Vu que les amateurs de
Procol Harum se manifestent, profitons-en pour compléter un peu une discographie d'exception.
Çi intervient le récit d’un enregistrement mythique resté longtemps l’un des grands mystères de l’histoire du rock anglais. Avant de débuter les séances de Home aux studios Abbey Road, le groupe s’échauffe sur des classiques du rock ‘n’ roll et du rhythm ‘n’ blues, tels que les jouaient les Paramounts. Chris Thomas envoie des extraits de la bande originale (enregistrée « live » en studio, sans « overdubs ») au dj Roger Scott, qui officie dans la station de radio indépendante Capital, et celui-ci les diffuse sans mentionner le nom du groupe réel mais sous le nom d’un pseudonyme, Liquorice John Death; la réaction est enthousiaste, et le petit monde du rock britannique essaie de deviner en vain qui se cache derrière ce nom. Mais Scott décède et la bande est égarée. Une copie de sauvegarde ne sera découverte que bien des années plus tard, et le cd Ain’t Nothin’ To Get Excited About par L.J.D. n’est édité qu’en 2002. Ce pseudo (et le titre) avait été inventé par un fan des Paramounts, qui s’est ensuite suicidé à sa sortie d’un hôpital psychiatrique ; « For Liquorice John » sur l’album Grand Hotel lui est dédié.
"Ain't Nothin' to Get Excited About" est un album de standards du rock enregistré en 1970 aux studios Abbey Road par
Procol Harum sous le pseudonyme de
Liquorice John Death. Il ne paraîtra pas avant 1997. Une rareté, sorte de récréation qui fut captée durant les sessions de "Home", quand le groupe faisait le soundcheck pour
Chris Thomas avant les prises. Des reprises qui montre un tout autre aspect de ce grand groupe, qui balance une rafale de rocks juteux avec une patate et un groove qui peuvent en remontrer à bien des combos de rock spécialisés dans le genre. Il suffit d'écouter comment ils amènent "Brand new cadillac" (hélas tronqué) et la puissance qu'ils obtiennent parvenus au bon tempo. Ou alors comment ils ralentissent légèrement "Lucille" pour obtenir un matelas sonore voluptueux sur lequel s'ébattent la guitare de
Trower et la voix écorchée de
Brooker, grand fan de
Little Richard, on s'en douterait. Au moins une composition originale du groupe qui fait un peu jam, normal. Une participation de
Jack Lancaster de
Blodwyn Pig sur le surprenant (choix original) "Shopping for clothes" des
Coasters et sur "The Girl can't help it". Les quatre
Procol parviennent à restituer l'authenticité de ces classiques, sans artifice vu les conditions et sans la moindre faiblesse, en leur insufflant une pêche terrible. En écoutant les premières mesures de la plupart des titres, pas moyen de se tromper sur l'identité du groupe.
Info on Procol Harum's great "Home" album @ PHARUM/HOME and Gary Brooker's brilliant "Lead Me To The Water" album @ GBROOKER/LMTTW01. High School Confidential (Hargrave / Lewis)
02. Kansas City (Lieber / Stoller)
03. Lucille (Collins / Penniman)
04. Brand New Cadillac (Taylor)
05. Matchbox (Perkins)
06. Breathless (Blackwell)
07. Everything I Do Is Wrong (Rich)
08. Old Black Joe (Foster, arr. Brooker / Trower / Wilson / Copping)
09. Shopping For Clothes (Harris)
10. Well I (Brooker / Trower / Wilson / Copping / Mundy)
11. I'm Ready (Domino / Lewis / Bradford)
12. Girl Can't Help It (Troup)
13. Keep a knockin' (Bradford)http://www.jheberg.com/download-2CE49A5E166B-phljd.html
CBR : 320 Kb/spw : john
LINER NOTES BY CHRIS THOMAS :In 1970 Gary Brooker asked me to produce Procol Harum's fourth album, Home. By now the line up consisted entirely of ex-members of the 60s R&B group The Paramounts. The most unsettling port of any recording session in those days was always achieving the best sound on each instrument – my aim was hopefully to make the instrument sound better in the control room than in the studio itself, as wished for by The Troggs on their legendary documentary recording of a recording – 'I've got a fucking sound in 'ere ...' When you are about to cut a new track and you just want to get on with it, you don't really want the producer to ask the drummer to hit the snare drum for the next 15 minutes in order to analyse or correct what needs to be done, so copying what I'd seen at Beatles sessions where they would go through their old favourites, I asked Procol to play anything they liked while we did what we needed to do. Gary was and is totally in his element singing this kind of stuff and I was quite happy to listen and not interrupt, even once we were ready to start the song we had to cut that night. From this was born the idea of hiring a studio for one night to put their old repertoire down. A few months after Home was released we booked Abbey Rood No 2 from 7 pm to 7am to record as much as we could and have a laugh in the process. We put Gary's vocals through a PA in the studio complete with Watkins copycat echo and invited Jack Lancaster from Blodwyn Pig to play sax and gave each song one take, including a new song that the boys had written specifically for the night. By 6.30 am they started Keep a Knocking – you can hear the results – time for bed. Sometime later during the construction of Air Studios in Oxford Circus they were giving the Neve desk in No.1 a trial before the studio area was completed. I took the tapes in and mixed about a dozen of my favourites and took a seven and a half inch copy for myself. A few years later Roger Scott at Capitol Radio heard of these tapes, and I lent them out for broadcast, never seeing them again until Gary phoned me a couple of weeks ago to tell me he had found some tapes and did I know anything about them. Well, they are my long-lost copies which you are listening to now. If someone somewhere is holding on to the masters – you're too late! © Chris Thomas 1998, from http://www.procolharum.com/so_liqjohn2.htm