Notes and Quotes: "Whiter Shade of Pale"
photo: "Whiter Shade of Pale" (sleeve)
Although similar to the second movement ("Air") of J. S. Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major, Matthew Fisher's original organ material introduces the song with classically framed melody against a diatonically descending bass line. At the core of the recording is a section consisting of a verse, a refrain, and the Bach theme. This section is played twice before the refrain is repeated and faded.
Gary Brooker and Keith Reid had already composed the song with Bob Dylan and the Band as their model. They had already recorded a basic track when they asked Matthew Fisher to invent something for the organ part. What he did was improvise a Baroque solo over a folk rock foundation. Matthew, however, initially received no royalties for his creation.
Matthew Fisher [on the formation of the band]: I don't know quite what happened because I wasn't there right from the beginning. When I came down there for that first rehearsal, they already had a bass player and a drummer and a guitarist who presumably knew the stuff. So really, it was just a matter of them playing and me just joining in and gradually getting to know the numbers that way. How they originally talked to the others, I don't know. But, in any case, that lineup didn't last very long, but it remained static for the first three albums. [Interview 27 June 2000]
Matthew Fisher [on the Hammond electronic organ]: Never had a B3. It was an M100. M102, I believe. A lot of people were buying these Hammonds and then, after the difficulties of transporting them around, they had a guy saw them in half. There were no legs on an M100. It was just a console and they'd squish it half-way up. Which was a mistake because the top half was 90% of the weight anyway and the bottom was nothing. But Hammond realized that this is what people were doing so they started making one that was already split. This was good. Better than these conversion jobs. So that's what I had. I had an M102, which was a split M100. [Interview 27 June 2000]
Schedule
26 March, 2014