This was Britain's first gentle whiff of drug culture in pop music. Those heady sights, smells and sounds of what later became known as the Summer Of Love, were first and best encapsulated on this side of the Atlantic by Procol Harum's hit. It would prove to be a summer which burned long and bright and which heralded a significant change in the look, sound and mood of pop culture.

Britain Skips the Light Fandango

56 min @ 64kbps

The Summer Of Love had its roots in the American Beat Culture of the 1950s and in writers like Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. The concepts of free love, liberal politics, casual drug use, communal living and opposition to the Vietnam War were at its core. Slowly the culture had infiltrated first the West Coast music scene and then more popular culture.
Ironically, by the time the hippie ideals had crossed the Atlantic, much of America was burning; race riots and heavy handed police reaction to marches and demonstrations had scarred many cities. But in London, everything was just groovy. Hair was worn a little longer, beads were sported and flowers waved about. Legend has it The Beatles were introduced to marijuana by Bob Dylan in 1964. There was even whispered talk of "revolution".
A Whiter Shade Of Pale was the debut single from Procol Harum, which went to number one in the UK, number five in the USA, is one of 30 singles that has sold more than 10 million copies, and which has been covered more than 1000 times. Not bad for a new band. It's widely thought that the song is about a drunken sexual seduction, so whilst it's not overtly about altered states, its sense of intoxication and trippiness captured the mood of the era.
In this episode, Stuart examines the realities of 'Summer of Love' and what this infamous period really meant for most Britons. We want to talk to those who remember it well...and those who don't!

BBC R2 20 February 2013. Presented by Stuart Maconie.


It's So Far Out, It's Straight Down! (1967)



IMDb

This is the full It's So Far Out it's Straight Down video. This was a short film produced by Granada Television about the then-nascent underground scene in London. It's quite hard to track down in its entirety - although clips regularly turn up on nostalgia shows and music documentaries - but it's well worth seeking out, mainly for its rare glimpse into the British underground well before it descended into a vast and pointless love-in.
Broadcast in March 1967, the film thus predates the Summer of Love by several months, so we're treated to the sight of earnest young men in suits and glasses cutting a rug to a live set from Pink Floyd at the legendary UFO club - which turns out to closely resemble the cramped basement it then was.
Plenty of counter-cultural legends contribute, including Paul McCartney (as a talking head in the studio), Allen Ginsberg, John 'Hoppy' Hopkins and Burroughs biographer Barry 'Miles' Miles, but the real interest for most viewers has to be the VERY early concert footage of Pink Floyd, along with a rough version of the band's "Matilda Mother", then known as "Percy The Ratcatcher", on the soundtrack. This is among their earliest recordings, never mind their first appearance in a documentary, as the film's broadcast more-or-less coincided with the release of their first single.
It also does a nice job of giving the lie to the Blow Up/Austin Powers image of 'Swinging London' that has since become the accepted version of the era.
The conversation with Paul McCartney was originally broadcast on British television as part of the program 'So Far Out It's Straight Down,' which dealt with the topic of the changing attitudes of the late-Sixties, and London's underground movement: namely the Indica Bookshop and International Times. Paul's interview with Jo Durden-Smith was filmed by Granada Television on January 18th 1967, The program was telecast on March 7th.
McCartney's interview was split up into 3 separate segments which were interspersed throughout the program.

It's So Far Out, It's Straight Down!

XVID @ 622 Kbps, 352 x 240, 30 min.


1967: The truth about the summer of love
Don't buy the myth that 1967 was all pot, psychedelia and Carnaby Street. No; 40 years on, if you were there, it's Simon Dee, The Seekers and Carry On Doctor you remember.

The Truth about the Summer of Love



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-02-28 10:16 by belubettlo.

Never thought Whiter Shade was about a drunken sexual seduction...more a first trip! The room was humming harder and the ceiling flew away...reminds me of my mispent youth.

It's a dozy drifting dream...

I always liked.

And JS Bach on double-neck guitar... ><

Annie Lennox cover of A Whiter Shade of Pale is great.

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ColonialstoneNZ
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colonial: Annie Lennox cover of A Whiter Shade of Pale is great.





It started off better than it ended, I thought, but it's a nice change from the usual version, which I've heard so many times that I never want to hear it again.

thanks for posting this. Can't get enough of that stuff.

Joe Cocker and Johnny Rivers did nice covers of it...

Canadian conection:

Procol Harum Live with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
Lawrence Leonard, conductor

Distinctions
First recording with a symphony orchestra to sell Gold, subsequently the first to sell Platinum.

Procol have done a lot of great stuff other than AWSOP. Salty Dog is an amazing album, and Grand Hotel, and the live with Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Robin Trower was an amazing guitarist with them, but Gary Brooker remains an amazing blue-eyed soul vocalist, easily on a par with Winwood.

a great,great group underestimated ,particulary in U.K.....

Willie Nelson does great cover of WSOP.

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belubettlo
colonial: Annie Lennox cover of A Whiter Shade of Pale is great.





It started off better than it ended, I thought, but it's a nice change from the usual version, which I've heard so many times that I never want to hear it again.

hey cheers belubettlo "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is also a very popular wedding song.

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ColonialstoneNZ
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Lost my virginity to Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale....

.....Oh dear .... hope you get it back soon ...



ROCKMAN

Thank you so much for posting Annie Lennox "Whiter Shade of Pale." FANTASTIC!

I have fond memories of Procol Harum's first appearances in LA. But our Annie is never to be underestimated.

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Rockman
.....Oh dear .... hope you get it back soon ...

not a chance! It was a rainy afternoon and the album played in the background...

.was it a Tuesday??????....



ROCKMAN

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Rockman
.was it a Tuesday??????....

good question...weekday for sure, don't remember which day.

Repent Walpurgis was the track prior to AWSOP - Foreplay to that would have been a bit cheerless, though a great track.

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Silver Dagger
Never thought Whiter Shade was about a drunken sexual seduction...more a first trip! The room was humming harder and the ceiling flew away...reminds me of my mispent youth.

Meanings in 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'

'After all, what does any of it mean?' (GB, 1995)

Well, to whom it may interest, there's an incredible mass of interpretation and information on this number to be found here:

[procolharum.com]

dead.flowers

Procol Harum, one of the best bands ever. Try Shine on brightly, A salty dog and if you're on a low mood, Home. Keith Reid's lyrics:

Caprice, your bugle blew away the cobwebs from my ears
and for once I stood quite naked. Unashamed, I wept the tears
which I tried to hide inside myself from me, I mean from you
but the shame I found too painful and the pain it only grew

"Magdalene"





"Salad days"








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"I'm gonna walk... before they make me run"

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-03-08 14:42 by dandelion1967.

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Munichhilton

A Whiter Shade:

Berliner Weiße (Berliner Weisse)

Everybody loves the organ, I guess. - The soundprint of a whole generation. You`ve got to be old enough to understand...

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tomcasagranda
Repent Walpurgis was the track prior to AWSOP - Foreplay to that would have been a bit cheerless, though a great track.

we weren't paying attention....

King Curtis live version is nice. You hear it at the start of the movie "Withnail and I"