Side note: I bet this thread would have got more attention if it included "Procol Harum band member" in the title. Us fans know immediately, but I'd bet many don't make the connection.
Last night, I logged into my Qobuz streaming service, started listening to the Procol Harum's albums in chronological order. And looking up the lyrics (AWSOP almost sounds logical compared to some others!). The UK version (which I selected, unaware of it) of the LP does
not include AWSOP!
Then on a lark, I searched for AWSOP, to hear other versions of it. I already had Joe Cocker's (just so-so) and Herbie Mann's (flute - pretty interesting) in my collection. Most were blah, even some I expected to be good. Willie Nelson's is good, he brings something fresh to it w/o being different just to be different. Percy Sledge was worth listening to, Blues Evolution, King Curtis, Wayne Sharp pretty good. Santana had a version - surprisingly, I really didn't like it. In the oddball side, Blue Mountain Pan Pipe Ensemble was worth a listen. I thought I'd like the Paul Winter Consort doing it, but blah. Temptations a disappointment.
I've listened to AWSOP so many times, and one thing that always disappointed me was it fades out. I generally consider a fade-out as "cheating" - bring the song to a real ending! Well, imagine my surprise ('
...thought I'd left it at home"!
), I think it is the UK release, has an actual ending (it's over a minute longer, I think they also throw in one more of the organ Bach-like lines)! What's kind of funny is, their ending is almost exactly the way I end it when I play it for myself, he does add in a measure or two of Bach-like improvisation that I'll do from now on. I feel at peace!
And there is also the interesting story that Matthew Fisher, the organist who came up with the iconic Bach-like intro line, wanted, but was denied songwriting credits at the time. For some reason, he didn't get around to suing until 2005. He won, but that judge denied him any royalties/damages because of waiting so long. That was overturned, and he got 40% going forward from 2005 on (a justifiable compromise, IMO).
-ERD50
