Somewhat reassuring that the composer didn’t really understand what was actually a “pale shade whiter”. One thing is for sure: “Eng-Tanzania-Anthem” has been a longed-for to teen parties for decades. Although lyricist Keith Reed (75) once claimed he had a potential “seducer” in his mind who would gradually drink up courage, But Gary Brooker said so in an interview‘Joe’ the song is enough for him personally, the music is more important than the lyrics anyway: ‘The song’s not really sad, it’s more emotional, R’n’B not really invented yet. I don’t know, what you can call it, because there’s Lots of connections and mixing. Musically, lyrically and the way I sing the song — there’s a lot going on.”
Brooker was an irreplaceable “shining star” in the field of music, According to the obituary on the band’s official website Broccoli Harum. From his early teen duets with his father and his debut with the band “The Paramounts” in Southend, London, the singer has been concerned about his individuality. In fact, the school band got a deal with EMI early on and had their first hit in January 1964 with “Poison Ivy”. The conditions for this were “perfect”: Brooker not only received a decent piano education, but was also able to watch his father attend the orchestra night after night in a luxury hotel in Southend-on-Sea in Essex. Hence Brooker’s enthusiasm for the use of stringed instruments.
Blessed with curious ears
“A Whiter Shade of Pale,” released in 1967, is still the “Summer of Love” anthem, though the song was very different from whatever was “in fashion” at the time, the band says in a retrospective. By the way, the hit is different from everything else that Brooker has composed. Either way, the song became the most commercially successful single of all time, selling 10 million copies. At the inaugural BRIT Awards in 1977, the title According to the BBC It has been called the “best” of any British pop song since 1952. It has so far achieved 94 million views on YouTube.
And that’s not all: In 2009, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” became the most played song on British radio stations in the past 75 years: “In that moment, we knew we had achieved something special,” Brooker said years later. He said in an interviewThat he was influenced when composing by the Baroque archetypes of Bach and Handel, notably by recording Jacques-Louiss Trieu (“Bach’s Play”).
Gary Brooker did not compose “Push A Button”
The band has always tried to never repeat themselves, and Brooker’s soft voice and piano playing have been the only constants in the band’s fifty-plus-year history, according to Call. However, Brooker’s role model were artists less classically oriented, as is sometimes claimed, but rather blues greats such as Ray Charles and Little Richard. Assembling existing motifs with new ones” according to his colleagues. He never worked with the push of a button, but he was always waiting for “inspiration”.
