Procol Harum : “A Whiter Shade Of Pale“ (1967) • Official Music Video • HQ Audio • Subtitle Lyrics
• Standard Volume Level • Lyrics Transcript Provided Below •
This video has optional subtitles for the lyrics. If they are not appearing, you can make them appear by simply clicking on the “CC“ button beneath the video. If they are appearing and you would like to remove them, this can be achieved by the same action: simply clicking on the “CC“ button beneath the video.
The source video I used to create this one is here:
That was the best-quality upload of this music video I could find online. The sound quality is not very good, so I have replaced the audio track with a high-quality one. This one is a bit longer, fading out a bit later, so I have accompanied the end of the song with a picture of the single. Replacing the audio track involved speeding up the footage slightly, as it was running a bit slow compared to the HQ audio track I am using. The footage began later than the music, so to make them begin at the same time, I slowed down the first 15 seconds of the footage, which is already slow-motion footage; I have simply slowed it down a bit more than it has already been slowed down.
I have also cropped the edges of the picture, just enough to clean them up. I have also adjusted the colours quite a lot, increasing their intensity, making their temperature cooler (more blue and less yellow), making the dark areas darker, and increasing the difference between the light and dark areas. I have also added optional subtitles for the lyrics. I have also upscaled the resolution from 720p to 1080p, as this increases the bitrate, which slightly improves picture quality at all the different resolution settings the viewer can select, but please be aware that playing it at the 1080p setting is not going to make it look as good as a true 1080p video.
This song was written by Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher (music) and Keith Reid (lyrics). The record label shown at the end of my video states that the song was written by “Reid, Brooker“, but in 2009 Matthew Fisher won co-writing credit for the music in a unanimous ruling from the Law Lords. The producer was Denny Cordell. The playing credits are as follows:
Gary Brooker – vocals, piano
Matthew Fisher – Hammond M-102 organ
Ray Royer – guitar
David Knights – bass
Bill Eyden – drums
According to Wikipedia, this single went to No. 1 in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and South Africa, and reached No. 2 in Poland, No. 3 in Norway, No. 4 in Austria and No. 5 in the USA.
For more information on this song and track, see these pages:
This video is dedicated to the memory of Gary Brooker, who died from cancer at his home in Surrey three weeks ago, on 19 February 2022, at the age of 76.
An official presentation of the lyrics to this song is to be found in an official lyric video for the song that was uploaded on 23 February 2022 on the FLY Records channel. Here is the link:
Presented below and as optional subtitles in the video is my own transcript of the lyrics, for which I have used that official presentation as a guide.
Lyrics:
“A Whiter Shade Of Pale“
- Procol Harum
(Words by Keith Reid, Music by Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher)
We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels across the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
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
[Break]
She said, “There is no reason
And the truth is plain to see“
But I wandered through my playing cards
Would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might just as well have 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
[Break]
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale...