Shine On Brightly

The first song, the up-tempo "Quite Rightly So" combines baroque compositional rigor with stellar organ solos to rival even "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Its lyrics eschewed the earlier song's surrealism in favor of a more soul-searching text, on a smaller, less mystical scale than George Harrison's "Within You Without You" from 'Pepper'.

The title cut, "Shine On Brightly", follows with a serious return to the surreal, the lyrics upping the intensity via meandering metaphors winding around the listener like the coils of a brazen serpent. There is pathetic humor and/or irony in the psychological allegory that unfolds here. Glorious organ solos continue, intensified by Robin Trower's searing guitar licks, which inject purgatorial eloquence and strident power.

With "Skip Softly My Moonbeams", music and lyrics become more hellish - carrying us over the brink into serious spiritual/psychological crisis. Sounds of a brutish and clownish nature enhance a sense of desperation not heard since "A Christmas Camel" on the first album. There only the lyrics told the complete story - the music was impassioned, but not so expressionistic like here - with 'percussively' sinister licks from Trower's guitar, Fisher's organ, and even the backup singer(s).

On "Wish Me Well", the bottom falls out - we enter the underworld. The music becomes a kind of psychedelicized blues-rock.

The mood lightens with "Rambling On", though its humor remains self-effacing. The singer ruminates on the state of being trapped between worlds - it's like being lost inside a bad tarot reading (or dreaming of it). The combination of a slow vaudevillian sound punctuated by the churchy organ solo is hardened by the rock underpinnings of drums and guitars. The clown's ready to be hung out to dry.

"Magdalene, My Regal Zonophone" - a glimmer of light, or hope, or warmth in the heart - which turns out to be calm before the storm. A gorgeously moving piano accompaniment [in waltz time with warm bass guitar tones and snare drum] plays underneath, recapitulating hopes expressed by the opening song; but added to this new openness is apprehension. As the song winds down and fades toward oblivion, in the distance someone comically/pathetically intones through a megaphone "Magdalene, my regal zonophone" a number of times, in rhythm with the band.

"In Held Twas I" Spoken soliloquy to ominous simulations of Tibetan chanting, rollicking circus music, huge choral textures, tender piano nocturnes, and powerfully endowed guitar solos all play their respective roles in this sublimely conceived conjuration. The whole builds its immense architecture in word and sound, mood and motive, sometimes in quiet serenity, other times as if thunderously through the eye of the hurricane - all these motifs work together to symbolize the possibility of spiritual rebirth and redemption obtained through eclectic rather than narrow, dogmatic means.

Don't miss this! It's one of the most amazing spiritual documents in any media from the late 60's.

This album, "Shine on Brightly", is probably where the group established their "madmen" reputation, putting you in mind of William Blake and Hieronymus Bosch as if these painters were musicians, with songs like "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)" and the title song. The masterpiece on this album, (VERY William Blake-ish!) is the nearly 18 minute long "In Held Twas In I", an epic composition with passages like: "In The Autumn of My Madness" and "Twas Teatime At The Circus", capturing the full-on "Ship Of Fools" feel that they'll probably take with them into rock & roll heaven! (Or hell, where they belong!) The piece ends with "Look To Your Soul", a passage that snatches hope from self-induced despair.

Other tunes include "Wish Me Well", a precursor to their "Juicy John Pink" on "Salty Dog" with its ultra-bluesy guitar riff and Screamin' Jay Hawkins singing style; "Magdalene, My Regal Zononphone", a typical Procol number with gentle, classically influenced music framing very introspective lyrics; "Ramblin' On", a song that sounds like it should have been on their first album along with "Christmas Camel" and "She Wandered Through The Garden Fence".

For some odd reason, I've always liked Procol Harum. They didn't sound like anyone else, (until their pale imitations, Genesis, came along,) and nobody had the intelligent lyrical mode they had, with its study of faux madness and voluptuary indulgence. It was if Orson Welles had decided to become a rock auteur!

For all intents and purposes, this album, indeed, was the true bridge between their first album and "Salty Dog", with elements of both being quite obvious in it. One could do a LOT worse than discovering this group of non-conformist individuals who laid a lot of groundwork for the branch of music known as "art rock".

Shine On Brightly isn't hideous; it's just a little worse for the wear given the band's debut (and contemporary releases by other bands). Still, Gary Brooker's soulful voice is a joy even on the weakest tracks. Robin Trower manages to cram in a number of tasteful guitar solos admit Brooker's growling vocal and Matthew Fisher's omnipresent organ.

I'd recommend BGO's remastered edition of this album (which is coupled with the debut plus 3 bonus tracks).