The Procol Harum song “A Whiter
Shade of Pale” was released on May 12, 1967, about three weeks before Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
May 15:
On this evening The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein hosted a
dinner party to mark the completion of Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Later Paul McCartney had his first encounter with Linda Eastman at the Bag
O’Nails nightclub. Both Linda and
Paul remember hearing “A Whiter Shade of Pale” for the first time during this meeting. Paul later
gave Linda his copy as a memento.
“The night I met Linda I was in the
Bag O’Nails watching Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames play a great set. Speedy
was banging away. She was there with the Animals, who she knew from photographing
them in New York. They were sitting a couple of alcoves down, near the stage.
The band had finished and they got up to either leave or go for a drink or a
pee or something, and she passed our table. I was near the edge and stood up
just as she was passing, blocking her exit. And so I said, ‘Oh, sorry. Hi. How
are you? How're you doing?’ I introduced myself, and said, ‘We're going on to
another club after this, would you like to join us?’ That was my big pulling
line! Well, I'd never used it before, of course, but it worked this time! It
was a fairly slim chance but it worked. She said, ‘Yes, okay, we'll go on. How
shall we do it?’ I forget how we did it. ‘You come in our car’ or whatever, and
we all went on, the people I was with and the Animals, we went on to the
Speakeasy. And it was the first time any of us had heard Procol Harum’s “A
Whiter Shade Of Pale.”
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
“We flirted a bit, and then it was
time for me to go back with them and Paul said, ‘Well, we’re going to another
club. You want to come?’ I remember everybody at the table heard “A Whiter
Shade Of Pale” that night for the first time and we all thought, ‘Who is that?
Stevie Winwood?’ We all said Stevie. The minute that record came out, you just
knew you loved it. That’s when we actually met. Then we went back to his house.
We were in the Mini with I think Lulu and Dudley Edwards, who painted Paul's
piano; Paul was giving him a lift home. I was impressed to see his Magrittes.
Linda
McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
May 17:
Recording of “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)” began on this day, though it would not be completed until November 1969. "'You
Know My Name (Look Up The Number)' was inspired by a telephone directory that
John Lennon saw at Paul McCartney's London home. It was originally envisaged as
a 15-minute mantra."
May 24:
All four members of The Beatles went to the Speakeasy in
London on this day to watch Procol Harum perform.
May 28:
The Beatles, minus Paul McCartney, attended a party at Brian
Epstein's country house, Kingsley Hill in Warbleton near Heathfield in Sussex
on this day. Epstein had recently bought the house for £25,000, and the party
was a joint housewarming and a celebration for the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The roads leading to the house were adorned with balloons for the occasion. In
addition to the Beatles and their wives, it was attended by a number of friends
and celebrities including composer Lionel Bart and The Beatles’ former press
officer Derek Taylor. This was Taylor's initiation to LSD; he was given the
drug by John Lennon. The pair spent much of the party in Lennon's Rolls-Royce
listening to Procol Harum's “A Whiter Shade Of Pale.” It was also Cynthia
Lennon's third and final experience taking LSD.
“Brian was having a party at the
country house he’d bought in Sussex and John and I traveled down in the Rolls
with a group of friends. On the journey everyone took LSD and I, against my
better judgement but carried away by the jolly atmosphere in the car, decided
to join in. Again, it was an awful mistake. At Brian's house I followed John
around, hoping he would comfort me as I went through what was, for me, a
horrible experience. But he was not in a good mood: he glared at me and treated
me as if I were a stranger. I felt desolate. Upstairs I found an open bedroom
window and contemplated jumping out. For a few minutes, ending it all seemed
like an easy solution: a chasm had opened between John and me, and I had no
idea how to bring us back together. Someone called my name, I turned back into
the room and the fleeting thought passed. But I was low. For the first time I
had to consider the very real possibility that my marriage might not survive.”
Cynthia Lennon
John
“We spoke a little about the state
of the music scene, and he (Lennon) said there was one ‘dope’ record which he
couldn't get off his mind. He couldn't remember the title. All other pop music
of that period was ‘crap,’ one of his favourite words at that time. Next day
John phoned me. ‘I remembered after I’d gone what record it is that I can’t
stop playing,’ he said. ‘It's that dope song, Procol Harum's “Whiter Shade Of
Pale.’” It’s the best song I’ve heard for a while. You play it when you take
some acid and ... whoooooooo.’”
Lennon: The Definitive Biography, Ray Coleman
“Waiting for us was John and George
and they were dressed in this exotic way; they had silk shirts that were this
incredible color and they hugged us and they kissed us and all of a sudden
there were no barriers – and what’s happening? We were swept outside of
Heathrow Airport where John’s Rolls Royce like a Romany caravan was waiting for
us – George in his Mini and us in the Rolls Royce with Procol Harum playing “Whiter
Shade of Pale,” driving along the English roads from Surrey to Sussex.”
Joan Taylor, wife of
Derek Taylor, the Beatles press officer.
June 1:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was
issued in the UK on this day.
June 4:
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr had first seen The Jimi
Hendrix Experience performing on 11 January 1967 at the Bag O’Nails club in
London. On this day McCartney, George Harrison, Jane Asher and Pattie Boyd
watched them headline a bill at the city’s Saville Theatre. The bill also
included Denny Laine & His Electric String Band, The Chiffons and Procol
Harum. Hendrix opened his set with a version of the title track from The
Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band album, which had been released just three days before.
“It would be one of his first gigs
in London. Jimi was a sweetie, a very nice guy. I remember him opening at the
Saville on a Sunday night, 4 June 1967. Brian Epstein used to rent it when it
was usually dark on the Sunday. Jimi opened, the curtains flew back and he came
walking forward, playing ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ and it had only been released on the
Thursday so that was like the ultimate compliment. It’s still obviously a
shining memory for me, because I admired him so much anyway, he was so
accomplished. To think that that album had meant so much to him as to actually
do it by the Sunday night, three days after the release. He must have been so
into it, because normally it might take a day for rehearsal and then you might
wonder whether you’d put it in, but he just opened with it. It’s a pretty major
compliment in anyone’s book. I put that down as one of the great honours of my
career. I mean, I'm sure he wouldn't have thought of it as an honour, I’m sure
he thought it was the other way round, but to me that was like a great boost.
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
At some point during this period, the following is said to
have occurred:
“‘We weren’t really ready for such instant success, so I
thought we’d better go out and get ourselves some new clothes,’ says Gary
Brooker. ‘We made an appointment to go to this exclusive boutique called Dandy
Fashions in the Kings Road in Chelsea. We rang the doorbell and inside all four
Beatles were standing around a harmonium singing ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ the
very moment we came in. Not for us… They just happened to be there singing the
song as we came in through the door.’”
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