Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

99 Degrees in the Shade

Another Reid collaboration

António Alfaiate writes: there is another Keith Reid song, 99 Degrees, on the Southside Johnny CD More Ruff Stuff (2000).

This CD was only sold at gigs and this is what Southside Johnny says on it about the song: 99 Degrees: I wrote this with Matt Noble and Keith Reid, who wrote for Procol Harum way back then. Bobby B does his usual sensuous thing on guitar ... that dog.

99 Degrees
(J Lyon / M Noble / K Reid)

She blew in like a hurricane
From some crazy Texas town
Rattled all the windows
And tore my playhouse down
I had a day job selling sneakers
From some shoebox on the street
She blew out all my speakers
And she charged me for the heat

Love and trouble
Now I've got 'em both in spades
Yet I ask for a bubble
99 degrees in the shade
In the shade

Say, I was linin' in a trailer park
And workin' in a bar
She said she knew astronomy
And she'd like to read my stars
Well, she could've been my astro twin
The moon lay over me
Scorpio was risin' so we jumped right into bed

Stars were fallin'
As the desert shadows played
Prairie dogs were calling
99 degrees in the shade
99 baby

She said, "Uh, honey, you know I usually get paid,
But forget the money
99 degrees in the shade"

I asked her would she stay
She said she was on the run
Some problem down in Mexico
A body and a gun
Her silver blue electraglide
Beckoned from the streets
For a moment I considered it
But I knew I couldn't take the heat

We said our good-byes
And I watched the tail-light fade
Mercury was on the rise
99 degrees in the shade
Ah, in the shade, yea
99 and a half, baby
Well, it just won't do
I've got to have a hundred
Ah, yea, so hot, so hot, so damn hot

Of interest to Procol fans is another song on the same CD, Gladly Go Blind, and this is what he wrote about it :

Gladly Go Blind: a song written by a terrific British soul singer named Frankie Miller. I met him a coupl'a times, and he sent me this
demo. Don't know if he ever recorded it." (As we know, Gladly Go Blind was released on the 1986 LP Dancing in the Rain).

More non-Procol songs by Keith Reid

Procol Harum

Beyond the Pale

99 Degrees in the Shade

Another Reid collaboration

Beyond
the Pale