| Shine On Brightly | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Procol Harum |
| Cover: | Procol Harum — ‘Shine On Brightly’ UK Cover.jpg |
| Released: | September 1968 (US) December 1968 (UK) |
| Recorded: | 1967–68 |
| Studio: | |
| Genre: | Progressive rock, art rock, psychedelic rock |
| Length: | 39:09 |
| Label: | Regal Zonophone, A&M |
| Producer: | Denny Cordell |
| Prev Title: | Procol Harum |
| Prev Year: | 1967 |
| Next Title: | A Salty Dog |
| Next Year: | 1969 |
Shine On Brightly is the second studio album by English rock band Procol Harum, released in 1968 by record labels Regal Zonophone and A&M.
It is considered an early example of progressive rock.[1]
The album's single, "Quite Rightly So", failed to repeat the success of Procol Harum's first two singles ("A Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Homburg"), but the album itself was a commercial success in the United States, outperforming their first album, though it failed to chart in their home country. In Canada, the album reached #26.[2]
Shine on Brightly is credited as produced solely by Denny Cordell, but in fact he and Procol Harum had a parting of ways roughly halfway through recording it. Among the grievances between them was Cordell's trying to get drummer B. J. Wilson to leave Procol Harum and join Joe Cocker's backing band.[3] Most of the production work was instead done by Tony Visconti, though lyricist Keith Reid credits the album's engineer, Glyn Johns, with an instrumental role in assembling the track "In Held 'Twas in I".[3] This track was written and recorded in a very piecemeal fashion; for example, the spoken word introduction was recorded before any music had been written for the piece.[3] Reid heard the story told in this introduction from an American writer he met in Baghdad House, a cafe on Fulham Road.[3] According to Reid, the "Grand Finale" section of the song was written solely by organist Matthew Fisher.[3]
While the cover art for the UK release on Regal Zonophone was commissioned by Procol Harum themselves, the cover art for the US release on A&M, depicting a deformed nude figure playing an upright piano in a joshua tree desert through a yellow-green filter, was created without any impetus from the band.[3]
The interior of the record sleeve is a photograph of the band lit only by sparklers they are holding.
The opening song "Quite Rightly So" is about lost love; the lyric was written by Keith Reid after a broken love affair in the United States.[3]
"Rambling On" tells the story of a young man trying to emulate Batman by jumping off a roof, and was described by Reid as a "flight of fancy, just me rambling on".[3]
The title of the nearly side-long suite "In Held 'Twas in I" is an acrostic. It is formed by taking the first word of the lyrics in each of the first four movements as well as the first word of the sixth verse in the first movement:
| "In the darkness of the night..." | From movement 1, "Glimpses of Nirvana" | |
| "Held close by that which some despise..." | From the sixth verse of movement 1 | |
| "′Twas tea-time at the circus..." | From movement 2, "′Twas Teatime at the Circus" | |
| "In the autumn of my madness..." | From movement 3, "In the Autumn of My Madness" | |
| "I know if I'd been wiser..." | From movement 4, "Look to Your Soul" |
According to Keith Reid, the title has no meaning beyond this acrostic.[3]
Shine On Brightly was released in September 1968 by record labels Regal Zonophone and A&M. The original British and North American versions of the opening two tracks ("Quite Rightly So" and "Shine On Brightly") are different versions.
The album was reissued several times, including a 2009 remaster using the original 2-track stereo masters and featuring bonus B-sides and alternate takes. However, many of the tracks are played at a higher speed.[4] Subsequent reissues have been at the correct speed.