Customer Reviews

Broken Barricades

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

1971's "Broken Barricades" is Procol Harum's fifth album, with pianist/vocalist Gary Brooker & company putting aside the Hammond organ and going even more in a hard rocking direction than on their previous album, "Home" (though "Barricades" still has a pair of softer numbers). The results are awesome, as "Broken Barricades" is yet another winner from this great British band (and message to the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame: induct these guys NOW!). The album's best-known song, "Simple Sister," remains an all-time Harum favorite, a classic rocker that the band still perform in concert to this day. Other great rockers include guitarist Robin Trower's "Memorial Drive," "Power Failure" (featuring an awesome drum solo by B.J. Wilson), the great rollicking fun of "Playmate Of The Mouth" (one of my personal favorite Harum tunes), and Trower's album finale, "Poor Mohammed." The classical-flavored title song is very lovely. "Luskus Delph," despite bizarre lyrics by Keith Reid, also has great power (only an outstanding singer like Gary Brooker could sing a line like "Make me split like chicken fat" and make it sound like poetry), and Trower's "Song For A Dreamer" has a very spacey, mystical feel to it. The performances by Brooker, Trower, Wilson, and bassist Chris Copping are excellent, and the songs are consistently solid from beginning to end. "Broken Barricades" also marked the end of an era for Procol Harum, as founding guitarist Robin Trower made his exit from the band after this album was completed (though he briefly returned for Harum's 1991 comeback album, "The Prodigal Stranger"). But he left on a very high note with "Broken Barricades," as he contributes powerful guitar-playing throughout, co-wrote three songs with lyricist Reid, and laid down a pair of lead vocals as well (he has a rougher-sounding voice than Brooker, but it fits "Song For A Dreamer" and "Poor Mohammed" just fine). The brilliant music of Procol Harum continues with "Broken Barricades," a great rockin' Harum classic.

It is hard to say that one Procol Harum album is a higher grade of "5 stars" than another, because most of their albums attain that lofty status. To me, there are five distinct periods in the evolution of the band. Broken Barricades marks the end of their second period and also the end of an era with the subsequent departure of guitarist Robin Trower who was instrumental in giving the second period its harder sound.
On Broken Barricades, the usual songwriting team of Gary Brooker and Keith Reid continues at center stage, but with diminished presence. My favorites from that team include the brutal Simple Sister on which Trower plays full throttle, the inscrutable title cut, the suggestive Luskus Delph, and the opaque classic Playmate of the Mouth. Fans of drummer BJ Wilson will thrill to Power Failure. And Trower teams up with Reid to put his stamp on three cuts, the best by far of which is the soaring Song For A Dreamer.
Trower has often been accused of aping Jimi Hendrix, but Trower's style was in formation before Hendrix was well known, so I for one do not agree with that charge. It is true that Trower admired Hendrix, and Song For A Dreamer is Trower's tribute to him.
If you are a fan of Procol Harum on any level, this well-done remaster of a classic album deserves a place in your CD rotation. If this is your first taste of the band, I say buy this while it is still available and check out the band's other great albums.

This is the Procol Harum album where guitarist Robin Trower finally perfected the "sound" (most notably on the opener "Simple Sister") that was about to propel him into a successfull solo career. In fact, you'll find much less of Gary Brooker's classical-style piano tinkering and almost none of the usual symphonic flourishes on this long out-of-print gem... "Broken Barricades" rocks, pure and simple! Trower fans will detect a template for future gems like "Daydream" and "Bridge Of Sighs" when they listen to "Song For A Dreamer", Trower's moving memorial to Jimi Hendrix, who had only recently passed at the time of this recording. In the 2002 liner note interview, Gary Brooker is fairly diplomatic when discussing the split with Trower, and makes some wry comments about lyricist Keith Reid's flowery...words to "Luskus Delph" (the lyrics are generously printed for you to chuckle over). Kudos to Repertoire for faithfully reproducing the original cover design and the excellent remaster. This one gets my vote for Reissue Of The Year.

