A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procol Harum - YouTube A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procol Harum Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Sep 9, 2007 Original 16mm Scopitone conversion, from the 'summer of love' 1967 hit record, remuxed and refurbished in 2006 (I should re-upload in higher quality, I know, I will when I find the time to search my harddisks and stuff..). Fixed audio-sync as well. Sound engineer of this famous mono mix was Keith Grant.

Vocals and piano played by Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher played the Hammond organ, and these original lyrics were written by Keith Reid; We skipped the light fandango turned cartwheels 'cross the floor I was feeling kinda' seasick the crowd called out for more the room was humming harder as the ceiling flew away when we called out for another drink the waiter brought a tray and so it was that later as a mirror told its tale that her face at first just ghostly turned a whiter shade of pale She said: "There is no reason and the truth is plain to see" but I wandered through my playing cards would not let her be one of sixteen vestal virgins who were leaving for the coast and although my eyes were open they might just as well've been closed and so it was that later as the miller told his tale that her face at first just ghostly turned a whiter shade of pale.. Copyright Disclaimer; Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

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register Playlist 14 Rate 12 Like & Share Print Email Play "Whiter Shade Of Pale" Lyrics We skipped the light fandango turned cartwheels 'cross the floor I was feeling kinda seasick but the crowd called out for more The room was humming harder as the ceiling flew away When we called out for another drink the waiter brought a tray And so it was that later as the miller told his tale that her face, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale She said, 'There is no reason and the truth is plain to see.' But I wandered through my playing cards and would not let her be one of sixteen vestal virgins who were leaving for the coast and although my eyes were open they might have just as well've been closed She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,' though in truth we were at sea so I took her by the looking glass and forced her to agree saying, 'You must be the mermaid who took Neptune for a ride.' But she smiled at me so sadly that my anger straightway died If music be the food of love then laughter is its queen and likewise if behind is in front then dirt in truth is clean My mouth by then like cardboard seemed to slip straight

 through my head So we crash-dived straightway quickly and attacked the ocean bed Copyright with Lyrics © Essex Music Inc C/o The Richmond Organization.

Written by Keith Reid, Gary Brooker. Lyrics licensed by LyricFind . Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale Lyrics | SongMeanings Procol Harum Halcyon Daze: The Best of Procol Harum The Best of Procol Harum [A&M] Kuschelrock, Vol.

1 A Whiter Shade of Pale [A&M] Greatest Number 1's Ever Classic Tracks and Rarities: An Anthology Homburg & Other Hats: Procol Harum's Best Definitive Collection Best of Procol Harum [Repertoire] Collection In Concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir Spirit of NÃ¸kken We skipped the light fandango Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor I was feeling kinda seasick But the crowd called out for more The room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away When we called out for another drink The waiter brought a tray And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale She said, 'There is no reason And the truth is plain to see.' But I wandered through my playing cards And would not let her be One of sixteen vestal virgins Who were leaving for the coast And although my eyes were open They might have just as well've been closed And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale And so it was that later Lyrics submitted by Psycho_pr , edited

 by Mellow_Harsher , CrimsonApostle "A Whiter Shade of Pale" as written by Keith Reid Gary Brooker Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, T.R.O.

INC. Lyrics powered by LyricFind Oldest First +4 General CommentI suppose no one felt like reading all the comments and going to the site linked by DanVitale? READ people, only like 3 people who I bet READ before commenting got it right. Its about getting Drunk and trying to and finally successfully getting in the PANTS of a Girl. Nothing to do with Acid or Coke or Holocaust or any of that. Also the writer of the song SPECIFICALLY says that the Millers Tale line has NOTHING to do with Canterbury Tales... "Although, Reid reveals, the reference to Chaucer is a red herring. 'One thing people always get wrong is that line about the Miller's Tale. I've never read Chaucer in my life.

They're right off the track there.' " "And yet the verse is essential to an understanding of the song.(The one that was dropped as has been quoted in the comments Daciples Edit) We at last learn that the drunken seduction is consummated, and the sea metaphor reaches its apotheosis in the oblivion and forgetfulness of sex, with a neat pun thrown in as a punch-line." READ people, use your brain the freaking writer of the song out right tells you what its about, trying to get laid while drunk, except done in a vague reference over hauntingly great melody. Great Song, no in depth meaning tho.... @Daciple 0 please,could you explain me the "And yet....punch-line" more simply,cause i'm not English and i've read it already at the website but i don't understand so well.Oh and do you know where elsewhere can i find meanings of songs where the composer of the lyrics talks about its meaning? Flag orestakis13 on September 28, 2011 0 @Daciple I've been sickly from drinking too much.

Still, today, we get drunk in a variety of ways and this political cycle we have here in America, well, it's such an illusion, yeah? Everyone is drunk on something, anger, fear, obsurdity of it all, leaving us a bit homogenized and well, a whiter shade of pale. They say, "green ain't mean..." Flag rochelle10 on March 04, 2016 +4 Song MeaningReid got the title and starting point for the song at a party. He overheard someone at the party saying to a woman, "You've turned a whiter shade of pale," and the phrase stuck in his mind. The original lyrics had four verses, of which only two are heard on the original recording. The third verse has been heard in live performances by Procol Harum, and more seldom also the fourth.

The author of Procol Harum: beyond the pale, Claes Johansen, suggests that the song "deals in metaphorical form with a male/female relationship which after some negotiation ends in a sexual act." This is supported by Tim de Lisle in Lives of the Great Songs, who remarks that the lyrics concern a drunken seduction, which is described through references to sex as a form of travel, usually nautical, using mythical and literary journeys. Other observers have also commented that the lyrics concern a sexual relationship. Structurally and thematically, the song is unusual in many respects. While the recorded version is 4:03 long, it is composed of only two verses, each with chorus. The piece is also more instrument-driven than most songs of the period, and with a much looser rhyme scheme. Its unusually allusive and referential lyrics are much more complex than most lyrics of the time (for example, the chorus focuses on Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale"). Thus, this piece can be considered an early example of progressive rock. The phrase a whiter shade of pale has since gained widespread use in the English language, noticed by several dictionaries.

As such, the phrase is today often used in contexts independent of any consideration of the song. It has also been heavily paraphrased, in forms like an Xer shade of Y -- this to the extent that it has been recognized as a snowclone — a type of clichÃ© and phrasal template. Flag Musedoc on April 01, 2013 +5 Flag MinisterOTruth on December 27, 2013 0 Thanks, @MinisterOTruth , good question. Indeed, my comment wasn't original. This is a great song, worthy of honest, accurate, helpful analysis, which is what I discovered at Wiki and shared here. I'm glad this comment has risen to the top, but can't take credit for the thoughts. Flag alanhu on November 07, 2015 +1 @alanhu a lovely analysis and although correct where meaning is involved, where the technical aspects of the song are discussed there are flaws. The song is actually comprised of four verses. Though the final two are rarely ever heard... the fourth even more so than the third.

I'd love to see a breakdown of them, mostly because a pair of lines in the third verse are nearly unintelligible to my ears. Flag marie17750 on October 14, 2016 +2 General CommentFavorite Line: "And I Thought My Eyes Were Open, They Might Just As Well Been Closed" @pablo +2 General CommentNot that this could help much but the chorus line "... as the miller told his tale" I believe is referring to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In the Canterbury Tales a variety of people on a pilgrimage tell stories, the miller tells his tale which is knid of dirty and raunchy. Sorry this probably doesn't add much to the meaning, just confuses it more. @beth21 0 Went and re-read "The Miller's Tale" in "The Canterbury Tales" and got the feeling that the song might simple be a retelling of The Miller's Tale from the point of view of the character Nicholas, and possibly tinged with a little psychedelic haze?

Flag brightwood83 on April 27, 2012 0 @beth21 actually by the author's own admission he'd never read Chaucer and the two have no relation. The line sounded good and so there it is. Perhaps, further disguising the song's meaning was it only purpose. Flag marie17750 on October 14, 2016 +2 General CommentFirst off, most Procol Harum lyrics have something to do with the sea. Thus you get mermaids and such. And a whole lot of death. Personally, I think this song is about the sinking of the Titanic. The whiter shade of pale is what one looks like after drowning. I'd like to nail down specifics a little more, but, hey, let us not over analyze something we recognize as beautiful, even without one iota of understanding :) @beep54 +1 General CommentTo those who question the lyrics, these are correct. There is another posting for this song with incorrect lyrics. I checked an original lyric sheet and it had the same lyrics. Now, there are two verses that are not listed here but were not on the original recording. You can only find those lyrics performed live.

