This week’s music selection is for one of our regular readers, who while appreciating last week’s “listening in” choice of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ commented that “If this is song #1, then surely #2 has to be Procol Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale.’ So here we go – let’s hope this brings back memories. It does to me.

It was the first time I heard it – Queen’s Hotel, Barrie, Ontario. Underage drinking. In our defence ‘the age’ was then 21.

Lyrics

A Whiter Shade of Pale

Procol Harum

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 for another drink
The waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale

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

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Gary Brooker / Keith Reid / Matthew Fisher