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We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, 'There is no reason
And the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
And would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might have just as well've been closed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
And so it was that later
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, 'There is no reason
And the truth is plain to see.'
But I wandered through my playing cards
And would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might have just as well've been closed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
And so it was that later
Lyrics submitted by Psycho_pr, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Track duration: 07:46
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" as written by Gary Brooker Keith Reid
Lyrics © T.R.O. INC.
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Structurally and thematically, the song is unusual in many respects. While the recorded version is 4:03 long, it is composed of only two verses, each with chorus. The piece is also more instrument-driven than most songs of the period, and with a much looser rhyme scheme. Its unusually allusive and referential lyrics are much more complex than most lyrics of the time (for example, the chorus focuses on Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale"). Thus, this piece can be considered an early example of progressive rock.
The phrase a whiter shade of pale has since gained widespread use in the English language, noticed by several dictionaries. As such, the phrase is today often used in contexts independent of any consideration of the song. It has also been heavily paraphrased, in forms like an Xer shade of Y -- this to the extent that it has been recognized as a snowclone – a type of cliché and phrasal template.
And the rest is where your head go's on psychedelics. Seemingly profound stuff that make's infinite sense until the next day.
It still sounds pretty so why not leave it.
here is my interpretation to the song : whiter shade of pale by procol harum .
well ,i thing that while using some hallucination drugs(LSD,cocaine or others) the consciousness is "imposed" over reality. the associative capabilities of the mind (mainly the brain) to associate between objects,ideas and so-is in a higher state then "normal"(maybe it's the way ouer brain shield it self from overflow of awareness).
in that case very strong and unusual (mostly spectacular)associative mind conections are made to describe ideas in a very magical way and the most importent --with no mistakes!!.
it should be notice that in my opinion the drug user him self is (mostly) the only one who can explain what realt happend inside his mind 'that why for many others it is some time hard to folllow up the true meaning of the song (in ouer case for example)
thats how surrealism "acts" .
so -one of procol harum band member must have the most right and the closest interpretation to the song while a man like me can only make a guess.
the first stage in my opinion afther taking the drugs(and maybe several drinks as well) when the mind consciousness open it self to the other dimentions described here as :"light fandango" or : Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor.
the crowd called out for more
it's what accur in the head of the song writer,and that is the "room" --(The room was humming harder) wich humming harder now under the drugs and metaporicly -- it ceiling flew away.
in my mind " the miller" is the brain it self wich is busy grinding the reality facts into a fine flour (fine in that case).
that miller told his tale:"That her face at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale"-meanning reality wich was as ghostly face and not surely understood became now cleare and shiny -- whiter shade of pale.
She said there is no reason,And the truth is plain to see --"she" :is the mind under influance of the drugs ( the "head") ,and thw writer can see now that truth is plain to see (when
awareness and consciousness are free from any boundaries).
That(it is a decision made by the writer) I wandered through my playing cards,
And would not let her be (the truth behinde what he understood when consciousness opend widely and he was able to see it --whiter then a shade of pale.
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast.
And although my eyes were open,
They might just as well have been closed.
the last 4 kunes could describe the bad,bitter and rudeness fate(irony of fate)
of the 16 vestal virgins (the roman religion).
and when you see the light and the truth --
although the eyes were open--
They might just as well have been closed.
becouse now you truly a believer.
The Miller's Tale By Chaucer.. a paraphrasing..
It's the story told by a Miller making fun of carpenters. Keep in mind he is VERY drunk when he tells his tale. The carpenter has a young wife and has two young students renting a room with him. They both adore his wife. One day one of the students seduces the wife. They have sex. (while the carpenter is away on a job)The other student sings, and tries to seduce the wife but he fails. Longing for more than a quickie the student and the wife (who apparently enjoys the company of the student) decide to trick the carpenter so that they can have more sex. They create a lie. They tell him that another biblical flood is coming and get him to build tubs on the roof of the building for them to ride out the storm in. The student sneaks down with the wife. They have sex in the carpenter's bed.Now for the punch line if you will of the story. Thinking the carpenter is away the other student tries to seduce her by singing again.. he looks in the window and tells her he wants to kiss her. The wife, sticks her ass out the window, which the student kisses. When he realizes this he gets mad and goes to a blacksmith and grabs a hot piece of metal. He returns, the student decides to be the next one to stick his ass out the window. The second student burns his ass with the hot metal, which causes the student to scream. The carpenter hears this and falls out of the tub off the roof and onto the ground, and breaks his arm. That's how the story ends. (this is a paraphrasing of the story, I don't remember it all.. It's all written by Chaucer, so I am not intending to steal his story.. )
SO, back to the song, now that I bored everyone. The song is basically talking about making a fool of yourself in front of someone you want to have sex with or already are (which could lead to a break up)
The beginning part of the song is describing how they are dancing, drinking and having a good time..
The second part is after he has made a fool of him self.
And she said " there is no reason, the truth is plain to see"
So obviously she was embarrassed by his drunkeness (if you say they were together then this causes them to break up, but I personally think they weren't together at the start of the party..)
