Procol Harum - A Salty Dog

A Salty Dog is the third studio album by British progressive rock band Procol Harum, originally released in June 1969 by Regal Zonophone.

A Salty Dog was where Procol Harum showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range, A Salty Dog was recorded in a reasonable amount of time, giving the band a chance to fully develop their ideas.

The title track is one of the finest songs ever to come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock ever heard, and a very succinct example at that at under five minutes running time. The lyric and the music combine to form a perfect mood piece, and the performance is bold and subtle at once, in the playing and the singing, respectively.

The range of sounds on the rest includes "Juicy John Pink", a superb piece of pre-World War II-style country blues, while "Crucifiction Lane" is a killer soul piece, and "Pilgrim's Progress" is a virtuoso keyboard workout.

A Salty Dog has an ostensibly nautical theme, as indicated by its cover (a pastiche of the famous Player's Navy Cut cigarette pack). It showed a slight change of direction from its predecessors, being thematically less obscure. The title track itself was their first track with an orchestra, as would be referred to in the live album performance some three years later.

The members of Procol Harum that recorded this album were:

• Gary Brooker – piano and vocals
• Keith Reid – lyrics
• Matthew Fisher – organ
• B.J. Wilson – drums
• Robin Trower – guitar, vocals
• Dave Knights - bass

Check out the tracks: “A Salty Dog” and “Crucifiction Lane”. 

This LP record with remastered stereo audio and reproduced artwork is pressed in Europe on 180 gram audiophile vinyl by Music On Vinyl.