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Procol Harum - Something Magic

by Dan MacIntosh

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Something Magic is not Procol Harum's best musical moment. It was released in 1977, after the band had previously issued the wonderful Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller produced Procol's Ninth. It just comes off pretentious and uninspired.

Why the group would want to record an annoyingly stop-and-start progressive rock excess of "The Mark of The Claw", after all the sincere soul-blues of Procol's Ninth is confusing -- to say the least. Progressive rock had its place in rock history. However, by the time punk and New Wave came along in the late '70s, its time had most surely passed. Rock fans now wanted more immediacy. It was as though Procol Harum was hearkening back to an era that had passed, in hopes of somehow reviving it. They failed.

The three-part "The Worm & the Tree" is equally inexcusable. While The Clash, The Sex Pistols and The Damned were shouting about the here and now, Gary Brooker was acting like an aged poet, still reciting his ancient lines at a cobweb-infested beat club. It was pitiful.

Granted, the playing is still stellar. The emotional "Strangers in Space" hints at what Something Magic could have been. Yet there aren't a whole lot of exciting new sounds to hold onto.

This reissue includes a couple of previously unreleased cuts. One, "You'd Better Wait", should have been on the original release. It's a quiet one, but it's good. It's simple and pure, unlike the complicated drivel originally put under the Procol Harum banner. "This Old Dog" is also nice and lively. It has a bit of a country groove going for it with its nice fiddle work.

You hate to see your favorite musicians when they're not at the top of their game. It's a little like watching Brett Favre carry on a year after he should have retired. Something Magic is simply not very tricky. It's easy to sack.


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