Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale 

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Broken Barricades

1971


Gary Brooker - Piano, vocal 
Keith Reid - Words 
BJ Wilson - Drums 
Robin Trower - Guitar 
Chris Copping - Bass, organ, synth 

Producer: Chris Thomas

Left, the 1971 cover; above, the cover of the 2001 limited edition CD re-release of Broken Barricades, by Christine Ayre. It really is this plain, but it is executed in classy metallic ink that cannot be shown on the web. To order, visit this page

Simple Sister

Broken Barricades

Memorial Drive

Luskus Delph

Power Failure

Song For a Dreamer

Playmate of The Mouth

Poor Mohammed

Liner notes (illustrated, here, with the Japanese (Brooker-free) version of the vinyl album sleeve)

The original vinyl album had no liner note, but the Mobile Fidelity CD re-issue (a long-deleted collectors' item: see below!) had the following liner note by John Mendelsohn (1969):

Procol Harum is a commune, a workshop, a whatever, five musicians and one poet-in-residence, who have survived England's pop explosion - an explosion which left in its wake a number of ephemeral successes. They are five young and somewhat elusive Englishmen; Gary Brooker - vocal/piano, Robin Trower - guitar, David Knights [sic] - bass. BJ Wilson - drums, and Keith Reid - lyricist. Their name, Procol Harum, was taken from a Burmese cat which belonged to a friend of Reid's. Latin in origin, Procol Harum defies translation. However the cat, according to Brooker, 'has magical properties, is an uncanny cat: no-one has been able to take his picture.' The men have one common denominator: they are all self-made, self-dependent men whose backgrounds include such various activities as window-cleaner, construction labourer, asbestos sprayer's assistant and coffee-shop manager. They consider that they are 'riddled with musical influences' and yet they will not define their music, for they believe it speaks for itself. Reid claims that his major lyrical influences came out of the slums of London and he denies there is any sociological or socio-economic entity to the group. They shun all labels other than that they are 'self-dependent'.

Left, Broken Barricades on 8-track cartridge; below, how it looked on the Mobile Fidelity CD that came out briefly and was then deleted


  Reviews of Broken Barricades

What is the meaning of Luskus Delph?

Order the Repertoire 2002 re-issue from Amazon Germany

Order the Repertoire 2002 re-issue from Amazon USA

The 2009 Salvo reissue, re-mastered, with bonus tracks

The 2019 Esoteric 3CD remastered reissue with 36 bonus tracks

The same music on 2015 coloured vinyl


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