Procol Harum: Beyond the Pale
Eight years after their reunion and last media splash, Procol Harum are limned in a by-the-numbers group bio. Seminal if not well-remembered, the "art-rock" band's stylings after its one big hit, "A Whiter Shade of Pale," meandered in focus. For a while, it was at rock's cutting edge; John Lennon, among others, was taken with the band. But Procol Harum never repeated its one commercial success, despite the critical acclaim such albums asA Salty Dogwon them. When the group re-formed in 1991, it was hailed as one of the most influential acts of the 1960s' heyday of progressive rock. Band members Gary Brooker, Keith Reid, and Robin Trower have been exalted for their musicianship, and Trower, at least, has had a viable solo career. Most of the information Johansen relays isn't news, but he gathers it comprehensively, so that one could easily find worse books about those crazy, psychedelic days, when rock music was going to set everybody free in every sense of the word.Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved