This article is about the Procol Harum album. For its title track, see
A Salty Dog (song)
.
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
.
Content
[
edit
]
A Salty Dog
has 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 an orchestra, as would be referred to in
the live album performance
released some three years later.
The album was the first record produced by Matthew Fisher, who quit the band soon after its release. This was also the last Procol Harum album to feature bass guitarist
Dave Knights
.
Background and recording
[
edit
]
A Salty Dog
was recorded in March 1969. 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" (featuring a rare Trower vocal), in retrospect, shows that Trower was already moving in a different direction from the rest of the band. Still, this album is much more musically varied than the two previous albums, with three Fisher vocals and one by Trower. Many of the instruments the band used on
A Salty Dog
had been previously used on albums by the
Beatles
and the
Shadows
.
[2]
The piano intro riff of the title track is inspired by a train whistle that Brooker heard in Switzerland.
[3]
Release
[
edit
]
A Salty Dog
was released in the US in April 1969 by the record label A&M, and June 1969 in the UK by record label Regal Zonophone. 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
Albums Chart
.
[4]
In Canada, the album reached #25.
[5]
Reception
[
edit
]
Professional ratings
Review scores
|
---|
Source
| Rating
|
---|
AllMusic
| [6]
|
When Gary Brooker first played Keith Reid's lyrics of "A Salty Dog" on the piano for the benefit of
B.J. Wilson
, the room was filled with sunlight shining through the windows. Wilson, with a sunbeam on his face, told Brooker he thought "it was the most beautiful song he had ever heard."
[7]
John Mendelson, writing for
Rolling Stone
, called it "a confusing album. At its best it represents the group's greatest success to date with the brand of rock for which the group is known; at its worst it is both surprisingly mediocre and trivial".
[8]
Robert Christgau
was more enthusiastic in
The Village Voice
, giving it an "A+",
[9]
although he later said the printed grade was "a mistake" and should have probably been a "B+".
[10]
In a retrospective review, Bruce Eder of
AllMusic
wrote, "This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from
blues
to
R&B
to
classical rock
. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range", calling the title track "one of the finest songs ever to come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of
progressive rock
ever heard".
[11]
Track listing
[
edit
]
Side B
Title
| Writer(s)
|
---|
1.
| "Juicy John Pink"
| Robin Trower
, Reid
| 2:08
|
---|
2.
| "Wreck of the Hesperus"
| Fisher, Reid
| 3:49
|
---|
3.
| "All This and More"
| Brooker, Reid
| 3:52
|
---|
4.
| "Crucifiction Lane"
| Robin Trower
, Reid
| 5:03
|
---|
5.
| "Pilgrim's Progress"
| Fisher, Reid
| 4:32
|
---|
1999 reissue bonus tracks
Title
|
---|
11.
| "Long Gone Geek" (
B-side
of the single release of "A Salty Dog"
[12]
)
|
|
---|
12.
| "All This And More"
|
|
---|
13.
| "The Milk of Human Kindness" (Instrumental Version)
|
|
---|
14.
| "Pilgrim's Progress" (Instrumental Version)
|
|
---|
15.
| "McGreggor" (previously unreleased track, originally intended for
Shine On Brightly
[13]
)
|
|
---|
16.
| "Still There'll Be More"
|
|
---|
2009 reissue bonus tracks
Title
| Writer(s)
|
---|
11.
| "Long Gone Geek"
| Reid, Brooker, Fisher
| 3:20
|
---|
12.
| "Goin' Down Slow" (Live in the USA, April 1969)
| James B. Oden
| 7:56
|
---|
13.
| "Juicy John Pink" (Live in the USA, April 1969)
| Robin Trower
, Reid
| 2:37
|
---|
14.
| "Crucifiction Lane" (Live in the USA, April 1969)
| Trower, Reid
| 4:34
|
---|
15.
| "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams) / Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Live in the USA, April 1969)
| Brooker, Reid, Richard Strauss
| 5:26
|
---|
16.
| "The Milk of Human Kindness" (Take 1; Raw Track)
| Brooker, Reid
| 3:51
|
---|
Personnel
[
edit
]
- Procol Harum
- Gary Brooker
? lead vocals
(1?4, 6, 8)
, piano, celeste, three-stringed guitar, bells, harmonica, wood recorder, orchestral arrangements
(1, 8)
- Robin Trower
? lead and acoustic guitars, lead vocals
(9)
, sleigh tambourine
- Matthew Fisher
? organ, lead vocals
(5, 7, 10)
,
marimba
, rhythm and acoustic guitars, piano, recorder, orchestral arrangements
(7)
,
production
- Dave Knights
? bass
- B. J. Wilson
? drums, conga drums, tabla
- John "Kellogs" Kalinowski ? bosun's whistle, refreshments
- Keith Reid
? lyrics
- Technical
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Album Reviews"
(PDF)
.
New Musical Express
. 5 July 1969. p. 10
. Retrieved
16 January
2023
.
- ^
Claes Johansen (2000).
Procol Harum: Beyond the Pale
. Saf Publishing Ltd. p. 118.
ISBN
9780946719280
.
- ^
PROCOL HARUM: Gary Brooker on SALTY DOG
, retrieved
11 March
2024
- ^
"Procol Harum | full Official Chart History"
.
Official Charts Company
. Retrieved
16 September
2019
.
- ^
"RPM Top 50 Albums - July 7, 1969"
(PDF)
.
- ^
Eder, Bruce.
"A Salty Dog ? Procol Harum : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
15 July
2012
.
- ^
"
'ASD' anecdote spotted in 'The Scotsman' by Charlie Allison"
.
- ^
Mendelson, John (31 May 1969).
"Records"
.
Rolling Stone
. No. 34. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. p. 37
. Retrieved
2 June
2015
.
- ^
Christgau, Robert (10 July 1969).
"Consumer Guide (1)"
.
The Village Voice
. Retrieved
20 April
2018
.
- ^
Anon. (25 April 2002).
"Nitpicking Issues With the Lists"
.
robertchristgau.com
. Retrieved
20 April
2018
.
- ^
Eder, Bruce (2011).
"
A Salty Dog
? Procol Harum | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
12 August
2011
.
- ^
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 who was hanged for shooting a senior officer; provenance of this story is unknown, per the
Procol Harum site
External links
[
edit
]
|
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|
Studio albums
| |
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Live albums
| |
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As Liquorice John Death
| |
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Songs
| |
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Related articles
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