Then later when he is alone he's playing with his cards, and hoping that the lady wasn't a nun. This might be the source of the confusion and embarrassment.. IE the guy is drunk and hits on a nun.. So there is my take.. He should have realized she was a nun, but he was too drunk to realize.. so he was as embarrassed as the Miller after he was done telling his tale.. Moral of the story.. DON'T get drunk and hit on nuns.
(BTW as an aside Gary Booker heard someone at a party say.. "She turned a whiter shade of pale" which was partially inspiration for this song.. you can find out more about it by looking it up on Wikipedia. (same thing for the Millers Tale)
The Tales read like parables warning to act and behave properly - they tell how if you don't life will turn out bad.
So to the song...
The start tells of how the band members are living the high life, skipping the light fandango, (a formal dance with Ladies in ball gowns), consumption, (booze, drugs), to excess, "the waiter brought a tray....."
Next important line, "later the mirror/miller told his tale" = warning, you look like poo/your harming yourself
The Lady is his psyche, his conscience, his inner self preservation. She is shocked to see what he is doing to himself.
(Originally a Lady would indeed have been very pale, to have a tan would suggest working in the sun, especially farm work - a big no no)
So it was much later, the Miller told his tale.....Turned a whiter shade of pale.
16 vestal virgins...we're no longer impressed with you.
The whole song, which was written under the influence, was a warning to himself. Quit or die.....
The opening is a scene to a last party... a last rite of passage ... of course there are ladies and substances available there, as many a last party would entail, but they skipped the dancing (skipped the light fandango) for this last party is more of commiseration, of hanging on to a last camaraderie of a life's hard and soon to be sad journey.. and likely more than a single event prior to a "jump off" ... It is a group of men before they have to go to Vietnam.. it's also a similar group somewhere in Saigon at a USO show as they escape for a moment back in the depths of their hope for sanity or attempt at forgetting all before having to face yet again the indiscriminate way of dying in the jungle 'for what?' 'for something '? 'are we the keepers of the sacred 'flame '? a sacrifice? or a fool? to cope with all this they drink themselves into oblivion... the seasick reference can be seen as real and superimposed on the alcohol or as a flashback, as during a troop transport, all combined with the heavy nature of the inevitability of their soon to come tour of duty...
The miller in Chaucer's tales was a relatively crude, somewhat low class, but otherwise an average man who is drunk at the time he offered his tale... he told a tale of young and old men, wise and not so wise, but the most central concept of his tale was that of men being fooled in various ways... that's the central concept here as well... and although a beautiful young lady is at the center of the tale, as the object of devotion and highest prized goal, but the concept is in the mind of the miller, and although the girl is substantive to the overall consideration of man's foolishness and not unworthy of consideration, it is the miller who is actually first described as "who with drinking was all pale" in the text... totally in line with the previously mentioned attempts to both lessen and drown the problems with alcohol...
...so when they refer to a whiter shade of pale in the song it is the miller who is turning a whiter shade of pale as in dead, and obviously the miller is a stand in for one of the group of servicemen, a typical teller of a bawdy tales for them all to focus on instead of the horror of the reality of potential impending sudden death or disablement in combat... the tale is mentioned to refer to each one of these men's 'Alison' (the beautiful young bride in the miller's tale) really the woman in each of their minds thinking of them (hopefully) or any of the good fruitful part of a life they left behind... specifically with reference to the song and miller's tale it is their wife or girlfriend who should be faithful, but as the tale does seek to impart in reality this may not be the case, the man may be fooled and many times a less worthy one can be seen as better because he's there and the serviceman is absent... the song essentially relates to those being taken 'out of life' 'out of normal life' in more ways than one.. taken out either in immediate death, out of relationships which will never be the same or good again, or basically out of ever being normal again... and that's the sadness of the implied sacrifice...
in the quote 'She said there is no reason...' we can see many a serviceman in Vietnam getting that 'letter'.. many of them had this experience when wives or girlfriends have moved on and in an effort to cope with this harsh blow and the insanity of war around them at the same time they just play cards nonstop (govt. issue)... just repetitive games, often solitaire.. but they just cant get her out of their minds ('would not let her be')...
last we see the theme of duty bound sacrifice with 'one of sixteen vestal virgins' both can be signifying that they are chosen out of the rest of the country for this hard service, lonely without a normal life (as the vestals were to be keepers of a flame they could not let got out so are they keeping this service to the flame of their society's values or fire of war - take your pick or both) as well as at the same time this is referring to the time when they first came 'in country ' as 'virgins ' to the insane sudden death as part of horrifying combat of nam.. 16 we could easily see in a transport helicopter on their way to the hot zone about to meet an uncertain, cruel, mostly unfair fate ... with all these thoughts in their minds of the woman.. the woman who left them pale.. she turns a whiter shade in their memories in all this loss of love and hope.. and their companions too they see as equally pale and paler both in their real eyes sight before them when they lose their last breaths and in their own souls years afterward for the whole experience.. and that is the story of a song to touch a generation that lost so much, lost so much and expended so much of their youthful life force in death instead of living their youth and love with the ones they lost.....