Track Listing

1. A Salty Dog
2. The Milk of Human Kindness
3. Too Much Between Us
4. The Devil Came From Kansas
5. Boredom
6. Juicy John Pink
7. Wreck of the Hesperus
8. All This and More
9. Crucifiction Lane
10. Pilgrim's Progress
11. Long Gone Geek
12. Goin' Down Slow
13. Juicy John Pink (live in the USA, April '69)
14. Crucifiction Lane (live in the USA, April '69)
15. Skip Softly (My Moonbeams) / Also Sprach
16. The Milk of Human Kindness (take 1: raw track)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3544 in Music
• Released on: 2009-05-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

CD Description
The sailor leering out at you from the front cover (a parody of the old Players Navy Cut cigarette packet regarded as one of the greatest sleeve designs in rock) signals - even before you hear a note - that there is something different about A Salty Dog. But when you do listen, it becomes clear - from the sweeping title track that opens the album, to the serene Pilgrims Progress which brings it to a conclusion - that A Salty Dog is quite simply Procols most rewarding album. In fact, it has long been viewed as their masterpiece; one of the high watermarks of late-60s rock culture as well as one of finest examples of a rock album co-opting elements of classical music. When the title track was released as Procols fourth single during the early summer of 1969, the reviews were ecstatic. NME judged it positively stunning; Disc thought it perfection ; Melody Makers Chris Welch raved: Their finest hour... one of the greatest pop singles to emerge in recent years. Grandiose and sweeping, the title track remains one of Procols finest recorded moments - and its relative failure as a single, and that of the subsequent album, grows ever-more baffling with the passing years. Besides the epic sweep of the title track, the album also contained the towering Wreck Of The Hesperus and Pilgrims Progress . Breaking away from their familiar piano-organ dialogue, the album also incorporated elements of folk (Too Much Between Us), blues (Juicy John Pink), and even heavy metal (The Devil Came From Kansas). Looking back, at the millenniums turn, The Mojo Collection remembered A Salty Dog as a swirling, Gothic tale, drenched in salt spray... progressive rock at its very best, Procol Harum in excelsis. Certainly, few bands ever proved themselves as audacious in the studio as Procol Harum did with this album, which makes the fact that it only reached Number 27 in the UK album chart even more puzzling. Procol were a major touring attraction across in the USA around the period that the album was recorded, delivering acclaimed concert performances from coast to coast. The six bonus cuts featured on this release include four towering, previously unreleased live recordings that are certain to excite their fans.

Customer Reviews

the greatest album no one else knows about
Brooker and Co had tried for album success but it was evading them because the listening public wanted the follow up to their debut single to be....well, exactly the same as their debut single. And they wanted their albums to be just the same. Which they weren't so people quickly lost interest. Dishing out music that seemed like hastily recorded B-sides didn't go down well with art-music fans that wanted More Of The Same.

Rule of Three - the third album is always the best (check it out for yourself with any band you like). A Salty Dog is far more than a collection of songs, it's a themed concept and nothing is allowed onto the album that doesn't add its own little bit. Nothing here was ever going to cut it as a hit single, the Radio One Playlist Policy saw to that. But an album is a very different animal to a single and for an album to work as an album, and not just a collection of potential hit singles, it needs consistency, substance, pathos, and most importantly of all a beginning, a middle and an end. This album has everything. Each track contributes without detracting from the others.

This is a remarkable remaster, bringing out details you never thought were there. They've resisted the temptation to turn it into a remix/remaster circus aimed at today's drum and bass amplified hungry audience and kept it as true to the original as possible. Everything is just that little bit clearer. Now you can appreciate Keith Reid's whimsical lyrics flung at you by Brooker's cracking vocal line in crystal clarity. Open a few windows before you play as the title track might cause fragile objects to shatter.

I've always thought of this album as something special to myself, as no one else has ever heard of it. But I expect with this magical rebirth all that will change.....

All hands on deck...
With the band's first two releases 'in the bag', Salvo let fly this top notch repackaging of PH's much-awaited next move, and don't disappoint. 1969's 'A Salty Dog' (****) is possibly Procul Harum's finest hour: a trove of memorably lush melodies replete with towering orchestration interspersed with a dizzying array of hard rock, charming od-ditties, ball-bustingly dirty blues, even a spot of folk. Genre-hopping generally doesn't work across an album: there's too little time to assert sufficient credibility in any one field and the whole affair too often slips apologetically away. Gary Brooker, Keith Reid and Matthew Fisher as writers (Fisher also produces the album) are exceptions, coupling astutely commercial yet original composition to exciting and breezily confident performances. This has been reissued before, of course, but never with the definitiveness of Salvo's packages, which brim with new interviews, track annotations and rare pictures that assure them future collectability. Bonus tracks x six include hardrocking studio take 'Long Gone Geek' plus US-recorded live material that reinstates rightly high regard for the band on the performance circuit. But it's the grand sweep of 'A Salty Dog's' titular opener and the equally powerful 'Wreck Of The Hesperus' that set the band apart. All hands on deck, indeed.

ALL THIS AND MORE...THERE IS LIFE IN THE OLD DOG!!!
AH the memories ,if "Whiter shade of pale "was an indicator"A Salty dog "as a single was a momentous occasion,before rock became overblown by its own importance,Gary Bookers soaring vocals made this a magical track.
Track two"The Milk of human Kinness" has echoes of country rock Style Traffic with its hammond organ and guitar solo (Robin Trower?).
"Too much between us"is in some ways reminiscent of the quiter tracks of say Grapefruit(Dig out "Dear Delilah"to see what i mean althoughther is no phasing iun this it has the same kind of feel.
"The Devil came from Kansas" went on to become a fans favourite,it has a late beatles feeling to it,and was featured in there stage act at around the time of "Broken Barricades".Great solo at the end.
"Boredom" starts of a little like a nursery rhymr with nonsence lyrics a
little like "Bike"by Pink FLoyd,which leads us nicely to "Juicy John Pink"
"Wreck of the Hesperus" is just pure Prog rock with its full orchestrartions and rippling piano.very 1960s
"All this and more"is more akin to "Homburg"the follow up to WSOP and consequently sounds out of place on this album,the song is complicated and intricate
"Crucifction Lane"is s slow blues that wouldn't be out of place say on "Beggars Banquet"by the Stones
"Pilgrims Progress" has the hymn like quality that so haunted on "A Whiter shade of pale"and it is just as beguiling.do not be caught out by the trick ending
We now go onto the bonus tracks,"long gone geek" is a heavy rock piece with trowers guitar right to the fore,can they rock?yes they Can!
Next is a live verion of the great "Goin down slow"again some great guitar playing by Mr Trower,sounds a bit like steve Marriots Packet of three did in the late nineties at nearly eight minutes this is ahighlight of the albums bonus tracks.
"Juicy John Pink" follows in the shape of a live version taken i assume from the same gig as £Going down slow" "Crucification lane" live follows this and is again i imagine taken from the same gig.
"Skip softly(my moonbeanms/also sprach zarathrusta0 is also live and sounds excellent and in some ways sounds like the Nice in their more exteme moments
"The milk of human Kindness"(raw track )brings the whole shabang to an end
and at 67minutes this proves what a great band Procol Were
They never achieved their grear potential,perhaps having such an enormous hit so early on worked against them,