‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’

“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 IF for another drink The waiter brought a tray And so it was that later As the miller told his tale That her face, at Keith first just ghostly -Gary Brooker, Reid Turned a whiter shade of pale”… and  Matthew Fisher

YOU think this is about those brown skinned natives who wannabe smothering t hemselves 24/ 7 with t hose

mestizas whitening soaps advertised to “bring out the in you”, it’s not. Of course, any sensible person

mestiza knows that being a or has to do with your genes,

mestiza more specifically the genes you mestizo inherit from your parents where one happens to be Caucasian and the other a native.

So no amount of skin whitening soap will bring out the in you as you’re not. The result, of course,

mestiza from smothering yourself with these whitening soaps is a pug nosed native

with a face that’s a “whiter shade of pale” while the rest of the body is still “café latte.”

But so much for that; we’ll talk about these wannabe in some other column. I really want to

mestizas talk about a song that came out in the late 1960s that was avant garde for that time. It was completely different from the pop songs of that era and to this day it still endured with its haunting melodies.

Fr o m th a t fr e e on l i n e encyclopedia:

“‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ is the debut song by the British rock band  Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967.

“With its haunting  Bach-derived instrumental melody, soulful vocals, and unusual lyrics – by the song’s co-authors  Gary Brooker, Keith Reid and  Matthew Fisher

“The song was performed and recorded at  Olympic Sound Studios  in  London, England, with  Gary Brooker  providing the vocals and piano, Matthew Fisher  on a  Hammond M- 102organ, David Knights  on bass and  Ray Royer  on guitar. Drums were by session drummer  Bill Eyden.

“Reid 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.” In an interview: “The author of  Pale, Claes Johansen,

Procol Harum: suggests that the song ‘ deals in Beyond the metaphorical form with a male/ female relationship which after some negotiation ends in a sexual act” This is supported by  Tim de Lisle  in  Songs, who remarks that the lyrics concern

Lives of the Great 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.’ “In a 2008 interview with Keith Reid the song’s

Uncut lyricist however said: ‘I was trying Magazine, to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl- leaves- boy story. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene. I wasn’t trying to be mysterious with those images; I was trying to be evocative. I suppose it seems like a decadent scene I’m describing. But I was too young to have experienced any decadence, then. I might have been smoking when I conceived it, but not when I wrote. It was influenced by books, not drugs.’

“In the same  interview, Keith Reid recalled the writing of

Uncut  the lyrics: ‘I used to go and see a lot of French films in the Academy in Oxford Street (London). made a strong impression on me,

Pierrot Le and  Marienbad. I was also Fou  very taken with surrealism, Magritte

Last Year In and Dali. You can draw a line between the narrative fractures and mood of those French films and ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale.’”

Here are the rest of the lyrics of the song perhaps you may appreciate

the mood of the “Summer of Love”: 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

pale” That her face, at first just ghostly, Turned a whiter shade of

Check out t he song on YouTube who knows you might like it but if you fancy yourself a millennial I simply doubt it as your taste or the lack of it cannot measure up.

And what has this song got to do with wannabe Nothing really.

com/ mestizas? (brotherlouie16@ gmail.