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J.S. Bach should claim the royalties

15 November 2006

Rod Liddle reflects on the Procol Harum case and the stunning pretentiousness of 1970s pop groups that ripped off classical music with appalling results

It seems that Matthew Fisher has been, these past 39 years, the dog that didn’t Bach. Or perhaps did; one of the two. Mr Fisher is the former organist of the once popular group Procol Harum and is now, somewhat late in the day, suing a former bandmate for the royalties to the group’s biggest (nay, only) hit single, ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’. They’ve all been in court this last week, grey, grizzled and embittered.

Now, come on; even the most reclusive, diffident, fogeyish Spectator reader will have heard this lachrymose dirge at some point in the last few decades, even if it was just on the mobile phone ringtone possessed by that rather vulgar young man who somehow joined your party when you were out murdering God’s creatures with shotguns last August. Even the most desiccated high court judge must have heard the bloody song by now, unless he is stone deaf. It has ubiquity. It is, in fact, one of the most popular songs ever, ever, ever in the history of the world. Oh, world.

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