Top twenty singles

Watched a documentary about Smon and Garfunkel a few years back. Didn't realise how controversial a lot of their music was at the time; saw them in a new light after that. Problem is I hate that song they did with voices of old people on it [gave me the creeps back then and it's even worse now that it sounds like me talking; yikes]; couldn't listen to the album because of it [not able to fast forward in those days]. Also saw Procol Harem in a new light when Benmont from Tom Petty cited Gary as being an incredible musician; might try to dig out some of their stuff given that I only know the one song.
 
harry said:
I think Black Sabbath would disagree slightly.
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Led zep 1 & 2 were out before BS's excellent first album..but yes BS were doing it a bit different

either way...Led zep are one of the best if not the best rock acts of all time...and probably only the Beatles have been more influential

one area where Zep beat even the Beatles is their meteoric rise despite lack of mainstream airplay on radio or TV..no singles bar WLL in the US which Peter Grant pulled very shortly after its release

no other band in popular music history has had as little publicity..i'm talking about 68-72..not now...as zep did.

Peter Grant also did what no other manager did for his band...got the venues to have to change how they charged acts to perform..it was pre Zep..10% artist..90% venue...Grant demanded 90% for the band..and got it. A band has to have some immense pull to get venues to change to that degree.
 
and probably only the Beatles have been more influential
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Probably??

There is absolutely no comparison

There is this strange idea that rock music is all encompassing. It isnt. Zep influenced a very narrow field.

Stevie Wonder massively influenced soul music and beyond. More so I would say.

Elvis??

But no one comes close to the giants of 20 century music. No way
 
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moehat said:
Problem is I hate that song they did with voices of old people on it [gave me the creeps back then and it's even worse now that it sounds like me talking; yikes]
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Tremendous piece of work. It's actually very beautiful if you listen to it - I think you might appreciate it more these days with your new found regard for them.

Give it another shot.

My personal favourite is the woman saying "I still do it, I still lay on the half of the bed" and the thoughts that this simple sentence evokes.

You should also have a swatch at the sleeve notes from their albums. ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrzOwPdijxQ
 
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clivex said:
Probably??

There is absolutely no comparison

There is this strange idea that rock music is all encompassing. It isnt. Zep influenced a very narrow field.

Stevie Wonder massively influenced soul music and beyond. More so I would say.

Elvis??

But no one comes close to the giants of 20 century music. No way
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i didn't compare them Clive

i don't see any other group as influential apart from the Beatles..who are obviously way above everyone..notice i say way above....as they were as a band during their time...somebody is always second though...and don't forget...regardless of genre they took The Beatles "World Band" title that they had held for 7 years...not bad seeing as LZ were from this narrow band you mention....all those other really well known bands about in 1970...and yet LZ took the mantle

Stevie Wonder isn't a band Clive...if we talk about individuals i would put Buddy Holly in front of Stevie Wonder..and probably Dylan up there also
 
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clivex said:
And icebreaker talks about procol harum
Bach set to daft lyrics
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'Bout time I addressed this -- a month late.
(And whilst waiting for the Chile v Australia match is an opportune moment).

Not so daft lyrics when the two extra original verses -- which were omitted from the recorded release version are considered. The final verse in particular clarifies everything ........... a drunken seduction which is ultimately consummated.
The complete version of the song is as follows with the two original extra verses in red. The complete song has been occasionally performed by the band in live gigs.

We skipped the light fandango
turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
but the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
as the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
as the miller told his tale
that her face, at first just ghostly,
turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, 'There is no reason
and the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
and would not let her be
one of sixteen vestal virgins
who were leaving for the coast
and although my eyes were open
they might have just as well've been closed

She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'
though in truth we were at sea
so I took her by the looking glass
and forced her to agree
saying, 'You must be the mermaid
who took Neptune for a ride.'
But she smiled at me so sadly
that my anger straightaway died

If music be the food of love
then laughter is its queen,
and likewise if behind is in front
then dirt in truth is clean.
My mouth by then like cardboard
seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straight quickly
and attacked the ocean bed.



Any explanation of the song is far better done by Mike Butler in his "Lives Of The Great Songs" than I could ever convey:

"The song explores what it means to be wrecked, in more than one sense of the word. A nervous seducer sustains his courage with alcohol. As he becomes more drunk, his impressions of his unfamiliar partner become confused by stray thoughts, fragments of childhood reading and his own faint-hearted aspirations. The song's recurring metaphor is of maritime disaster, and a parallel is drawn between romantic conquest and the allure and peril of the sea. The hero is a callow juvenile, far happier with a book than risking the emotional bruising of relationships. This ambivalence is underscored by frequent allusions to nausea.

As befits a night of excess, there are gaps in the telling. The evasive 'And so it was that later ...' is given weight by repetition and its positioning just before the hook ('Her face at first just ghostly / Turned a whiter shade of pale'). The listener is invited to fill the gaps with his or her own (prurient) imagination. An entire verse was dropped early in the song's gestation. Another is optional ('She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,' / Though in truth we were at sea') and was excised from the recorded version at the insistence of producer Denny Cordell, to make the record conform to standard single length.

For a pop song, A Whiter Shade of Pale carries an unprecedented amount of literary baggage. The analogy with Canterbury Tales holds good. Both are quintessentially English works, the one established in the canon of literature, and the other a pop standard. Both have associations of piety and decorum. Both, beneath their respectable surface, are puerile and sex-obsessed works. [sic!]

Even discounting the Chaucer reference – the Miller's Tale is the usual mediaeval bawdiness, involving cuckoldry, bared buttocks, flatulence and a sadistic rear-end attack – the conviction remains that A Whiter Shade of Pale is all about sex, and juvenile sex at that. The following memorable couplet is the giveaway:
"would not let her be
One of sixteen Vestal Virgins"

Vestal Virgins were handmaidens of the Roman half-goddess Vesta (meaning hearth), whose job was to maintain a sacred and perpetual fire. The number of them is significant, invoking the biblical parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins, and, less edifyingly, the barrack-room ballad of '... four-and-twenty virgins ... down from Inverness'. Why Reid's lot should amount to 16 is one of the song's more imponderable details. Maybe it has something to do with 16 being the youngest a girl can be lusted after by a rock'n'roller with impunity (You're Sixteen, Sweet Little Sixteen, etc). The passing allusion to Lewis Carroll in the preceding couplet – 'I wandered through my playing cards' – suggests that some of the obscurity of A Whiter Shade, as in Alice, may be due to the broaching of taboo. The hesitant lover in the song is caught midway between the chivalry of When a Man Loves a Woman and the carnality of Jane Birkin in Je t'aime (a smash hit of the following year, blatantly modelled on the Procol Harum song).

The influence of A Whiter Shade of Pale is not confined to torrid French confections. Its success paved the way for pop music's assimilation of classical forms. Its progeny includes Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and the complete works of Rick Wakeman. Its theme of romance on the edge, as viewed through the dregs of a bottle, struck a responsive chord elsewhere. It sometimes seems that Shane MacGowan's entire subject-matter is contained in A Whiter Shade of Pale".
 
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