A Salty Dog

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This article is about the Procol Harum album. For its title track, see A Salty Dog (song).

A Salty Dog
Studio album by
Procol Harum
ReleasedApril 1969 (US)
June 1969 (UK)[1]
RecordedJanuary – March 1969
StudioEMI Studios, London
GenreProgressive rock
Length40:18
LabelRegal Zonophone, A&M
ProducerMatthew Fisher
Procol Harum chronology
Shine On Brightly
(1968) 		A Salty Dog
(1969) 		Home
(1970)

A Salty Dog is the third studio album by English rock band Procol Harum, released in 1969 by record labels Regal Zonophone and A&M.

Content

A Salty Dog has 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 an orchestra, as would be referred to in the live album performance released some three years later.

The album was the first record produced by Matthew Fisher, who quit the band soon after its release. This was also the last Procol Harum album to feature bass guitarist Dave Knights.

Background and recording

A Salty Dog was recorded in March 1969. The musical tensions between Robin Trower and the rest of the group 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 three Fisher vocals and one by Trower. Many of the instruments the band used on A Salty Dog had been previously used on albums by the Beatles and the the Shadows.[2]

When Gary Brooker first performed "A Salty Dog" on piano with Keith Reid's lyrics for drummer B. J. Wilson, the room was filled with sunlight shining through the windows. Wilson, with a sunbeam on his face, told Brooker he thought "it was the most beautiful song he had ever heard."[3] The piano intro riff of the title track is inspired by a train whistle that Brooker heard in Switzerland.[4]

Release

A Salty Dog was released in the US in April 1969 by the record label A&M, and June 1969 in the UK by record label Regal Zonophone. 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 Albums Chart.[5] In Canada, the album reached number 25.[6]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[7]

John Mendelson, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "a confusing album. At its best it represents the group's greatest success to date with the brand of rock for which the group is known; at its worst it is both surprisingly mediocre and trivial".[8] Robert Christgau was more enthusiastic in The Village Voice, giving it an "A+" in the first installment of his "Consumer Guide" column,[9] although he later said the printed grade was "a mistake" and should have probably been a "B+".[10]

In a retrospective review, Bruce Eder of AllMusic wrote, "This album, the group's third, was where they 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", calling the title track "one of the finest songs ever to come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock ever heard".[11]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."A Salty Dog"Gary Brooker, Keith Reid4:41
2."The Milk of Human Kindness"Brooker, Reid3:47
3."Too Much Between Us"Brooker, Robin Trower, Reid3:45
4."The Devil Came from Kansas"Brooker, Reid4:38
5."Boredom"Matthew Fisher, Brooker, Reid4:34
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Juicy John Pink"Robin Trower, Reid2:08
2."Wreck of the Hesperus"Fisher, Reid3:49
3."All This and More"Brooker, Reid3:52
4."Crucifiction Lane"Robin Trower, Reid5:03
5."Pilgrim's Progress"Fisher, Reid4:32
1999 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
11."Long Gone Geek" (B-side of the single release of "A Salty Dog"[12]) 
12."All This And More" 
13."The Milk of Human Kindness" (Instrumental Version) 
14."Pilgrim's Progress" (Instrumental Version) 
15."McGreggor" (previously unreleased track, originally intended for Shine On Brightly[13]) 
16."Still There'll Be More" 
2009 reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
11."Long Gone Geek"Reid, Brooker, Fisher3:20
12."Goin' Down Slow" (Live in the USA, April 1969)James B. Oden7:56
13."Juicy John Pink" (Live in the USA, April 1969)Robin Trower, Reid2:37
14."Crucifiction Lane" (Live in the USA, April 1969)Trower, Reid4:34
15."Skip Softly (My Moonbeams) / Also Sprach Zarathustra" (Live in the USA, April 1969)Brooker, Reid, Richard Strauss5:26
16."The Milk of Human Kindness" (Take 1; Raw Track)Brooker, Reid3:51

Personnel

Procol Harum

Technical

  • Gary Brooker – orchestral arrangements (1, 8)
  • Matthew Fisher – orchestral arrangements (7); producer
  • Ken Scott – engineer (1–5, 8–10)
  • Ian Stuart – engineer (6)
  • Henry Lewy – engineer (7)
  • Dickinson – artwork, design

Charts

Chart (1969) Peak
position
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[14] 25
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[15] 8
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[16] 19
UK Albums (OCC)[17] 27
US Billboard 200[18] 32
Chart (2009) Peak
position
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[19] 47

References

  1. ^ "Album Reviews" (PDF). New Musical Express. 5 July 1969. p. 10. Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  2. ^ Claes Johansen (2000). Procol Harum: Beyond the Pale. Saf Publishing Ltd. p. 118. ISBN 9780946719280.
  3. ^ "'ASD' anecdote spotted in 'The Scotsman' by Charlie Allison".
  4. ^ PROCOL HARUM: Gary Brooker on SALTY DOG, retrieved 11 March 2024
  5. ^ "Procol Harum | full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  6. ^ "RPM Top 50 Albums - July 7, 1969" (PDF).
  7. ^ Eder, Bruce. "A Salty Dog – Procol Harum : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  8. ^ Mendelson, John (31 May 1969). "Records". Rolling Stone. No. 34. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. p. 37. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  9. ^ Christgau, Robert (10 July 1969). "Consumer Guide (1)". The Village Voice. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  10. ^ Anon. (25 April 2002). "Nitpicking Issues With the Lists". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  11. ^ Eder, Bruce (2011). "A Salty Dog – Procol Harum | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
  12. ^ This was listed as an album main track on the re-release despite not having appeared on the original album
  13. ^ A story of a soldier who was hanged for shooting a senior officer; provenance of this story is unknown, per the Procol Harum site
  14. ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 5931". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  15. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Procol Harum – A Salty Dog" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  16. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Procol Harum – A Salty Dog". Hung Medien. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
  17. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  18. ^ "Procol Harum Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  19. ^ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
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