Customer Reviews

Shine on Brightly

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

1968's "Shine On Brightly" is Procol Harum's second album, and it's another classic Bach-meets-rock hybrid from Gary Brooker & company. "Quite Rightly So" and the title track are both Harum classics. "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)" has a great ominous bounce to it. The gospel-esque "Wish Me Well" is another buried treasure from the band, as are "Rambling On" and "Magdelene (My Regal Zonophone)". Finally, Harum deliver the first of their two epic pieces in their catalog, the 17-minute "In Held Twas In I," a classical-rock suite containing 5 or 6 different movements, plus a couple of spoken word passages (Harum's other lenghty piece is the conceptual "The Worm & The Tree" from 1977's "Something Magic," but that's another review). "In Held Twas In I" is not for everybody---some fans say the various movements don't flow together too well---but I think it's a very adventurous piece, filled with lots of great moods & melodies. And, as one of rock's very first epic compositions, it's also quite groundbreaking. From start to finish, "Shine On Brightly" is another great milestone for Procol Harum.

Procol Harum was (were?) nicknamed "The Madmen of Rock", and they lived up to the name completely! They were like the Honoré De Balzacs of the genre, (the lead singer, Gary Brooker, even LOOKED like Balzac!) putting out an odd mixture of bluesy, organ and piano-driven, classically informed rock with lyrics and wizard guitar licks that had few, if any, equals. Since Procol's inception, Genesis is about the only group that even came close to sounding like them. NOBODY threw off the same rich aesthetic vibe they did.

This album, "Shine on Brightly", is probably where the group established their "madmen" reputation, putting you in mind of William Blake and Hieronymus Bosch as if these painters were musicians, with songs like "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)" and the title song. The masterpiece on this album, (VERY William Blake-ish!) is the nearly 18 minute long "In Held Twas In I", an epic composition with passages like: "In The Autumn of My Madness" and "Twas Teatime At The Circus", capturing the full-on "Ship Of Fools" feel that they'll probably take with them into rock & roll heaven! (Or hell, where they belong!) The piece ends with "Look To Your Soul", a passage that snatches hope from self-induced despair.

Other tunes include "Wish Me Well", a precursor to their "Juicy John Pink" on "Salty Dog" with its ultra-bluesy guitar riff and Screamin' Jay Hawkins singing style; "Magdalene, My Regal Zononphone", a typical Procol number with gentle, classically influenced music framing very introspective lyrics; "Ramblin' On", a song that sounds like it should have been on their first album along with "Christmas Camel" and "She Wandered Through The Garden Fence".

For some odd reason, I've always liked Procol Harum. They didn't sound like anyone else, (until their pale imitations, Genesis, came along,) and nobody had the intelligent lyrical mode they had, with its study of faux madness and voluptuary indulgence. It was if Orson Welles had decided to become a rock auteur!

For all intents and purposes, this album, indeed, was the true bridge between their first album and "Salty Dog", with elements of both being quite obvious in it. One could do a LOT worse than discovering this group of non-conformist individuals who laid a lot of groundwork for the branch of music known as "art rock".

As an album, "Shine on Brightly" is somewhat of a concept piece. It seems to chronicle the fall and subsequent rise of an ordinary individual as he/she progresses through paranoia and insanity to self actualization and nirvanic bliss. This journey is summarized in the epic eighteen minute "In Held 'Twas In I." But, more on that masterpiece in a moment. Six songs of individual importance, beauty, and weight lead up to Procol's opus. Of these, my personal favorites are "Quite Rightly So," "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)," and "Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)." "Magdalene" and "Skip Softly" are particularly beautiful in their lyrics, which seem deal with the redemptive qualities of music and the descent into a dark world of insanity, repectively. For me, however, the true highlight of the album is "In Held 'Twas In I," particularly the "Grand Finale." The composition never really lags or bores (like most Art or Progressive Rock epics), and always greets the ears with new and marvelous sounds. The Westside reissue again features songs that are either previously unreleased, B-sides, or alternate versions. Of these, the cynical "Seem to Have the Blues (Mostly All the Time)" and "In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence" are probably the strongest, although Gary Brooker does a nice job with the Italian rendering of the lyrics to "Shine on Brightly" in the rarity, "Il Tuo Diamante." All in all, Procol's second album is an exciting and magnificent Art-Rock production, worth owning not only for fans of the band but fans who admire intelligent lyrics and songwriting of a heightened quality.

Salvo terribly messed up the speed of the first two full album releases by Procol Harum.

I hope they eventually offer a recall program and get the albums corrected.

In the meantime, I can't in good faith recommend the first two Salvo remasters. Look to the Westside releases instead.