Someone else posted them earlier stating that the lyrics here were not complete, but, they are complete as far as the album version goes. Now, there's a quote over at SongFacts from Keith Reid that reads: "It's sort of a film, really, trying to conjure up mood and tell a story. It's about a relationship. There's characters and there's a location, and there's a journey. You get the sound of the room and the feel of the room and the smell of the room. But certainly there's a journey going on, it's not a collection of lines just stuck together. It's got a thread running through it." Reid got the idea for the title when it came to him at a party, which gave him a starting point for the song. Says Reid: "I feel with songs that you're given a piece of the puzzle, the inspiration or whatever. In this case, I had that title, 'Whiter Shade of Pale,' and I thought, There's a song here. And it's making up the puzzle that fits the piece you've got. You fill out the picture, you find the rest of the picture that that piece fits into." What that means, I'm not entirely sure.

One additional quote from SongFacts: The lyrics, "As the miller told his tale" sounds like a reference to "The Miller's Tale," from Chaucer's English novel The Canterbury Tales. This tale is well known to English students as a vulgar or bawdy story, told by the miller. Given this, the line, "And so it was that later as the miller told his tale, that her face, at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale" is an attempt by a young man, who has just caused a girl to turn pale by telling some vulgar story, to explain away her signs of disgust as due to other things. Such as the dancing, the drinking. Reid, however, disproves this theory. He said: "I'd never read The Miller's Tale in my life. Maybe that's something that I knew subconsciously, but it certainly wasn't a conscious idea for me to quote from Chaucer, no way." General CommentAlright, here is my take on this song. The Miller's Tale By Chaucer.. a paraphrasing.. It's the story told by a Miller making fun of carpenters.

Keep in mind he is VERY drunk when he tells his tale. The carpenter has a young wife and has two young students renting a room with him. They both adore his wife. One day one of the students seduces the wife. They have sex. (while the carpenter is away on a job)The other student sings, and tries to seduce the wife but he fails. Longing for more than a quickie the student and the wife (who apparently enjoys the company of the student) decide to trick the carpenter so that they can have more sex. They create a lie. They tell him that another biblical flood is coming and get him to build tubs on the roof of the building for them to ride out the storm in. The student sneaks down with the wife. They have sex in the carpenter's bed.Now for the punch line if you will of the story. Thinking the carpenter is away the other student tries to seduce her by singing again.. he looks in the window and tells her he wants to kiss her. The wife, sticks her ass out the window, which the student kisses. When he realizes this he gets mad and goes to a blacksmith and grabs a hot piece of metal.

He returns, the student decides to be the next one to stick his ass out the window. The second student burns his ass with the hot metal, which causes the student to scream. The carpenter hears this and falls out of the tub off the roof and onto the ground, and breaks his arm. That's how the story ends. (this is a paraphrasing of the story, I don't remember it all.. It's all written by Chaucer, so I am not intending to steal his story.. ) SO, back to the song, now that I bored everyone. The song is basically talking about making a fool of yourself in front of someone you want to have sex with or already are (which could lead to a break up) The beginning part of the song is describing how they are dancing, drinking and having a good time.. The second part is after he has made a fool of him self.

And she said " there is no reason, the truth is plain to see" So obviously she was embarrassed by his drunkeness (if you say they were together then this causes them to break up, but I personally think they weren't together at the start of the party..) Then later when he is alone he's playing with his cards, and hoping that the lady wasn't a nun. This might be the source of the confusion and embarrassment.. IE the guy is drunk and hits on a nun.. So there is my take.. He should have realized she was a nun, but he was too drunk to realize.. so he was as embarrassed as the Miller after he was done telling his tale.. Moral of the story.. DON'T get drunk and hit on nuns. (BTW as an aside Gary Booker heard someone at a party say.. "She turned a whiter shade of pale" which was partially inspiration for this song.. you can find out more about it by looking it up on Wikipedia. (same thing for the Millers Tale) Flag suzycreamchez on July 11, 2013 +1 My InterpretationThis song is about the sinking of the R.M.S.

Titanic (April 15, 1912) and the band that played on the deck of doomed ship. Note: Ships were often referred to by feminine names such as "Her", "Lady" and/or "She". Here is my interpretation: We skipped a light fandango, (Unsure about this line) Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor. (It was reported that children were doing cartwheels across the "deck" during the day light hours and adults were afraid that they would fall overboard) I was feeling kind of seasick, (Just as it says) But the crowd called out for more. (The Titanic hit the iceberg on April 14, 1912 at approximately 11:00 pm ship's time and sank at approximately 2:20 am on the 15th of April. The passengers knew their fate and that they were going to die. To take their minds off of their pending deaths, they played cards, got drunk, or just listened to music). The room was humming harder, (The Titanic's crew keep the lights on and the light bulbs back then made noises when the lit) As the ceiling flew away.

(There was a glass and steel dome over the "Grand Ballroom" on the Titanic. The Titanic was sinking bow first and when the water got over the dome, it could not support the extra weight.) When we called out for another drink, The waiter brought a tray. (The waiters knew they were going to die too, so they gave out all of liquor.) And so it was that later, (The Titanic hit the iceberg at 11:40 pm and sank at 2:20 am) As the miller told his tale, (I believe that the correct line is "As the Mayor told his tale". He was just trying to divert attention from his pending death). That her face at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale. (What color does your face turn if you KNOW you are going to die? A whiter shade of pale!!!) She said there is no reason, (The correct line is "HE said there is no reason.

The ship owner Joseph Ismay kept telling passengers that the ship was unsinkable) And the truth is plain to see (Despite that fact that Ismay kept telling passengers that the Titanic was unsinkable, the truth was plain to see) That I wandered through my playing cards, And would not let her be (Maybe by some miracle, the boat would STOP sinking) One of sixteen vestal virgins (Correct line - "One of sixteen vessel virgins" There were 16 new ships making their first voyages in 1912) Who were leaving for the coast. (Coast of United States from Europe) And although my eyes were open, They might just as well have been closed. (The narrator could see that the ship is sinking but did not want to believe it) And so it was later, As the miller told his tale, That her face at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale. ANNIE LENNOX - A WHITER SHADE OF PALE - free download mp3 Country Latin Search and download from over 6 million songs, music videos and lyrics. The #1 free MP3 download site. Largest collection of free music.

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Download A Whiter Shade of Pale by Annie Lennox Annie Lennox A Whiter Shade of Pale lyrics We skipped the light fandango Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor I was feeling kind of seasick But the crowd called out for more And the room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away When we called out for another drink The waiter brought a tray And so it was later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale You said, "There is no reason And the truth is plain to see." But I wandered through my playing cards And would not let her be I'm one of sixteen Vestal Virgins Who were leaving for the coast And although my eyes were open They might just as well've been closed And so it was later As the miller told his tale Mmm that her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale Come on, Come on, Come on And so it was later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale A whiter shade of pale Turned a whiter shade of pale A whiter shade of pale.

Procol Harum - Whiter Shade Of Pale Lyrics | SongMeanings Procol Harum We skipped the light fandango Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor I was feeling kinda seasick But the crowd called out for more The room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away When we called out for another drink The waiter brought a tray And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale She said, 'There is no reason And the truth is plain to see.' But I wandered through my playing cards And would not let her be One of sixteen vestal virgins Who were leaving for the coast And although my eyes were open They might have just as well've been closed And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale And so it was that later "A Whiter Shade of Pale" as written by Keith Reid Gary Brooker Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, T.R.O. INC.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind Oldest First +2 General CommentBeing born inthe 50's, raised int the 60's and college in the early 70's, I can relate to the use of symbology in songs. I was first into folk music... Dylan, PP&M, the Spinners, etc. and then moved into a broader range including Procol Harem (still basically a folk song, but so much more) English Lit was a mandatory class in HS so I'm familiar with Chaucer. My music studies, of course, includied the classics (theory, figured bass,etc.). I did write some songs back then. They had references to things I had read or done and it made perfect sense to me at the time. Looking back on them now , some of them seem to be the end result of a stoner weekend. I never intended that, I just used references to things that meant something to me, I told the tale from a personal point of view [doesn't every songwriter?] The lyrics could seem cryptic now, but at the time it was plain to me.

I think every writer at that time was doing the same thing, telling it from a personal point of view with references that had special meaning at the time. Those references may not carry over 40+ years later. WSoP is a classic. It captures a moment in the life of the songwriter and it still endures like any good work of art. Accept it, don't tear it apart looking for some hidden meaning. The words have been in my head since I first heard it, like so many other great songs. The music is much deeper down.

A WHITER SHADE OF PALE (TRADUÇÃO) - Annie Lennox - LETRAS.MUS.BR A Whiter Shade of Pale exibições 100.801 A Whiter Shade of Pale We skipped the light FandangoTurned cartwheels 'cross the floorI was feeling kind of seasickBut the crowd called out for moreThe room was humming harderAs the ceiling flew awayWhen we called out for another drinkThe waiter brought a tray And so it was laterAs the Miller told his taleThat her face, at first just ghostlyTurned a whiter shade of pale ------ organ solo ------ She said there is no reasonAnd the truth is plain to seeBut I wandered through my playing cardsAnd would not let her beOne of sixteen vestal virginsWho were leaving for the coastAnd although my eyes were openThey might just as well've been closed ------ organ solo ------ And so it was that laterAs the Miller told his taleThat her face, at first just ghostlyTurned a whiter shade of pale, turned a whiter shade of paleTurned a whiter shade of pale, turned a whiter shade of pale And so it was....

(fade) ------------------------------------------------------------------There is an unpublished second versethat they included in concerts: She said "I'm home on shore leave"Though in truth we were at seaSo I took her by the looking glassAnd forced her to agreeSaying, "You must be the mermaidWho took Neptune for a ride"But she smiled at me so sadlyThat my anger straight 'way died And still has one fourth verse (The original lyrics had four verses, of which only two are heard on the original recording. The third verse has been heard in live performances by Procol Harum, and more seldom also the fourth.

- Information by If music be the food of lovethen laughter is its queenand likewise if behind is in frontthen dirt in truth is cleanMy mouth by then like cardboardseemed to slip straight through my head Ainda Mais Pálida Dançamos o fandango suaveGirando pelo salãoEu estava meio tontoMas a multidão queria maisE o pessoal comentava cada vez maisEnquanto o teto rodavaQuando pedimos outra bebidaO garçom trouxe uma bandeja E foi mais tardeQuando Miller contava sua históriaQue seu rosto a princípio apenas fantasmagóricoFicou ainda mais pálida Solo Ela disse que não há motivoE a verdade é cristalinaMas eu consultei as cartas do baralhoE não permitira que ela fosseUma das dezesseis virgens vestaisQue partiam para o litoralE embora meus olhos estivessem abertosDaria no mesmo se estivessem fechados ----- solo ----- E foi mais tardeQuando Miller contava sua históriaQue seu rosto a princípio apenas fantasmagóricoFicou ainda mais pálido, ficou ainda mais pálidoF

icou ainda mais pálido, ficou ainda mais pálido E foi mais tarde ...

--------------------------------------------------------Este é um verso não publicadoQue eles (a banda Procol Harum) incluem em shows: Ela disse: "Estou em casa de licença"Embora, na verdade, estivéssemos no marEntão eu a levei até a janelaE a forcei a concordarDizendo, "Você deve ser a sereiaQue enganou Netuno."Mas ela sorriu pra mim tão tristementeQue minha raiva passou imediatamente. Há ainda um quarto verso (a letra original tem quatro, dos quais só dois são ouvidos na gravação original. O terceiro verso foi ouvido em apresentações do Procol Harum, e mais raramente também o quarto.

Se a música é alimento para o amorEntão sorrir é sua rainhaE, da mesma forma, se atrás está na frenteEntão o sujo na verdade é limpoMinha boca como se fosse de papelãoParecia escorregar direto pela minha cabeça A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Joe Cocker - VAGALUME A Whiter Shade Of Pale I Know (You Don't Want Me no More What Did You do to Me Last Night Lady Put the Light Out Wasted Years I Heard It Through the Grapevine x We skipped the light fandango And turned cartwheels across the floor I was feeling kind of seasick The crowd called out for more The room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away Whe we called out for another drink The waiter brought a tray And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face at first just ghostly Turned a whiter shade of pale She said there is no reason And the truth is plain to see But I wandered through my playing cards Would not let her be One of sixteen vestal virgins Who were leaving for the coast At the moment my eyes were open They might just as well have been closed And so it was that later As the

 miller told his tale That her face at first just ghostly Turned a whiter shade of pale By JPR ELLIOTT YAMIN LYRICS - Whiter Shade Of Pale "Whiter Shade Of Pale" lyrics ELLIOTT YAMIN LYRICS We skipped the light fandango Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor I was feeling kinda seasick But the crowd called out for more The room was humming harder As the ceiling flew away When we called out for another drink And the waiter brought a tray And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale Mmmmm,mmmmmm,mmmmmm You know, she said there is no reason And the truth is plain to see But I wandered through my playing cards And I would not let her be One of sixteen vestal virgins Who were leaving for the coast And although my eyes were open They might have just as well been closed And so it was that later As that miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale Oooooooh,ohhhh yeahhhh, mmmmmmm And so it

 was later As the miller told his tale That her face, that her face, just so ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale And so it was, was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of pale Visit for these lyrics.

Thanks to Nikki for adding these lyrics.

