In Alan Parker's soul monument The Commitments (1991), the song "A Whiter Shade of Pale" plays a certain role, although it has nothing to do with soul.

He exemplifies the willingness of rock fans to consider incomprehensible lyrics important.

"We skipped the light fandango / Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor / I was feeling kinda seasick / The crowd called out for more": At first this is enigmatic but somehow significant poetry;

at the end, even at the end of all illusions, one says to the other that this is just crap.

But that's just the punch line for a movie.

Edo Reents

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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The song, released as a single in spring 1967, formed the nucleus of the British band Procol Harum and remained their biggest hit, as it is one of the best-known pop stories.

The lyrics were by Keith Reid, the music by Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher.

The two organists, who later quarreled over the copyright, based their work on Bach's Suite No. 3 in D major (BWV 1068);

Brooker's throaty vocals carry one melody, Fisher's organ an opposite one.

This is how Baroque Pop came about.

Its sombre elegance

Gary Brooker, of London origin, was henceforth the main Procol Harum composer, steeping Keith Reid's cryptic lyricism in a heavy-blooded brew that erupted in lofty laments that, in Brooker's throaty, uncanny Steve Winwood-like intonation, were not very different whose band Traffic sounded like, but knew how to rock their psychedelic playfulness.

BJWilson's massive punches and Robin Trower's heavy blues guitar attacks combined seamlessly with the chromatic organ runs, which at times functioned like a signature tune.

With songs like "Homburg" and above all the sea fantasy "A Salty Dog", Procol Harum became one of the most important bands of the hippie era, without sharing their habitus.

Brooker's somber elegance, derived from American Rhythm &

Even outside of this band, which broke up in 1977, Gary Brooker was an influential musician.

He didn't have any hits under his own name, but his solo records consistently demonstrate a timeless freshness.

He repeatedly put his organ playing, his voice and his compositions in the service of the pop aristocracy, to which he himself belongs because of his Procol Harum past.

He died at the age of seventy-six.

We are feeling kinda seasick.