The bitter feud behind Procol Harum’s ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’
Most band fallouts normally come down to a matter of money. Even though it might start like The Three Musketeers call wanting to make the best situation possible, certain members often start to think that they carry a much greater load and are, therefore, entitled to more money than their peers. While Procol Harum may have made a masterpiece with the song ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’, the legal disputes between the writers fractured the group for good.
When working on the group’s first handful of songs, Gary Brooker had the idea of bringing in a full-time organist into the group when he came across Matthew Fisher. Loving the sound he heard coming from his instrument, Brooker thought that the band were onto something when they hit on the basis for their future hit.
Influenced by Bach’s ‘Air on a G String’, most of the track builds upon the classical sound of the organ, bringing a sense of elegance to the final track. Arriving right as the summer of love was starting, the song would become an anthem for the time alongside The Beatles’ and The Rolling Stones’ greatest material, especially when listening to Brooker’s soulful delivery.
Although Fisher was responsible for developing the central riff that ties the song together, he went to court when he wasn’t credited as the writer of the tune. Since he had no name on the publishing rights, Fisher saw no residuals for his brilliant melody, only making money as a paid musician.
When seeing a legal battle between the members of Scottish band The Bluebells over the songwriting royalties of ‘Young at Heart’, Fisher thought it would be worth fighting for his name to be reinstated in the credits, suing the group for credit in 2005. While Fisher wanted none of the previous earnings that the outfit made, he sought to ensure that any further success of the track would earn him publishing money.
This was a shock at the time, considering Fisher was still on good terms with the band. Even after stepping down as a musician, Fisher would continue to work with the group throughout their career, serving as one of their producers across various albums in the 1970s while also turning in time behind the board with Robin Trower.
Despite winning the suit, the ruling suggested that there was still no question over what section Fisher was responsible for, saying, “They expressly refused to make a definitive finding on the point. The judgment leaves both parties no clearer as to where they stand as to who can benefit in the future from royalties arising from the original recording of ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’.”
While the lawsuit may have given everyone credit, it did cast a dark shadow over their relationship with their former bandmate. Even though Brooker may have been the one who constantly talked about writing the tune, one of the composers behind one of the greatest psychedelic songs in rock history had been kept in the shadows for years.