In My book, this is one of this band's best albums. As another reviewer points out, this is where Trower really perfected his style before embarking on a highly successful solo career. His solo work in my opinion was nowhere near as interesting as the what he did with Procol Harum. After "Bridge Of Sighs", it all sounded like a tired Hendrix rehash. Trower was heavully influenced by Hendrix early on, but had his own uniqueness that added much to the overall sound of Procol Harum. I would much rather hear Hendrix himself, than Trower playing exactly like him. With that criticism out of the way, Trower is simply brilliant here. "Broken Barricades" was a vast improvement over the somewhat underproduced "Home". There are a couple of orchestrated tracks as well as some hard rock numbers. "Simple Sister" is a flat out masterpiece and showcases lyricist Keith Reid's maniacal lyrics set against Trower's guitar, Gary Brooker's firery vocals, orchestrations and BJ Wilson's explosive drumming.
Also of note is how much bassisr/Keyboardist Chris Copping's playing had improved here. There's just a touch of synthesizer in the mix. The band had avoided them up to this point.

Procol Harum remains one of the most inluential bands to emerge from the late 60's. Even The Beatles cited them. Just listen to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", but don't take my word for it. Just ask Brian May. He's pointed out that "Whaling Stories" from "Home" was his inspiration. Pete Townsend will tell you that "In Held Twas In I" from "Shine On Brightly" gave him the courage to write a nice little concept known as "Tommy". You can also hear the influnence of Procol Harum in The Strawbs as well as early Genesis.
I don't know if Procol Harum has been inducted into the Rock&Roll Hall Of Fame. If not, they certainly deserve it when so many artists revere them as a major influence...............

For those of you who are just about to shell out huge bucks on eBay for the 20-year old Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab version of this album... DON'T BOTHER. This CD is sonically superior to the MFSL disc, and has extra tracks to boot.

For years, Broken Barricades was one of Procol Harum's albums that was completely out of print and if you could find it on CD, it was expensive and the sound quality questionable. Then along came Gary Brooker who re-released it himself on his own label followed shortly thereafter by what appeared to be the definitive reissue on Germany's Repertoire label. That was so well done its hard to imagine how it could be improved upon. Well, in some ways (except in package design) that's now been done as part of Salvo Records' ambitious project to remaster and reissue all official Procol Harum albums.
Not to knock the Repertoire reissue, but man does this sound good. All of my favorites come alive in a way I couldn't before imagine. Simple Sister, Song For A Dreamer, and Playmate of the Mouth sound especially delightful. The bonus tracks, particularly the raw track for Simple Sister and the backing track for Song For A Dreamer, sound great as well. I am glad that Salvo found some extras to put on this edition that would not merely ape those supplied on its predecessor.
If you are a Procol Harum fanatic like I am, you should own this edition even if you already own the more than adequate Repertoire reissue. As with the other CDs in this series, Broken Barricades comes with a meaty and informative booklet that contains pictures, commentary, and pertinent album info. Get it while its cheap, you won't be disappointed.

Having been in the music and recording business for
over 29 years this Procol album has not only killer
songs"Simple Sister "is a totally masterful recording that holds up and surpasses today's digital standards. You
have remember that this record was made with no computers or digital technology on a 24 track tape recorder!
I still listen to the layering on it and wonder how they did it
back in '71. Much of the credit should go their producer/ engineer Chris Thomas a true giant in the biz. Chris engineered or produced many great recordings most notably The Beatles, Pink Floyd's " Dark Side of the Moon",
all the Pretenders records and the list goes on and on.
Dave Adams

Broken Barricades was released in 1971 as the second and final album of Procol Harum's second incarnation following organist Matthew Fisher's departure--that of a rocking foursome with a waning reliance on dualing keyboards and featuring more of Robin Trower's distinctive gutteral guitar and B.J. Wilson's unique signature drumming in the forefront. Though certainly not a full-tilt rocker, the album did manage to display a plethora of musical stylings to which fans were not necessarily accustomed, hence it's a "must listen" for those who are just now exploring the group's marvelous oeuvre.

As usual, Gary Brooker is the driving force with arrangements and vocals that leap, soar, soothe, and assuage. From the building orchestral swells of the opening number "Simple Sister" to the quiet paean to the female form titled "Luskus Delph", Brooker musically explores realms not normally heard in the rock idiom. Chris Copping supplies some great bass lines and lyricist Keith Reid is as evocative and suggestive as ever!