Writer(s): Matthew Fisher, Gary Brooker, Keith Reid BLACK LABEL SOCIETY LYRICS - Whiter Shade Of Pale "Whiter Shade Of Pale" lyrics BLACK LABEL SOCIETY LYRICS We skipped the light fandango And turned cartwheels across the floor Yeah, I was feeling kind of seasick But the crowd called out for more, yeah, oh yeah And the room was humming harder And as the ceiling flew away We called out for another drink, oh yeah The waiter brought the tray And so it was that later, yeah As the miller told his tale That her face at first just ghostly Turned a whiter shade of pale She said there is no reason And the truth is plain to see But I wandered through my playing cards And I would not let her be, oh, oh yeah One of sixteen vestal virgins Who were leaving for the coast And oh, and my eyes were open They might just as well have been closed And so it was that later, oh As the miller told his tale That her face at first just ghostly Turned a whiter shade of pale, oh yeah Oh, and so it was, yeah, oh later The miller told his tale Yeah her face was kinda ghostly Turned a

 whiter shade of pale, oh yeah from 'Lives of the Great Songs' A Whiter Shade of Pale Mike Butler in 'Lives of the Great Songs' The following text is excerpted from Tim de Lisle's Lives of the Great Songs [ISBN 1-85793-374-5] by kind permission of the publishers, Pavilion Books, London House, Great Eastern Wharf, Parkgate Road, London SW11 4NQ.

It's an excellent, witty and learned book, which we thoroughly recommend. It's a summer song of pervasive dread, a wedding hymn riven with sexual anxiety, an epochal composition which routinely functions as background muzak for the keep-fit class (if you don't believe me, dig out Diana Moran's album Get Fit with the Green Goddess). Contradiction only bolsters the enigma of A Whiter Shade of Pale. The dï¿½but single from Procol Harum was the surprise hit of summer 1967. It captured listeners' imagination from the moment of its first toe-testing airing on Radio Caroline. 'Everything about this record is an overwhelming gas,' effused Melody Maker in May. In June, while Sgt Pepper topped the British album chart, A Whiter Shade of Pale (Deram) was the No 1 single. It was among the first batch of songs produced by the songwriting team of composer-singer-pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid.

Melody Maker of 3 June 1967 contains a contemporary account of the song's origin: It was 'sixth member' Keith Reid who had the idea for the song, at a 'gathering' 'Some guy looked at a chick and said to her, 'You've gone a whiter shade of pale. That phrase stuck in my mind. It was a beautiful thing for someone to say. I wish I'd said it,' laughed Keith, while Gary put down his cup of coffee and struggled with a nose inhaler. Reid confirmed the account when I telephoned him in New York in 1994. 'The title came first. It's always like that; like a puzzle. After the title you find the rest of the pieces to make a picture.' The found phrase is felicitous. It has the authority of a line from Shakespeare, and is as catchy as the most persistent jingle – which, inevitably, was to be its fate. The ad, just as inevitably, was for Dulux. Brooker's setting was a motley synthesis, derived from Bach (though Reid dissents: 'It is not Air on a G-String) and Percy Sledge.

When a Man Loves a Woman, a hit of the previous year, had also had a hymnal quality, an integral part for organ, and a fervent, soulful delivery. Reid's cryptic lyrics inject some of the waywardness of the counter-culture. There's a tension between the placid majesty of the music and the paranoia and messiness of the subject-matter. The disjunction may account for the common perception of A Whiter Shade of Pale as impenetrable and obscure. 'I never understand when people say they don't understand it,' said Reid. '"We skipped the light fandango"'. That's straightforward. "Turned cartwheels across the floor." It seems very clear to me.' Nervously, I hazarded my own reading, the summation of my voluntary immersion in the world of A Whiter Shade of Pale, and much pondering on its significance. Is it about getting pissed and fancying the person opposite you? 'It's a story, a journey, seen from the point of view of a man character.' The song explores what it means to be wrecked, in more than one sense of the word. A nervous seducer sustains his courage with alcohol.

As he becomes more drunk, his impressions of his unfamiliar partner become confused by stray thoughts, fragments of childhood reading and his own faint-hearted aspirations. The song's recurring metaphor is of maritime disaster, and a parallel is drawn between romantic conquest and the allure and peril of the sea. The hero is a callow juvenile, far happier with a book than risking the emotional bruising of relationships. This ambivalence is underscored by frequent allusions to nausea. As befits a night of excess, there are gaps in the telling. The evasive 'And so it was that later ...' is given weight by repetition and its positioning just before the hook ('Her face at first just ghostly / Turned a whiter shade of pale'). The listener is invited to fill the gaps with his or her own (prurient) imagination. An entire verse was dropped early in the song's gestation. Another is optional ('She said, 'I'm home on shore leave,' / Though in truth we were at sea') and was excised from the recorded version at the insistence of producer Denny Cordell, to make the record conform to standard single length. For a pop song, A Whiter Shade of Pale carries an unprecedented amount of literary baggage.

Although, Reid reveals, the reference to Chaucer is a red herring. 'One thing people always get wrong is that line about the Miller's Tale. I've never read Chaucer in my life. They're right off the track there.' Why did he put it in then? (In mild dismay at the peremptory demolition of this intellectual prop.) 'I can't remember now.' The analogy with Canterbury Tales, whether welcomed by Reid or not, holds good. Both are quintessentially English works, the one established in the canon of literature, and the other a pop standard. Both have associations of piety and decorum. (The song has become a regular fixture of the wedding ritual, supplanting Handel's Wedding March as the tune to walk down the aisle to after the ceremony: it was played, indeed, at the wedding of Gary Brooker and Franï¿½oise, known as Frankie, with Procol Harum's Matthew Fisher in the organ loft.) Both, beneath their respectable surface, are puerile and sex-obsessed works.

[sic!] Even discounting the Chaucer reference – the Miller's Tale is the usual mediaeval bawdiness, involving cuckoldry, bared buttocks, flatulence and a sadistic rear-end attack – the conviction remains that A Whiter Shade of Pale is all about sex, and juvenile sex at that. The following memorable couplet is the giveaway: [I] would not let her be One of sixteen Vestal Virgins Vestal Virgins were handmaidens of the Roman half-goddess Vesta (meaning hearth), whose job was to maintain a sacred and perpetual fire. The number of them is significant, invoking the biblical parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins, and, less edifyingly, the barrack-room ballad of '... four-and-twenty virgins ... down from Inverness'. Why Reid's lot should amount to 16 is one of the song's more imponderable details. Maybe it has something to do with 16 being the youngest a girl can be lusted after by a rock'n'roller with impunity (You're Sixteen, Sweet Little Sixteen, etc).

The passing allusion to Lewis Carroll in the preceding couplet – 'I wandered through my playing cards' – suggests that some of the obscurity of A Whiter Shade, as in Alice, may be due to the broaching of taboo. The hesitant lover in the song is caught midway between the chivalry of When a Man Loves a Woman and the carnality of Jane Birkin in Je t'aime (a smash hit of the following year, blatantly modelled on the Procol Harum song). The influence of A Whiter Shade of Pale is not confined to torrid French confections. Its success paved the way for pop music's assimilation of classical forms. Its progeny includes Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and the complete works of Rick Wakeman. Its theme of romance on the edge, as viewed through the dregs of a bottle, struck a responsive chord elsewhere. It sometimes seems that Shane MacGowan's entire subject-matter is contained in A Whiter Shade of Pale. Certainly, the song received a generous endorsement when I canvassed the former Pogue's opinion. We met whilst rubbing shoulders at adjacent bins in a second-hand record shop in Camden Town, I fruitlessly searching for the Percy Sledge version.

'A Whiter Shade of Pale,' MacGowan said, 'yeah man, that's one of my favourite records.' MacGowan's speech is husky, but his judgement is unimpaired. 'People say they nicked it from Bach. But it doesn't matter, because what they did with it was much better than what Bach did with it.' Percy Sledge is not the only soul singer to respond to A Whiter Shade of Pale. For an example of the Motown studio system at its height, seek out Shorty Long's version on The Prime of (1969) and marvel at the bizarre and stilted trumpet solo (a rare lapse). Sledge's version would be fascinating, closing a circle of inspiration which links the tender balladeer from America's Deep South with London's barrier-smashing rockers – if only I could find it. King Curtis gives the definitive cover version, however, on Live at Fillmore West (Atco 1971). The tempo is slowed right down, and Curtis's bittersweet saxophone induces an insouciant euphoria.

