Home > The Magazine > Features

Friday 18 July 2008

Dare to dream and make your ultimate trip a reality

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Clemency Burton-Hill

Clemency suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value reader offers and events

Click here for the latest Spectator Wine Offers

Liddle Britain

J.S. Bach should claim the royalties

Rod Liddle

Wednesday, 15th 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.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 Next page

More articles from: Rod Liddle | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comment

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Imagine the terror of the Chinese officials

David Tang

David Tang reflects on his visits to Beijing in the run-up to the Games, where Western expertise has been harnessed to the ruthless efficiency of China’s government machine

Nudge, nudge: meet the Cameroons’ new guru

James Forsyth

The economist Richard Thaler — a favourite of the Cameron and Obama camps — talks to James Forsyth about the power of ‘nudging’: small transformative acts of persuasion

The cross-party consensus on welfare reform echoes the Gingrich–Clinton revolution

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson on the coming political week

The Falun Gong show that meek can be provocative

Lloyd Evans

Lloyd Evans joins the dissident movement in a ritual exercise near the Chinese Embassy. He is unsettled to find himself understanding why China’s rulers get so paranoid about them

Big Brother versus YouTube: let the Beijing Games commence

Mark Leonard

Mark Leonard, Britain’s pre-eminent analyst of modern China, says the Olympic genie is out of the bottle. The prospect of global scrutiny has actually increased repression as the authorities try to stamp out dissent. But digital technology is impossible to police