Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

PH on stage | PH on record | PH in print | BtP features | What's new | Interact with BtP | For sale | Site search | Home

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Gary Brooker on the song's relation to Bach


This is what Gary Brooker ('a blues singer and song-writer with Procol Harum') had to say on BBC Radio 4's 'Classical Cuts' programme, broadcast on 5 October 2004.

Click to play mp3

The Beeb's blurb read, 'In the first of five programmes Tom Robinson traces the origins of our own aural landscape in the classical music of another age.

'Air on a G String: The second movement of JS Bach's Orchestral Suite in D is perhaps better known as the 'Hamlet cigar music'. As well as Jacques Loussier's jazz arrangement made famous by that ad, it has also inspired a number of pop songs, including A Whiter Shade of Pale and the 1998 rap hit Everything's Gonna Be Alright.'


More AWSoP lore

The same material in a different interview


PH on stage | PH on record | PH in print | BtP features | What's new | Interact with BtP | For sale | Site search | Home