My personal favorite is the title track with its coda of a bright repeating synthesizer statement combined with the most delightful of Wilson drum signatures. Another favorite is the bluesy ragtime "Playmate of the Mouth"---love those 'bones! The entire band are having great fun on this track. For those who savor drum soloing, Wilson delivers on the driving "Power Failure", an otherwise non-descript tune.

Trower checks in with a phantasmagoric guitar melange titled "Song for a Dreamer" as well as an album-closing guitar workout called "Poor Mohammed". He provides lead vocals for both, something heard just once previously on the album A Salty Dog. Both tunes, however, are perhaps the most atypical of the group heard here. Trower would soon depart to pursue his very successful solo career.

So as not to give the impression that this sounds like a 21st Century production, I'll just say the remastered sound is very serviceable. The instrumental and vocal balances are fabulous...turn up the volume!

Although their LP sales never showed it, Procol Harum had already toured the states 11 times by the time this Lp was complete, packing houses and mystifying audiences from coast to coast. Though it only hit as high as #32 on the Billboard Album charts, New York`s Village Voice hailed it Album Of The Year. Yielding classics such as 'Simple Sister' (check out the wicked,barbed lyrics), and the barn-burning, storm-bringing 'Power Failure', not to mention that both Trower and drummer B.J. Wilson (RIP) consistently shine on this LP like no other, this is the first time a bass player was used, and there`s an absence of the hallmark organ that gave the band its original earmark (hence the need for a bass player). This Salvo remastered reissue is a joy to listen to, the booklet is great to read and look at the rare pics and promo items and ads, `love the tri-fold covers that they package these Lp`s in, and there are some good bonus raw backing tracks to 4 of the tunes as well. This was Trower`s swan song w/ Harum, and his Hendrix tribute, 'Song For A Dreamer', clearly indicated where he was heading on his solo career, with spacey, dreamy, wide-open-spaces for his signature licks to flow and ebb. A great listen then, a great listen now...

PROCOL HARUM, TO PUT IT BLUNTLY, STARTED OFF WONDERFULLY WEIRD WITH A WHITER SHADE OF PALE, AND GOT EXPONENTIALLY WEIRDER WITH SEEMINGLY EVERY NEW RELEASE. THIS IS NOT MEANT AS AN INDICTMENT, BUT RATHER AS AN ENDORSEMENT OF THEIR MELODICALLY POETIC APPROACH TO PROGRESSIVE ROCK (?) MUSIC.

GARY BROOKER, RATHER THAN PURPORTING TO BE A SAVANT (A LA KEITH EMERSON OR RICK WAKEMAN), PLAYS THE PIANO WITH A CLASSICALLY TRAINED, ALBEIT EMPHATIC, RESERVE - A TOOL FOR THE COMPOSITION OF A GREATER WORK. BROOKER KNOWS WHEN TO BOB AND WHEN TO WEAVE - IN SHORT, WHEN TO YIELD TO A MORE POWERFUL INSTRUMENT (TROWER'S GUITAR, WILSON'S DRUMMING), OR TO A POTENT LYRIC - OR TO HIS OWN CONSIDERABLE VOCAL BREADTH.

TRUE, THE ONE CONSTANT TO PROCOL HARUM'S PECULIARITY IS THE LYRIC, AS CONSTRUCTED BY THE MAD POET, KEITH REID. AS THE ONLY LYRICIST I CAN THINK OF CONSIDERED (AND DESERVEDLY SO) AN OFFICIAL MEMBER OF THE BAND, REID PAINTS SOME OF THE MOST ENIGMATIC AND YES, PRETENTIOUS PORTRAITS IN ALL OF ROCK MUSIC.

ROBIN TROWER WILL ALWAYS BE THE QUINTESSENTIAL GUITARIST OF PROCOL HARUM. TROWER ALWAYS WEAVES HIS MELODIES INTO THE CONTEXT OF THE MATERIAL. FEW GUITARISTS ARE CAPABLE OF THE RANGE TROWER TYPICALLY EXERCISES - FROM WANTON BEAUTY TO LURID EMPHASIS, WITH SOME OF THE SAME RESERVE EMPLOYED BY BROOKER.

