The Prodigal Stranger

Last updated

Prodigal Stranger
Procol Harum Prodigal Stranger.jpg
Studio album by
Procol Harum
Released27 August 1991
Studio Black Barn, Surrey, England; Old Barn, South Croydon, England; Stone Room, London, England; The Loft, Bronxville, NY
Genre Progressive rock
Length51:56
Label Zoo Entertainment, Esoteric Recordings
Producer Matt Noble, Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher, Keith Reid
Procol Harum chronology
Something Magic
(1977)		Prodigal Stranger
(1991)		 The Well's on Fire
(2003)

The Prodigal Stranger is the tenth studio album by Procol Harum, released in 1991. Recorded after a 14-year break, it met with an underwhelming response from listeners but served to kick off a largely successful reunion for the band.

Contents

Background

The album is dedicated to the memory of B. J. Wilson, who had been the drummer on all of the group's previous albums, but not on The Prodigal Stranger. The Procol Harum reformation began with just Gary Brooker and Keith Reid working together to write songs, only later giving serious consideration to involving other members of Procol Harum. [1]

Although Matthew Fisher hadn't played with the band since 1969's A Salty Dog, he stated at the time "I felt that I just sort of slotted back into it, like it had only been like the day before ... so it's not so much déjà vu as just carrying on where we left off." [1]

The song "A Dream in Ev'ry Home" started with a riff which Fisher thought up at home and put a bass line and drum part on with a sequencer. [1]

Reid said of the song "The Truth Won't Fade Away", "I saw it as being about civilisations like the Inca civilisation and other ancient civilisations, growing and being there and being wiped out and new ones taking over from them. I saw it as a movie in my mind." [1]

The reunion of the surviving four original members did not last long. Robin Trower performed on the album and co-wrote the music for "All Our Dreams are Sold", but he declined to join the group on the following tour and was replaced by Tim Renwick. The tour to promote the album was well received and attended in both Europe and the United States, reflecting the respect and status of the group, but was not reflected in album sales. The album didn't chart in the Billboard Top 100 in the United States, although the single "All Our Dreams Are Sold" got decent airplay, rising to number 29 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts, [2] but just number 95 in Canada. [3]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]

The review at Allmusic stated that the absence of original drummer B. J. Wilson severely hurt the vitality of the band and that while Brooker was in fine voice, lyricist Keith Reid was "in a mundane, conventional mode" and that the frequent use of synthesizers in place of Matthew Fisher's Hammond organ made the band often sound like a generic AOR group. [4] Entertainment Weekly stated "...though the songs in The Prodigal Stranger are occasionally overproduced, singer Gary Brooker's powerfully soulful voice still makes the difference every time. Most of The Prodigal Stranger would have sounded perfectly wonderful in 1969 – and in this case, that's a compliment." [5]

Track listing

  1. "The Truth Won't Fade Away" (Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher, Keith Reid)
  2. "Holding On" (Brooker, Reid)
  3. "Man with a Mission" (Brooker, Matt Noble, Reid)
  4. "(You Can't) Turn Back the Page" (Brooker, Noble, Reid)
  5. "One More Time" (Brooker, Fisher, Reid)
  6. "A Dream in Ev'ry Home" (Brooker, Fisher, Reid)
  7. "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" (Brooker, Thompson, Reid)
  8. "The King of Hearts" (Brooker, Noble, Reid)
  9. "All Our Dreams Are Sold" (Brooker, Trower, Reid)
  10. "Perpetual Motion" (Brooker, Noble, Reid)
  11. "Learn to Fly" (Brooker, Fisher, Reid)
  12. "The Pursuit of Happiness" (Brooker, Noble, Reid)

Personnel

Procol Harum
Additional personnel
Production

Related Research Articles

Procol Harum British band

Procol Harum were an English rock band formed in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies. Although noted for their baroque and classical influence, Procol Harum's music is described as psychedelic rock and proto-prog with hints of the blues, R&B, and soul.

A Whiter Shade of Pale 1967 single by Procol Harum

"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is a song by the English rock band Procol Harum that was issued as their debut record on 12 May 1967. The single reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it reached number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100. One of the anthems of the 1967 Summer of Love, it is one of the most commercially successful singles in history, having sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. In the years since, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" has become an enduring classic, with more than 1000 known cover versions by other artists.

<i>Procol Harum</i> (album) 1967 studio album by Procol Harum

Procol Harum is the debut studio album by English rock band Procol Harum. It was released in September 1967 by record label Deram in the US, following their breakthrough and immensely popular single "A Whiter Shade of Pale". The track doesn't appear on the UK version of the album, but was included on the US issue. The UK version of the album was released in December 1967 by record label Regal Zonophone.

