Customer Reviews

Procol's Ninth

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Note: The following refers to the Friday Music remaster of Procol's Ninth. For some reason, amazon has chosen to put my review with the Salvo edition as well. Notes on the Salvo edition follow this review.
For most of those who were fans of Procol Harum from the beginning, Procol's Ninth seemed to inaugurate a downhill slide that bottomed out with the widely reviled Something Magic. Many fans at the time could not believe that the famed but smarmy pop producers Lieber and Stoller had been chosen to produce this. Nor could they believe that the boys would stoop to covering the lightweight Beatles hit Eight Days A Week and the Lieber-Stoller penned ditty, I Keep Forgetting. Though the original release of Procol's Ninth contained a couple of very good songs, many could not help but shake the feeling that Procol's Ninth sounded the band's death knell.
Lately, Friday Music has been remastering and re-releasing old Procol Harum recordings both great and not so great. Since I am a loyal fan of the band and rarely play my vinyl anymore, I finally caved in and bought this.
Believe me, remastering made a world of difference. Procol's Ninth sounds much better today than when it was first issued. Even the band's rendition of the Lieber-Stoller composition sounds fresh. Though the Keith Reid/Gary Brooker song machine had lost a little luster by the time this came out, listening with fresh ears brought new enjoyment. I best like Pandora's Box, Fool's Gold, the great "never say die" (and might I add, very English) song The Final Thrust, Without A Doubt, Piper's Tune, and a couple of instrumental add-ons that are a real treat, Adagio di Albinoni and Blue Danube.
If you are one of those who just hated this album on its original release, I urge you to listen again. This is one that stands the test of time AND the two bonus cuts make it worthwhile even if you come to the conclusion that you still hate the rest of it.

June 15, 2010
The first thing potential buyers of the Salvo reissue should know is that the bonus tracks differ from those on the Friday Music remaster. Salvo gives you not the Adagio di Albinoni shown in the product listing, but rather three raw tracks of songs from the main body of the album: The Unquiet Zone, Taking the Time, and Fool's Gold. Overall, I like Friday's extras better, but Salvo puts those on their reissue of Exotic Birds and Fruit. The most interesting aspect of the Salvo extras is the opening to Taking the Time.
So you might ask what else is different? Sound quality is about the same on both:excellent! The main difference besides the songs offered as bonus tracks is the packaging; Salvo's six-panel digipak vs. Friday Music's conventional jewel case AND the booklet. Salvo's booklet is meatier than Friday's with more pictures and interesting commentary by Roland Clare. But Friday's booklet contains the lyrics. So it looks like die-hard fans will have to own both...

Hello.

Mind you, any complaints I have with this CD, PROCOL's NINTH, are NOT the fault of Procol Harum, whose work I've cherished since I was too young to drink. My complaint with this remastered CD involves the bonus tracks on PROCOL'S NINTH. Each sample featured on Amazon, and I checked quite a number of different sellers' samples, lists the bonus tracks just as they are listed on the actual CD, once it is inserted in your player, PC, etc. Again: SAMPLES of these different bonus tracks play when you listen to the sample CD excerpts via Amazon. And again: I checked ths samples of numerous sellers. All were the same. These same tracks are LISTED on the actual CD. But the CD does not contain these tracks.

I did notice that the CD's cover makes no mention of the specific bonus tracks I was seeking, one of which is Procol's version of "Blue Danube." This track is NOT on the PROCOL'S NINTH CD, even though the CD's track listing includes it, as does each sample I listened to. Redundancy, I believe, is necessary to emphasize my points: the CD's listings and samples versus its contents.

My opinion is that an "electronic error," if you will, was made by Salvo, the UK company who is creating the remastered CD recordings. I would appreciate it if someone could look into this for me.

Another Salvo remastered release, one of an earlier Procol Harum album entitled EXOTIC BIRDS AND FRUIT, lists and samples what is supposed to be a long studio version of "Blue Danube." However, I am concerned that the listing and samples do not reflect this actual CD's contents accurately. Ergo, I fear purchansing Salvo's EXOTIC BIRDS AND FRUIT unless I can see the CD cover and read it closely.

I would suggest that any sellers of Salvo remastered CD releases read the CD covers carefully, then doublecheck the contents of the CD, REGARDLESS of what the CD tells you it contains. I intend to contact Salvo as well, but any feedback from sellers and/or Amazon will be appreciated.

Thank you.

