Talk:A Whiter Shade of Pale/Archive 1

List of cover versions
It seems a bit pointless to include a list of +25 seemingly randomly chosen cover versions of the "more that hundred" that is said to exist. What merits just these to be mentioned in an encyclopedic article? My view is that a limited number of cover versions might be appropriate, and that there should be a motive for each such inclusion: an interestingly different version, a very successful recording, etc. A list of occurences of the song in a number of films, commercials or tv shows also seem trivial. If there is no objection here on the talk page, I'll clean up these sections by mid-August. (Blind Hen 00:16, 7 August 2007 (UTC))
 * I agree StormCloud 16:52, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Favorite of Douglas Adams
Would anybody object to removing the comment "This song was also a favorite of Douglas Adams, author of the wildly popular "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series."?
 * Is it relevant? (A great many people consider it a favorite)
 * Is it accurate? (there is no external reference).
 * Is it important? (The Procol Harum Song "Grand Hotel", is at it inspired one of his books, but this one?)StormCloud 13:35, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Given that nobody has commented on this in a week, I'm going to remove these lines StormCloud 12:34, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Possible meaning?
The second paragraph of lyrics is a theory I have been working on. A fuller version is at.

Perhaps this discussion area is a good spot for a debate about the appropriateness of mentioning a specific theory of the meaning of the lyrics.

As a start, I acknowledge that a lot of Procol Harum lyrics seem to be abstract ie without specific reference. Salty Dog particularly seems to have emotional flow, but its evocation of a sea-journey may be felt as like many of our life-journeys, not specific to one. However Pilgrim's Progress is fairly specific about a particular spiritual journey: not its content, but its consequences. He hurt those dearest to him, and found himself simply a long way from home.

Those great works of art which effect most of us must be non-specific enough that we can feel the emotional events there as very like our own. But the power of art is often how accurately the work depicts a specific emotional event which happens to us all.


 * I strongly feel that we should not include a section of possible meanings of the lyrics. This is fine for the Fan web sites such as procolharum.com, but Wikipedia is suppose to be a accurate. Speculating isn't appropriate here.--StormCloud 15:05, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

YouTube links
This article is one of thousands on Wikipedia that have a link to YouTube in it. Based on the External links policy, most of these should probably be removed. I'm putting this message here, on this talk page, to request the regular editors take a look at the link and make sure it doesn't violate policy. In short: 1. 99% of the time YouTube should not be used as a source. 2. We must not link to material that violates someones copyright. If you are not sure if the link on this article should be removed, feel free to ask me on my talk page and I'll review it personally. Thanks. ---J.S (t|c) 07:16, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Influincing Rocky Horror Picture Show
I heard a sample of this song on Itunes, you can really hear how similar it sounds, to some of the slower songs from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Violet yoshi 00:43, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Find a legit article on the subject. I've never heard anyone mention this. 12.162.122.6 (talk) 20:51, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Miller's Tale
"Brooker and Reid have disclaimed any intention of ever explaining or assigning additional meaning to the lyrics, although the song's lyrics appear to be influenced by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Miller's Tale".
 * The lyrics were not influenced by Chaucer. Get real. There is a reference to the Canterbury Tales but that's it. It's a reference.

Just because there is a possible reference to Chaucer's work does not mean the whole song was inspired by The Miller's Tale. Surely the article should just state the work is mentioned? This line should be removed as the authors have never revealed its true meaning anyway. Francium12 talk/contribs 23:37, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree. Unless somebody can come up with a reason to keep it in the next few days, I'll rephrase it. StormCloud 13:49, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I've just removed the reference - there are other odd references in the Lyrics that are not commented on StormCloud

BTW: If you read the interview with KR at, you see that he's never read the Canterbury tails. StormCloud (talk) 12:12, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Sarah Brightman
Is there any particular reason why we've got a Sarah Brightman info box at the bottom of the page? I know she did a cover version of the song but as there have been over a thousand cover versions, what makes her version particularly noteworthy? It's not as if her info box mentions AWSOP! StormCloud (talk) 07:37, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Definitive meaning of the lyrics
There's a page on the Procol Harum website with an except from a book, in which Keith Reid lays out the meaning of the song. In essence, the lyrics refer to a drunken seduction of man and woman (from the point of view of a man), and contrast it against the allegory of a ship at sea. The longer version of the song with the two extra verses backs this explanation up.

http://www.procolharum.com/awsop_lotgs.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by Neo-Rio (talk • contribs) 05:58, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Authorship lawsuit
The Authorship lawsuit is discussed on 3 pages; this page the main Procol Harum page and the Matthew Fisher; we should collate the information on a single page. My preference is the A Whiter Shade Of Pale page, but that is just a my preference. Does anybody else have any strong feeling on where it should be documented?

I'm going to post this message on all three talk pages to get consensus StormCloud (talk) 20:14, 9 November 2008 (UTC)


 * As nobody has commented in a week, I've assumed nobody has any objections are merged the relevant sections StormCloud (talk) 22:16, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Clean up
This article really needs a clean up, particularly in the "Cover versions" and "References to the song" sections; they contain a lot of trivial references. I'll take a look at it some time soon, but if anybody has strong feelings about things that should be kept in let me know. StormCloud (talk) 13:33, 18 November 2008 (UTC)


 * The sections in question have now been completely removed. Stormcloud (talk) 13:14, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Denote the exhaustion
According to the introduction, AWSOP "is often used in film and tv to denote the exhaustion". Is is really? Can somebody please justify this statement? Stormcloud (talk) 07:43, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * It's been removed :-) Stormcloud (talk) 07:30, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Annie Lennox
This article completely ignores the single release that Annie Lennox had with the song... I understand not wanting vaguely notable covers in a long, long list but this was actually a widespread physical release. 12.162.122.6 (talk) 20:50, 1 May 2009 (UTC)