<i>Shine On Brightly</i> 1968 studio album by Procol Harum

Shine On Brightly is the second studio album by English rock band Procol Harum, released in 1968 by record labels Regal Zonophone and A&M.

<i>Home</i> (Procol Harum album) 1970 studio album by Procol Harum

Home is Procol Harum's fourth album, released in 1970. With the departure of organist Matthew Fisher and bassist David Knights and the addition of the remaining musicians' former bandmate bassist/organist Chris Copping from the Paramounts, Procol Harum became, to all intents and purposes, the Paramounts again in all but name. The purpose of bringing in Copping was to return some of the R&B sound to the band that they had had with their previous incarnation.

<i>A Salty Dog</i> 1969 studio album by Procol Harum

A Salty Dog is the third studio album by English rock band Procol Harum, released in 1969 by record labels Regal Zonophone and A&M.

<i>Broken Barricades</i> 1971 studio album by Procol Harum

Broken Barricades is the fifth studio album by English rock band Procol Harum, released the same week they began their U.S. tour, on 3 April 1971. The UK release was on 11 June 1971. It was guitarist Robin Trower's last recording with the group until The Prodigal Stranger (1991).

<i>Grand Hotel</i> (album) 1973 studio album by Procol Harum

Grand Hotel is the sixth studio album by Procol Harum. Released in 1973, it signalled a change of direction for the band. Guitarist Dave Ball, who had joined the band for their live album the previous year, left shortly after the photo shoot for the proposed album's cover, to be replaced by Mick Grabham. Grabham's head was superimposed on the front and back cover of the album on Ball's body. Although the band had gone through significant personnel changes in previous years, the band would enter its most stable phase with this lineup.

<i>Something Magic</i> 1977 studio album by Procol Harum

Something Magic is the ninth studio album by Procol Harum, and was released in 1977.

<i>The Wells on Fire</i> 2003 studio album by Procol Harum

The Well's on Fire is the eleventh studio album by Procol Harum, released in 2003. The album was Matthew Fisher's last studio album with the band, and his last live release with them was Live at Union Chapel, recorded in December 2003 and including many of the songs from the studio album. It was also their last studio album to feature lyrics from Keith Reid.

<i>The Long Goodbye</i> (Procol Harum album) 1995 studio album by various artists

The Long Goodbye is a tribute album for Procol Harum released in 1995. The main performers on the album are the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with one track performed by Sinfonia of London. The album was produced by longtime Procol Harum vocalist/pianist/songwriter Gary Brooker, and among the various musicians who contributed to the album are Procol Harum members Robin Trower and Matthew Fisher.

Matthew Fisher (musician) Musical artist

Matthew Charles Fisher is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his longtime association with the rock band Procol Harum, which included playing the Hammond organ on the 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", for which he subsequently won a songwriting credit. In his later life he became a computer programmer, having qualified from Cambridge University.

Keith Stuart Brian Reid is a lyricist and songwriter who wrote the lyrics of every song released by Procol Harum that is not instrumental or a cover, with the exception of their 2017 album Novum.

B. J. Wilson English drummer

Barrie James "B. J." Wilson was an English rock drummer. He was best known as a member of Procol Harum for the majority of their original career from 1967 to 1977.

Conquistador (Procol Harum song) 1967 song by Procol Harum

"Conquistador" is a song by the English rock band Procol Harum. Written by Gary Brooker and Keith Reid, it originally appeared on the band's 1967 self-titled debut album. It was later released as a single from the band's 1972 live album Procol Harum Live: In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. It is one of the band's most famous and popular songs and their third Top 40 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 16.

The Paramounts were an English beat group, based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. They had one hit single with their cover version of "Poison Ivy", which reached No. 35 on the UK Singles Chart in 1964, but are primarily known as the forerunner to Procol Harum.

<i>Procol Harum – In Concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir</i> 2009 live album by Procol Harum

In Concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir, by Procol Harum, is a live album released 2009. It was recorded in Ledreborg Castle in Denmark.

<i>Live at the Union Chapel</i> 2004 live album by Procol Harum

Live at the Union Chapel is the second live album by Procol Harum, released in 2004.

Some Long Road, by Procol Harum, is a live album released on May 5, 2014 by Union Square Records. It was a 10 track album, and consists of performances recorded during Procol Harum's 2012 and 2013 tours of Europe and the United States.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 [www.procolharum.com/zoo_promo.htm "The Return of Procol Harum"]. Procol Harum: Beyond the Pale. Retrieved 6 February 2022.{{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  2. ↑ Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts, 1991
  3. ↑ "RPM Top 100 Singles - September 21, 1991" (PDF).
  4. 1 2 Gardner, James A. (2011). "Prodigal Stranger - Procol Harum | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  5. ↑ "Music Review: The Prodigal Stranger, by Procol Harum". Entertainment Weekly. 6 September 1991.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.