T'was In I, with it's magnificent lyrics from pen of Keith Reid and the powerfully commanding, questioning, searching and almost finding vocals from pianist Gary Brooker. Broken down into sections of philosophically questioning spoken word from both Brooker and Reid that are soon supplanted by the majestic music and powerful c=vocals of both Brooker an, surprisingly organist Fisher, Indeed, the section subtitled In The Autumn Of My Madness is Fisher's high point in both playing, composing and singing for the Harum. The song's instrumental coda, also written by Fisher and subtitled The Grand Finale, is Fisher and Trower at their absolute best. What makes the song so successful is that Reid's lyrics, as pompous as they may sound initially, as Reid, unlike many odf his contemporeries, does not claim to the path to Nirvana, either spiritual or physical. How merely ponders what life's all about.

If anyone likes Tommy by The Who, or the Beatles' Abby Road side 2 song suite, you can thank Porcol Harum for showing them the way. Procol's magnum opus may not hold up as well, but it's had to hold up far longer. Uber drummer BJ Wilson and bassist David Knights round out this album's classic lineup of the Harum. 4 proto prog stars.