Procol Harum - Stockholm 1971

Procol Harum

Stockholm Sweden

Oct, 16 1971

MP3 256

VG

Six months after the WPLJ concert in New York, we find a new Procol Harum. New because Robin Trower is now gone and his place has been taken by Dave Ball, new because they have now a full-time bassist (Alan Cartwright), and new because the band, probably a Brooker's wish, goes back to the music they played before Home, more keyboards driven than the one they played the 2 former
years due to the Trower's influence toward a more straight rock sound. Honestly, it doesn't work so good here. The band does not find the magical atmosphere that these songs from the first 3 album deserved. In particular, Gary Brooker seems quite not at his most confortable on the oldest tracks, often missing the beginning of the words. The tracks from Home are the best, leaving Dave Ball show his style, quite different from the Trower's one, and who did not fit well with the Procol's style, in particular when he had only to be a discrete companion of the piano-keyboards duo. The frustration of Ball will be that he has no proper song to play and this must have been quite uneasy to deal with. But of course, any live set from Procol can be listened with pleasure for BJ Wilson, as good as ever here. Actually, it's a precious document of the transformation of the band from the rock era of Home and Broken Barricades to the classical ear of Live with the Edmonton Orchestra and Grand Hotel. This live set is here recorded from a good source apparently and is due to theultimatebootlegexperience blog, which is no more active it seems but maybe I don't have the new link. One of the best moments here is the extracts of the "In Held Twas I" suite, haunted and rough as rarely and from which I put in streaming "In the Autumn of my Madness" which was sung originally by Matthew Fisher but fits well to Gary Brooker. The end is pure doom and even Black Sabbath did not play so funeral music. Enjoy the whole set here.

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