A Salty Dog

A Salty Dog has an ostensibly nautical theme, as indicated by its cover (a pastiche of the famous Player's Navy Cut cigarette pack). Interspersed with straight rock, blues and pop items, A Salty Dog showed a slight change of direction from its predecessors, being thematically less obscure. The title track itself was the first Procol track to use an orchestra, as would be referred to in the live album performance some three years later.

The album was the first record produced by Matthew Fisher, who quit the band soon after its release. This was also the last Procol Harum album to feature bass guitarist Dave Knights.

Background and recording

A Salty Dog was recorded in March 1969. The musical tensions between the group and Robin Trower were beginning to show in this album, and although his guitar sound remains integral to most of the tracks, "Crucifiction Lane" (featuring a rare Trower vocal), in retrospect, shows that Trower was already moving in a different direction from the rest of the band. Still, this album is much more musically varied than the two previous albums, with three Fisher vocals and one by Trower.

Reportedly, when Gary Brooker first played "A Salty Dog" at the piano for B.J. Wilson, a sunbeam illumined Wilson's face and he told Brooker he thought it was the most beautiful song he had ever heard.^[1]

Release

A Salty Dog was released in June 1969 by record labels Regal Zonophone and A&M. The title track, backed with "Long Gone Geek", reached number 44 in the UK Singles Chart in 1969 and the album itself number 27 in the Albums Chart.^[2]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[3]
Robert Christgau	A+^[4]
Rolling Stone	(mixed)^[5]

John Mendelson, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "a confusing album. At its best it represents the group's greatest success to date with the brand of rock for which the group is known; at its worst it is both surprisingly mediocre and trivial."^[5] Robert Christgau, on the other hand, gave it a rare 'A+' grade.^[4]

In his retrospective review, Bruce Eder of AllMusic wrote, "This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range", calling the title track "one of the finest songs ever to come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock ever heard".^[3]

Cover versions

The title track was covered by Transatlantic and was featured on the two-disc Special Edition of The Whirlwind. It is sung by drummer Mike Portnoy. Styx covered the song on their cover album Big Bang Theory (2005) with Lawrence Gowan on lead vocals.

Track listing

Side A
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"A Salty Dog"	Gary Brooker, Keith Reid	4:41
2.	"The Milk of Human Kindness"	Brooker, Reid	3:47
3.	"Too Much Between Us"	Brooker, Robin Trower, Reid	3:45
4.	"The Devil Came from Kansas"	Brooker, Reid	4:38
5.	"Boredom"	Matthew Fisher, Brooker, Reid	4:34

Side B
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Juicy John Pink"	Robin Trower, Reid	2:08
2.	"Wreck of the Hesperus"	Fisher, Reid	3:49
3.	"All This and More"	Brooker, Reid	3:52
4.	"Crucifiction Lane"	Robin Trower, Reid	5:03
5.	"Pilgrim's Progress"	Fisher, Reid	4:32

1999 reissue bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
11.	"Long Gone Geek" (B-side of the single release of "A Salty Dog"^[6])
12.	"All This And More"
13.	"The Milk of Human Kindness (Instrumental Version)"
14.	"Pilgrim's Progress (Instrumental Version)"
15.	"McGreggor" (previously unreleased track, originally intended for Shine On Brightly^[7])
16.	"Still There'll Be More"

2009 reissue bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
11.	"Long Gone Geek"
12.	"Goin' Down Slow (Live in the USA, April 1969)"
13.	"Juicy John Pink (Live in the USA, April 1969)"
14.	"Crucification Lane (Live in the USA, April 1969)"
15.	"Skip Softly (My Moonbeams) / Also Sprach Zarathustra (Live in the USA, April 1969)"
16.	"The Milk of Human Kindness (Take 1; Raw Track)"

Personnel

Gary Brooker – lead vocals (1–4, 6, 8), piano, celeste, three-stringed guitar, bells, harmonica, recorder, wood, orchestral arrangements (1, 8)
Robin Trower – lead and acoustic guitars, lead vocals (9), sleigh tambourine
Matthew Fisher – organ, lead vocals (5, 7, 10), marimba, rhythm and acoustic guitars, piano, recorder, orchestral arrangements (7), production
Dave Knights – bass
B.J. Wilson – drums, conga drums, tabla
Kellogs – bosun's whistle, refreshments
Keith Reid – lyrics

Technical

Ken Scott – engineering (1–5, 8–10)
Ian Stuart – engineering (6)
Henry Lewy – engineering (7)

References

↑ Allison, Charlie (2001). "Jim Gilchrist Feels the Tug of Strangely Unattainable Shores". The Scotsman. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
↑ UK Chart Stats
1 2 Eder, Bruce (2011). "A Salty Dog – Procol Harum | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 August 2011.
1 2 Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: CG: Procol". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
1 2 Mendelson, John (31 May 1969). "Records". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. (34): 37. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
↑ This was listed as an album main track on the re-release despite not having appeared on the original album
↑ A story of a soldier who was hanged for shooting a senior officer; provenance of this story is unknown Procol Harum site

External links

ProcolHarum.com's page on this album

Procol Harum

Gary Brooker Geoff Dunn Matt Pegg Josh Phillips Geoff Whitehorn Keith Reid Dave Ball Graham Broad Dave Bronze Mark Brzezicki Alan Cartwright Chris Copping Matthew Fisher Mick Grabham Bobby Harrison David Knights Dee Murray Tim Renwick Ray Royer Don Snow Peter Solley Henry Spinetti Jerry Stevenson Robin Trower Ian Wallace B. J. Wilson

Studio albums	Procol Harum Shine On Brightly A Salty Dog Home Broken Barricades Grand Hotel Exotic Birds and Fruit Procol's Ninth Something Magic The Prodigal Stranger The Well's on Fire

Live albums	Procol Harum Live: In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Live at Union Chapel

as Liquorice John Death	Ain't Nothin' to Get Excited About

Songs	"A Whiter Shade of Pale" "Homburg" "A Salty Dog"

Related articles	Discography Guy Stevens The Paramounts

Book:Procol Harum

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