Keith Reid, lyricist for the British group Procol Harum and co-writer of the iconic 1960s hit “Whiter Shade of Pale,” died on March 23 after a battle with cancer, according to a post on the band’s website. He was 76.
Reid’s acclaim with Procol Harum — from its eponymously-titled 1967 debut album until 2003’s “The Well’s on Fire” — came from his unusual turns of phrase and influences from classical literature on songs such as “A Salty Dog,” “Conquistador,” and most famously “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” an unusually lengthy and unlikely hit that has gone on to become one of the most commercially successful songs in history.
Combining a funereal organ hook borrowed from Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major, swinging jazz drums, singer Gary Brooker’s soulful yet maudlin vocal and Reid’s surreal lyrics about a breakup, the song topped the U.K. singles chart and reached No. 5 in the U.S. in the summer of 1967, sold more than six million copies globally, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and, with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” was jointly recognized as the “Best British Pop Single 1952–1977″ at the BRIT Awards as part of Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee. It also came to symbolize the loss of youthful ideals when used as the centerpiece of writer-director Lawrence Kasden’s 1983 film, “The Big Chill,” although presumably more for its cultural associations than its lyrics (“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”).
While initially credited to Brooker and Reid, organist Fisher successfully sued to have his name added to the credits and publishing in 2009, more than 40 years after the song was originally released, after a long legal battle.
The son of Jewish Holocuast survivors, Reid was born on October 19, 1946, in London. He left formal schooling at the age of 15 to follow a literary path as a natural born lyricist. Inspired the sorrows of the Holocaust (“The tone of my work is very dark and I think it’s probably from my background in some subconscious way,” he once said), and the songs of Bob Dylan, Reid met R&B disc jockey-turned-A&R/producer Guy Stevens (Mott the Hoople, The Clash) through Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who in turn introduced him to composer-pianist Brooker in 1966.
While Blackwell initially passed on signing the group to Island — he recalls in his autobiography that the initial demo was dirgelike, but the drums added the crucial element that made it a hit and led him to rue his decision —the single was recorded with session musicians and a group was hastily assembled to tour and record an album. Via albums like “A Salty Dog” and another unlikely hit single, the orchestra-featuring “Conquistador,” the group remained a major act throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. While he did not play an instrument, Reid was a full-time member of Procol Harum until its first break-up in 1977; only the group’s final album, 2017’s “Novum,” lacks lyrical input from him.
In the mid-1980s, Keith Reid set up his own management firm, Full House, moved to New York City, and began working on stage plays. Brooker reunited Procol Harum in 1991 for a comeback album, “The Prodigal Stranger,” and 2003’s “The Well’s on Fire.” And though Reid was never a vocalist, he released a 2008 album, “The Common Thread,” under The Keith Reid Project banner, with lyrics sung such by vocalists such as John Waite and Southside Johnny. Keith Reid’s Project additionally released “In My Head” in 2018.
