A Salty Dog

A Salty Dog is an album by the Rock band Procol Harum, released in June 1969. Having an ostensibly nautical theme, as indicated by its cover (a pastiche of the famous Player's Navy Cut cigarette pack), interspersed with straight rock, blues and pop items A Salty Dog showed a slight change of direction from its predecessors, being thematically less obscure. The title track itself was the first Procol track to use sound effects and an orchestra, as would be referred to in the live album performance some three years later. The musical tensions between the group and Robin Trower were beginning to show in this album, and although his guitar sound remains integral to most of the tracks, Crucifiction Lane (featuring a rare Trower vocal), in retrospect, shows that Trower was already moving in a different direction from the rest of the band. Still this album is much more musically varied than the two previous albums, with 3 Fisher vocals and 1 by Trower.
The title track, backed with "Long Gone Geek", reached number 44 in the UK singles chart in 1969 and the album itself number 27 in the album chart.^[3] When Gary Brooker first played "A Salty Dog" at the piano for B.J. Wilson, a sunbeam illumined Wilson's face and he told Brooker he thought it was the most beautiful song he had ever heard.^[4]

The album was the first record produced by Matthew Fisher, who quit the band soon after its release.

The song "A Salty Dog" was featured in the 1983 film Purple Haze.

This song was also covered by Transatlantic, on the 2-disc Special Edition of The Whirlwind. It is sung by drummer Mike Portnoy.

Track listing

1. "A Salty Dog" – 4:41 (Gary Brooker/Keith Reid) – Brooker vocal
2. "The Milk of Human Kindness" – 3:47 (Gary Brooker/Keith Reid) -Brooker vocal
3. "Too Much Between Us" – 3:45 (Gary Brooker/Robin Trower/Keith Reid) -Brooker vocal
4. "The Devil Came From Kansas" – 4:38 (Gary Brooker/Keith Reid) -Brooker vocal
5. "Boredom" – 4:34 (Gary Brooker/Matthew Fisher/Keith Reid) -Fisher vocal
6. "Juicy John Pink" – 2:08 (Robin Trower/Keith Reid) -Brooker vocal
7. "Wreck of the Hesperus" – 3:49 (Matthew Fisher/Keith Reid) -Fisher vocal
8. "All This and More" – 3:52 (Gary Brooker/Keith Reid) -Brooker vocal
9. "Crucifiction Lane" – 5:03 (Robin Trower/Keith Reid) -Trower vocal
10. "Pilgrim's Progress" – 4:32 (Matthew Fisher/Keith Reid) -Fisher vocal

The following bonus tracks were included on a 1999 reissue by Westside (cat# WESM 534)

1. "Long Gone Geek" – B-Side of the single release of "A Salty Dog"^[5]
2. "All This And More"
3. "The Milk Of Human Kindness" (instrumental version)
4. "Pilgrim's Progress" (instrumental version)
5. "McGreggor" – previously unreleased track, originally intended for "Shine On Brightly"^[6]
6. "Still There'll Be More"

The 2009 released CD (SALVOCD020) version has different bonus tracks ;

1. "Long Gone Geek" (Reid/Brooker/Fisher)
2. "Goin' Down Slow" (James B. Oden) (live in the USA, April 1969)
3. "Juicy John Pink" (Trower/Reid) (live in the USA, April 1969)
4. "Crucification Lane" (Trower/Reid)(live in the USA, April 1969)
5. "Skip Softly (My Moonbeams) / Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Brooker/Reid)/(Richard Strauss)(live in the USA, April 1969)
6. "The Milk of Human Kindness" (Brooker/Reid)(take 1; raw track)

Musicians and Production

• Gary Brooker: vocals, piano, celeste, three stringed guitar, bells, harmonica, recorder, wood
• Robin Trower: lead guitar, vocals (09), acoustic guitar, sleigh tambourine
• Dave Knights: bass guitar
• Barrie Wilson: drums, conga drums, tabla
• Matthew Fisher: organ, vocals (05, 07, 10), marimba, acoustic guitar, piano, recorder, rhythm guitar
• Kellogs: bosun's whistle, refreshments
• Keith Reid: words

• Orchestral arrangements: Gary Brooker (01, 08), Matthew Fisher (07)
• Produced by Matthew Fisher
• Engineered by Ken Scott (01–05, 08–10), Ian Stuart (06) and Henry Lewy (07)

References

External links

• ProcolHarum.com – ProcolHarum.com's page on this album
• [1] – Extra tracks on reissue
• Review of this album in Rolling Stone magazine.