B.J. WILSON ON PERCUSSION, AND CHRIS COPPING ON ORGAN AND BASS KEYBOARD, PROVIDE AN EFFICIENT, UNCOMMONLY TASTEFUL RHYTHM SECTION - ANOTHER KEY COMPONENT TO PROCOL'S UNIQUE BLEND. WILSON CANNOT BE IGNORED FOR HIS ROLE IN SHAPING PROCOL'S SIGNATURE SOUND - QUICK SNARE DRUMMING, A SLAPPING, FLAT BASS DRUM, ALWAYS BALANCED BY TINNY CIMBALS TO CREATE A DISTINCTIVE, DRIVING BACKBEAT ENGINE. CHRIS COPPING WOULD LATER TRANSCEND HIS YEOMAN EFFORT HERE FOR A STRONGER ROLE IN THE SHAPING OF GRAND HOTEL, PROCOL HARUM'S ELEGANT FOLLOW-UP TO BARRICADES.

BROKEN BARRICADES, THEIR 1971 RELEASE, IS PERHAPS, ON BALANCE, THEIR GREATEST WORK. TYPICALLY, THE TITLE CUT IS SURE TO STRIKE A DIFFERENT CHORD WITH EVERY LISTENER, DUE TO ITS AMBIGUOUS LYRIC AND SORROWFUL MELODY. [I, FOR INSTANCE, HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO LISTEN TO THE TUNE WITHOUT VISIONS OF THE SEIGE OF TROY - BUT THAT'S JUST ME]; OF COURSE, YOU WON'T GET ANY ADVICE FROM EITHER REID OR BROOKER ON SONG INTERPRETATION - AND THAT'S THE BELLY OF THE BEAST THAT IS PROCOL HARUM.

THE ALBUM BEGINS WITH SIMPLE SISTER, APOCALYPTIC PROCOL - BROOKER'S VOCAL AND PIANO FRAMING A TERRIFIC BACKBEAT, A DEFT UNDERPINNING FOR THE BROOKER-PENNED LEAD AND BASS RIFFS. MEMORIAL DRIVE IS ITS MATCHING BOOKEND (THOUGH A REID/TROWER COMPOSITION) WITH ANOTHER SUPERB BACKBEAT AND STILL ANOTHER COOL TROWER HOOK. POWER FAILURE IS MORE OF THIS SAME POWERFUL HARUM GROOVE, WITH WILSON'S PERCUSSION MIXED TO THE FOREFRONT AND CAPPED BY BROOKER'S OVERDUBBED CHORUS.

AS ALWAYS, PROCOL HARUM DISPLAYS A WONDERFUL SENSE OF HUMOR AMIDST ALL THAT LYRICAL TRAGEDY AND MELODIC DRAMA, AND NOWHERE IS IT BETTER SHOWN THAN ON THIS RELEASE. LUSKUS DELPH IS A NONE TOO WELL DISGUISED, LEWD PAEN TO THE FEMALE ANATOMY.
POOR MOHAMMED AGAIN FEATURES TROWER'S WRITING TALENT, IN AN EARSTWHILE ROCKER WITH A SAUCY TROMBONE/SLIDE GUITAR MIX. TROWER'S TRIBUTE TO THE THEN RECENTLY DEPARTED JIMI HENDRIX, SONG FOR A DREAMER, PRESAGES HIS ESOTERIC LEANINGS LATER REALIZED IN HIS SUCCESSFUL SOLO CAREER. PLAYMATE OF THE MOUTH IS BROOKER WITH HIS TONGUE IN CHEEK, BUT HE DOESN'T SCRIMP ON HIS SIGNATURE PRODUCTION STYLINGS, AS TROMBONES AGAIN ABOUND.

FOR PROCOL HARUM, THE DRAMA IS CREATED BY THE MUSIC; THE STORY SPAWNED FROM THE LYRICS. BROOKER NEVER SHIES AWAY FROM PRODUCTION, AND HIS USE OF HORN AND STRING ARRANGEMENTS IS INGENUOUS, VITAL AND BEATIFIC, NEVER STRAINED OR PRETENTIOUS. KEITH REID REFUSES TO ALLOW LOGIC (OR PRETENSE) TO CORRAL HIS REMARKABLE ABILITY TO BEND A PRETTY PHRASE, HOWEVER NON-SENSICAL. TOGETHER, BROOKER AND REID DEFINE PROCOL HARUM, AND THEY BOTH SHINE ON BROKEN BARRICADES.