I bought this album when it was first released and was disappointed, being that the group was my favorite. I couldn't put my finger on why until I looked at the album credits; it was produced by Leiber and Stoller, not Chris Thomas. It wasn't till then that I had an inkling of the importance of the producer to a record's sound. The sound on this album was "distant" and not dynamic. The songs were only pedestrian realizations of the theretofore unique Brooker-Reid aesthetic. For the first time the group recorded other people's songs, i.e. Leiber & Stoller's "I Keep Forgetting" and Lennon & McCartney's "Eight Days a Week". WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO MY FAVORITE GROUP? Obviously, the lamp's flame was burning out, so to speak; a fact only too apparent on their subsequent release Something Magic.

After all these years I can still listen to Procol's Ninth and enjoy certain tunes; among them "Pandora's Box", "Fool's Gold", and "Typewriter Torment". But please don't make this your first Procol Harum purchase. I would recommend starting at the very beginning (the album with the Aubrey Beardsleyesque design on the cover and featuring their signature song "A Whiter Shade of Pale") and then work in chronological order. You'll discover an interesting musical evolution and much to enjoy.

Keith Reid felt that things had turned stale. After helming four albums for Procol Harum producer Chris Thomas was out--not because he hadn't done a good job but because the band wanted to try something different. Different is what they got with their last two albums of the 70's--"Procol's Ninth" produced by music legends Leiber and Stoller and "Something Magic" produced by the least sympathetic producers ANYONE could imagine for Procol--Ron and Howie Albert.

The main flaws of the album are some of the choices for overdubbing and the decision to put to cover songs on the album. While both are great songs and interesting performances, these straight forward love songs don't quite "fit" in with the rest of the album in terms of tone and feel. Both cover songs were "forced" on the band by the producers; the band didn't want to really do them but also couldn't find a legit argument against them being included. "I Keep Forgetting" is a remake of one of the producers own songs and Brooker does a dynamite job of singing it. "Eight Days A Week" is a curious choice for the band to cover here--the performance is sluggish and the arrangement a bit awkward sounding.

Brooker and Reid's originals are extremely good to excellent and, with a pair of stronger originals in place of the cover tunes, "Procol's Ninth" could have measured up very well to the band's classic recordings. As it is "Procol's Ninth" is VERY good (and much better than the disasterous pairing of the band with producers Ron & Howie Albert).

The Salvo reissue of "Procol's Ninth" sounds exceptionally good. The remastering job here has nice dynamics with a nice soundstage and clear detail present.

The big difference here (because the mastering on the previous edition was quite good as well) are the bonus tracks. For this addition Gary Broker and Keith Reid went back to the original session tapes and picked out three "raw" tracks, i.e., tracks that either featured the original guide vocals, instrumentation before overdubbing.

"The Unquiet Zone" features Brooker's original vocal and the songs original ending (the producers spliced in a different ending from a different take)as well as lacking some of the overdubs.

"Taking the Time" features Chris Copping's organ rather than the horns that were overdubbed on the final version.

"Fool's Gold" is a live in the studio track warts and all. The band later went back and enhanced the performance with overdubs and Brooker replaced his vocal. This version is terrific in its own way and I prefer it to the finished version myself.

As with all the Salvo reissues there's an excellent 24 page booklet discussing the making of the album with rare photos.

Recommended.

(This review pertains to the 2005 Friday Music edition)
While not among Procol's finest (I believe that distinction belongs to A SALTY DOG and GRAND HOTEL) this record wraps up their "classic" period nicely. It is certainly far superior than SOMETHING MAGIC or PRODIGAL STRANGER. 'Pandora's Box' and 'Fool's Gold' were the featured tracks on American FM radio and are typical Procol rockers. Other fine selections include 'The Final Thrust' and 'The Unquiet Zone' however, the two covers 'I Keep Forgetting' and 'Eight Days a Week' are soulless and completely disposable, perhaps signifying a lack of material - essentially nothing more than Holiday Inn cover band fare. What bumps this elusive edition (Friday Music) of PROCOL'S NINTH up to a 4-star level is the inclusion of the A and B side of a rare French 45rpm - 'Adagio de Albinoni'/'Blue Danube' - 12 additional minutes of "real" Procol magic. I realize this is a pricey CD but I was patient and got it for a song $6. Good luck finding this one!

I have loved Procol Harum since their first single was released, and I saw them every time they came to San Francisco starting in the Fall of 1968. I consider them one of the greatest groups ever, sort of the classical music of rock. I highly recommend all their albums/CDs, but this one marked the end of their greatness for me. I like the songs, but they had run out of gas to some extent. I feel the same about their "Exotic Birds and Fruit" album/CD; it just didn't make it somehow. This is a good but not great release, and what followed was a downhill plunge for the group.

3 1/2

Although Procol's Ninth is said to mark a clear decline in the group's compositional quality, and despite a few clear misses, there was still an awful lot of solid structure abound where the band proved their unique mixture of classic and progressive rock was still somewhat potent.