As previously stated by other reviewers, this title is presented at the wrong speed
rendering it un-listenable and a worthless purchase.
This edition sacrificed quality as a space saving measure for to
fit in more bonus material.
The bonus material would be welcome as a second disc and all held to the proper
speed.
Pick another version until this one is corrected.
I wish I had listened to those other reviewers before I ordered.

The first four Procol Harum albums have, like the Move's, been remastered and released by the Salvo label. "Shine on Brighly" was Procol Harum's second album, and it is often regarded as perhaps their finest. With the new remastering the music has never sounded better, and another interesting feature is that it is now possible to play the songs from the long suite "In Held Twas In I" - an option I have often wished for.

The bonus-tracks are great too, some of them as good as the album-tracks. Especially the great B-side "In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence" - a song I remember them playing in Denmark on their 1970 tour.

"Monsieur Armand" and "Seem to Have the Blues" are bluesy out-takes which have been released several times before, but I have never heard the sounding so great as on this release.

"McGreggor" is another fine song, which probably never reached a finished stage - but a great recording anyway.

"The Gospel According to" is actually an alternate version of "Wish Me Well" - and not very different from the album version.

The alternate version of "Magdalene" has been released before - but sounding pretty poor. The sound has been restored markedly for this release - but the chorus still sound pretty weird.

"A Robe of Silk" is a fine melodic instrumental, which the group decided to re-record for their "The Well's on Fire" album.

Interesting too, to hear the acoustic guitar on the backing track of "In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence".

Like the rest of the Salvo-releases this album has fine informative liner-notes.

The one star review is, unfortunately, absolutely correct!!! I thought I was going crazy or that my ears were shot. After researching it, I learned in fact that the speed was, in fact, too fast. So much for listening to or proofing their own product. One of my favorite Procol albums. I subsequently bought a Japanese import of it.

Procol Harum's second album found lyricist Keith Reid developing a song cycle around a specific theme, in this case insanity. Reid and Procol Harum would continue this pattern of themed albums through their next series of recorings.

Shine on Brightly begins quite well with the classic title track and "Quite Rightly So" before stumbling just a bit on the rest of the old side one. "Wish Me Well" sounds like they were attampting to ape the American west-coast sound of the time, but Moby Grape or the Dead they were not meant to be. "Rambling On" (NOT the Led Zep song!) features some excellent distorted guitar lines from Robin Trower that sound kind of like something Phil Manzanera would do years later.

Things pick up again on "Magdalene" before the band gets to the mammoth "In Held Twas In I" which is to my knowledge the first-ever sidelong symphonic prog epic. Things start out a bit rough with some sub-Moody Blues poetry but once it finally gets going during the "In The Autumn of My Madness" section, sung by Matthew Fisher, it turns into a real treat. Robin Trower's heavy guitar lines star on "Look to Your Soul" along with Gary Brookers soulful singing before the powerful "Grand Finale" wraps things up in style. It may take a while to get going, and little if any attempt was made to tie the segments together musically, but this piece provided the blueprint for every "Suppers Ready" and "Close to the Edge" that followed, while still being an entertaining piece of art in it's own right.

The four stars is completely subjective to the high quality of this band's work. Shine On Brightly is excellent and entertaining, and a five star CD by anyone else, but I have to reserve five stars for the next two albums, "A Salty Dog" and "Home" which found the band matching the song cycle themes with more cohesive music and produced a couple of classic masterpieces.

The early Association ("Along Comes Mary" and "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies") and the Left Banke ("Walk Away Renee", "Pretty Ballerina) started the baroque-rock ball rolling. Procol Harum picked it up and ran hard with it for their first two albums. This, their second, followed close on the heels of the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper' and was both influenced by it, and carried parts of its ideation to greater heights/depths.

The first song, the up-tempo "Quite Rightly So" combines baroque compositional rigor with stellar organ solos to rival even "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Its lyrics eschewed the earlier song's surrealism in favor of a more soul-searching text, on a smaller, less mystical scale than George Harrison's "Within You Without You" from 'Pepper'.

The title cut, "Shine On Brightly", follows with a serious return to the surreal, the lyrics upping the intensity via meandering metaphors winding around the listener like the coils of a brazen serpent. There is [weak]humor and/or irony in the psychological allegory that unfolds here. Glorious organ solos continue, intensified by Robin Trower's searing guitar licks, which inject their purgatorial eloquence and strident power.

With "Skip Softly My Moonbeams", the music and lyrics become more hellish - carrying over the brink into serious spiritual/psychological crisis. Sounds of a brutish and clownish nature enhance a sense of desperation not heard since "A Christmas Camel" on the first album. There only the lyrics told the complete story - the music was impassioned, but not so expressionistic like here - with sinister, percussive licks from Trower's guitar, Fisher's organ glissandos, and even the backup singer(s).