This Whiter Shade plays over the opening credits of Bruce Robinson's cult British film, Withnail & I (1986), a nostalgic hark back to an age of innocent substance-abuse. Thus A Whiter Shade of Pale, which originally embodied sixties excess, becomes a threnody for a generation. King Curtis's own leave-taking was brutally final. He was stabbed to death in New York in 1971. Willie Nelson on the Always on My Mind album (Columbia 1982) coaxes the words from his larynx shyly, bringing a new matter-of-factness to Brooker's obtuse words. Waylon Jennings pitches in for a verse with his drier, slyer delivery. The two hell-raisers contrive to ditch every last trace of Eng Lit from the song. So 'The Miller told his tale' becomes 'the mirror told its tale'. An alteration which, in fact, probably enhances its narrative clarity. 'That's quite good,' Keith Reid admitted, when I told him. 'It's better.

You can see why he's such a good songwriter, can't you?' The Everly Brothers got their shot in early for the Nastiest Shade of Pale award with a misconceived attempt to appeal to the flower-children on The Everly Brothers Sing (Warner Bros 1967). The field subsequently became overcrowded. Bonnie Tyler switched the gender of the piece to no great effect on Night Riding (Night Riding 1990). Justin Hayward, abetted by Mike Batt and the LPO on Classic Blue (BMG 1989), is his usual fey and wispy self. A superfluous record, this, seemingly calculated to confuse all those who can't tell their Whiter Shades from White Satin. Joe Cocker, in marked contrast, reveals the self-disgust at the song's heart (Luxury You Can Afford, Asylum 1978); his rawness is thrown into stark relief by Allen Toussaint's too slick production. A disco version by Munich Machine touched the lower reaches of the charts for a few weeks in 1978 (Oasis).

The most eccentric version comes from deconstructivist rockers Vibrating Egg, a band from Athens, Georgia. They restore the spookiness of the original by appending a tale told by a madman (Come in Here if You Want to, Dog Gone 1988). Warlock and the London Symphony Orchestra vie for tastelessness with their respective treatments. Warlock (Force Majeure, Vertigo 1989) offer overwrought corporate rock. The LSO (Classic Rock, K-Tel 1977) slum it by pretending to be a light orchestra. Both are lamentably conservative. It is April 1994 and Gary Brooker is in a recording studio in north London, busy mixing The Symphonic Music of Procol Harum, an album of orchestrated versions of the band's songs. Daryl Way – best remembered as fiddler in Curved Air – picked the plum parts when he elected to arrange A Whiter Shade of Pale and the phantasmal A Salty Dog. These new orchestral versions are so opulent they make the originals seem skeletal, bare bones to be adorned with bangles, frills and finery. Here they pirouette to a different dance.

Brooker takes time out from digitally tweaking a cor anglais to recreate, for my benefit, the inception of A Whiter Shade of Pale. What does it owe to Air on a G-String? 'Everything,' Brooker says, and demonstrates his first, halting attempt to play the music from the Hamlet-cigar ad. He was messing it up. The bass line went on descending interminably, the trill in the right hand reduced to uncertain ornamentation. The stumbling coalesces into a pretty chord sequence. 'Hello, if I get back to where I was, I can go round again.' And so Brooker chases the tail of the sequence, and a familiar melody emerges. How did you marry the tune to the words? 'I just got them out.' Brooker stoops. 'I've got a pile of Keith's words here.' He spreads imaginary papers on the piano-stand, repeats the chord sequence, peers at imaginary words, and begins, 'We skipped the light fandango ...' A Whiter Shade of Pale was born fully formed. More than fully, in fact. I ask about the missing verse.

'I took it out because I was puffed.' Brooker proceeds to sing it: If music be the food of love And laughter is its queen And likewise if behind's in front Then dirt in truth is clean My mouth by then like cardboard Seemed to slip straight through my head So we crashed dived straight way quickly And attacked the ocean bed Full text here Re 'The Shakespearean quote is a clunker' below: the typescrpt in Gary Brooker's collected Reid lyric album shows that in fact Keith wrote 'food of life', playing games with the canonical text just as he had with 'the light fantastic' No wonder it was dropped. The Shakespearean quote is a clunker, and pity Brooker stumbling over the back-to-back Ds on the awkward penultimate line. The crudity of the denouement would surely have exposed the singer to ridicule. A Whiter Shade of Pale, in this version, would have been sunk. And yet the verse is essential to an understanding of the song. We at last learn that the drunken seduction is consummated, and the sea metaphor reaches its apotheosis in the oblivion and forgetfulness of sex, with a neat pun thrown in as a punch-line.

Meanwhile the edited version, which swam into the collective consciousness 27 years ago, still keeps its head above water. Numerous covers of AWSoP and other Procol Harum songs

Question: In ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, who “told his tale”?
Answer: The MILLER