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A Salty Dog, by Procol Harum, was released in June 1969. Having an ostensibly nautical theme, as indicated by its cover, (a pastiche of the famous Player's Navy Cut cigarette pack) interspersed with straight rock, blues and pop items A Salty Dog showed a slight change of direction from its predecessors, being thematically less obscure. The title track itself was the first Procol track to use sound effects and an orchestra, as would be referred to in the live album performance some three years later. The musical tensions between the group and Robin Trower were beginning to show in this album, and although his guitar sound remains integral to most of the tracks, Crucifiction Lane, in retrospect, shows that Trower was already moving in a different direction from the rest of the band.
When Gary Brooker first ran over Keith Reid's lyrics of "A Salty Dog" at the piano for the benefit of B.J. Wilson, it was in a room with sunlight spilling through the windows. Wilson, who would later die after a three-year coma resulting from an alcohol-related accident, sat with a sunbeam on his face and told Brooker he thought it was the most beautiful song he had ever heard.[1]
The title track, backed with "Long Gone Geek", reached number 44 in the UK singles chart in 1969 and the album itself number 27 in the album chart.[1]
[edit] Track listing
- "A Salty Dog" - 4:41 (Gary Brooker/Keith Reid)
- "The Milk of Human Kindness" - 3:47 (Gary Brooker/Keith Reid)
- "Too Much Between Us" - 3:45 (Gary Brooker/Robin Trower/Keith Reid)
- "The Devil Came From Kansas" - 4:38 (Gary Brooker/Keith Reid)
- "Boredom" - 4:34 (Gary Brooker/Matthew Fisher/Keith Reid)
- "Juicy John Pink" - 2:08 (Robin Trower/Keith Reid)
- "Wreck of the Hesperus" - 3:49 (Matthew Fisher/Keith Reid)
- "All This and More" - 3:52 (Gary Brooker/Keith Reid)
- "Crucifiction Lane" - 5:03 (Robin Trower/Keith Reid)
- "Pilgrim's Progress" - 4:32 (Matthew Fisher/Keith Reid)
The following bonus tracks were included on a 1999 reissue by Westside (cat# WESM 534):
- "Long Gone Geek" - B-Side of the single release of "A Salty Dog"[2]
- "All This And More"
- "The Milk Of Human Kindness" (instrumental version)
- "Pilgrim's Progress" (instrumental version)
- "McGreggor" - previously unreleased track, originally intended for "Shine On Brightly"[3]
- "Still There'll Be More"
[edit] Personnel
[edit] References
- ^ UK Chart Stats
- ^ This was listed as an album main track on the re-release despite not having appeared on the original album
- ^ A story of a soldier, possibly shell-shocked, who was hanged for shooting a senior officer; provenance of this story is unknown
[edit] External links