On "Wish Me Well", the bottom falls out - we enter the underworld. The music becomes a kind of 'psychedelicized' blues-rock.

The mood lightens with "Rambling On", though its humor remains self-effacing. The singer ruminates on the state of being trapped between worlds - it's like being lost inside a bad tarot reading (or dreaming of it). The combination of a slow vaudevillian sound punctuated by the churchy organ solo is hardened by the rock underpinnings of drums and guitars. The clown is ready to be hung out to dry.

"Magdalene, My Regal Zonophone" - a glimmer of light, or hope, or warmth in the heart turns out to be a calm before the storm. Gorgeously moving piano accompaniment [in waltz time, with warm bass guitar tones and snare drum] plays underneath, recapitulating hopes expressed by "Quite Rightly So"; but added to this glimmering openness is apprehension. As the song winds down and fades toward oblivion, in the distance someone comically/pathetically intones through a megaphone "Magdalene, my regal zonophone" a number of times, in rhythm with the band. It's really the now-dissociated protagonist of our saga, farther and further beside/outside himself.

"In Held Twas I" Spoken soliloquy to ominous simulations of Tibetan chanting - rollicking circus music - huge choral textures - tender piano nocturnes - and powerfully endowed guitar solos - all play their respective roles in this sublimely conceived conjuration. The whole builds its immense architecture in word and sound, mood and motive, sometimes in quiet serenity, other times as if howling, thunderously through the eye of the hurricane. All these motifs work together to symbolize the possibility of spiritual rebirth and redemption obtained through eclectic rather than narrow, dogmatic means.

Don't miss this!

The early Association ("Along Comes Mary" and "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies") and the Left Banke ("Walk Away Renee", "Pretty Ballerina) started the baroque-rock ball rolling. Procol Harum picked it up and ran hard with it for their first two albums. This, their second, followed close on the heels of the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper' and was both influenced by it, and carried parts of its ideation to greater heights/depths.

The first song, the up-tempo "Quite Rightly So" combines baroque compositional rigor with stellar organ solos to rival even "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Its lyrics eschewed the earlier song's surrealism in favor of a more soul-searching text, on a smaller, less mystical scale than George Harrison's "Within You Without You" from 'Pepper'.

The title cut, "Shine On Brightly", follows with a serious return to the surreal, the lyrics upping the intensity via meandering metaphors winding around the listener like the coils of a brazen serpent. There is pathetic humor and/or irony in the psychological allegory that unfolds here. Glorious organ solos continue, intensified by Robin Trower's searing guitar licks, which inject purgatorial eloquence and strident power.

With "Skip Softly My Moonbeams", music and lyrics become more hellish - carrying us over the brink into serious spiritual/psychological crisis. Sounds of a brutish and clownish nature enhance a sense of desperation not heard since "A Christmas Camel" on the first album. There only the lyrics told the complete story - the music was impassioned, but not so expressionistic like here - with 'percussively' sinister licks from Trower's guitar, Fisher's organ, and even the backup singer(s).

On "Wish Me Well", the bottom falls out - we enter the underworld. The music becomes a kind of psychedelicized blues-rock.

The mood lightens with "Rambling On", though its humor remains self-effacing. The singer ruminates on the state of being trapped between worlds - it's like being lost inside a bad tarot reading (or dreaming of it). The combination of a slow vaudevillian sound punctuated by the churchy organ solo is hardened by the rock underpinnings of drums and guitars. The clown's ready to be hung out to dry.

"Magdalene, My Regal Zonophone" - a glimmer of light, or hope, or warmth in the heart - which turns out to be calm before the storm. A gorgeously moving piano accompaniment [in waltz time with warm bass guitar tones and snare drum] plays underneath, recapitulating hopes expressed by the opening song; but added to this new openness is apprehension. As the song winds down and fades toward oblivion, in the distance someone comically/pathetically intones through a megaphone "Magdalene, my regal zonophone" a number of times, in rhythm with the band.

"In Held Twas I" Spoken soliloquy to ominous simulations of Tibetan chanting, rollicking circus music, huge choral textures, tender piano nocturnes, and powerfully endowed guitar solos all play their respective roles in this sublimely conceived conjuration. The whole builds its immense architecture in word and sound, mood and motive, sometimes in quiet serenity, other times as if thunderously through the eye of the hurricane - all these motifs work together to symbolize the possibility of spiritual rebirth and redemption obtained through eclectic rather than narrow, dogmatic means.

Don't miss this! It's one of the most amazing spiritual documents in any media from the late 60's.