The Well's on Fire

Procol Harum | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 4, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Eagle Records
• ASIN: B000089J12
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,647 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #89 in Music > Indie Music > Rock > Classic Rock

Editorial Reviews

Procol Harum has always been based around the songwriting partnership of singer and pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid. They gave notice of their talent with the band's first release, the classic A Whiter Shade Of Pale, and Procol Harum joined the very select list of acts who have had a #1 hit with their first record.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rock For Grownups..., March 5, 2003

By 

Lawrence of Suburbia (Pepperland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Well's on Fire (Audio CD)

...and I mean that as a compliment.

Procol have managed to deliver an album of articulate lyrics (via Keith Reid) and dignified music (let's hear it for Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher)...although it suffers a bit from slightly generic production, it's a vast improvement from 1991's "Prodigal Stranger", with its leftover-80's sound. Only a couple of tracks qualify as filler ("Wall Street Blues" the main culprit), but in the main the material is the literate, R&B-meets-Bach that PH have uniquely provided. Their trademark worldweariness is leavened by compassion for the world today; the understated "Blink of an Eye" the best song about 9/11 I've heard. For old-school Procoloids, "Weisselklenzenacht" updates the spirit of "Repent Walpurgis", with organ straight out of "Whiter Shade of Pale" and guitar-driven, "Abbey Road" climax like "Roberts' Box". Perhaps the most moving number is "This World is Rich (for Stephen Maboe)", a stately Brooker/Reid meditation on poverty and misfortune. All in all, not an album for the children that buy pop CD's today, but for those that remember the era of (truly) classic rock...a breath of fresh air, or maybe a musical life-ring.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet Return, April 28, 2003

By 

Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Well's on Fire (Audio CD)

Mention Procol Harum to most people and if you don't get a blank stare, you hear "Oh, yeah, they did that Whiter Shade of Pale song, right?"
Mention they have a great new album and you may hear "You're kidding, those dinosaurs are still around?"
Part of Procol Harum's problem has always been that they have been identified with a song that is admittedly one of the finest songs ever to come out of the sixties. Most people just don't even know that they did anything afterward! Let's hope their excellent new album Well's On Fire changes all that.
I've listened to it now at least several dozen times and have read all the reviews posted here. Let me make a few observations. First of all, it is unfair to stack the current lineup against the fabled Procol Harum lineups of blessed memory. Those days are gone; some of the players don't want to come back, and one can't. Second, the heart and soul (Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid)of Procol Harum remain and Matthew Fisher is back. We should be thankful for that. Lastly, I'm happy to hear that the music is really all new. If I wanted to hear one of their old songs, I would put on an old album. Weisselklenzenacht does not sound like Repent Walpurgis as some suggest and I am grateful. Repent Walpurgis is one of a kind and should forever remain so.
Now to the music. Despite Matthew Fisher's return, the new PH lineup sounds more that of the days of Exotic Birds and Fruit and Grand Hotel rather than that of the first three albums on which Fisher played before he left the band. Some songs are instantly recognizable as having the classic Procol Harum sound: An Old English Dream, The VIP Room, Fellow Travelers, and The Emperor's New Clothes. I enjoy all those, but am specially pleased with rocking numbers like Shadow Boxed, The Question, and the very topical and timely Wall Street Blues. Every Dog Will Have His Day is also excellent, but we could have been spared the howling.
The Blink Of An Eye, the band's 9/11 remembrance falls short, but is not as trite as some suggest. The phrase about "living on Easy Street" and having the "rug pulled from under our feet" may sound hokey, but to me it merely poetically suggests a rude awakening from self-absorbed complacency.
Well's On Fire represents a sweet return to the limelight for Procol Harum after years in the shadows. I recommend it to one and all.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest Musicians, September 20, 2003

By 

"steven11301" (San Anselmo, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Well's on Fire (Audio CD)

After waiting many years it is difficult to be objective isn't it? We Procol fans live from famine to feast. Hearing Well's on Fire (and anxiously awaiting the song by that name) and hearing the band on tour on San Francisco (an amazing experience) reminds me of many things - first and foremost that Procol Harum is about music - about where it comes from and where it is. To hear Handel reset by Brooker is an amazing musical moment and the the signature piece at the end is a truly moving musical statement. We can only hope that the next album (and US tour) are months in the future and not years. Procol Harum is about an incredible combination of words and music. May they live forever...