Captain Beyond These Things

All hands on deck, we've run afloat

I heard the captain cry

"Explore the ship, replace the cook"

"Let no one leave alive!"

Across the straits, around the horn

How far can sailors fly?

A twisted path, our tortured course

And no one left alive

We sailed for parts unknown to man

Where ships come home to die

No lofty peak, nor fortress bold

Could match our captain's eye

Upon the seventh seasick day

We made our port of call

A sand so white, and sea so blue

No mortal place at all

We fired the guns, and burned the mast

And rowed from ship to shore

The captain cried, we sailors wept

Our tears were tears of joy

Now many moons and many Junes

Have passed since we made land

A salty dog, the seaman's log

Your witness, my own hand

Procol Harum

Hofstra University Playhouse

Hempstead, New York

5.5.1977

01 WLIR-FM introduction

02 Bringing Home the Bacon 

03 Simple Sister

04 Something Magic

05 Strangers In Space

06 Grand Hotel

07 Conquistador

08 Pandora's Box

09 The Unquiet Zone

10 A Salty Dog

11 The Mark of the Claw

12 A Whiter Shade of Pale

13 WLIR-FM credits

Total time: 1:12:50

Gary Brooker - piano & vocals

Mick Grabham - guitar

Dee Murray - bass

Pete Solley - piano, synthesizer & organ

B.J. Wilson - drums

master cassette of a WLIR-FM broadcast

pitch corrected by kingrue, January 2017

repaired, denoised, remastered and retracked by EN, May 2022
465 MB FLAC/May 2022 archive link

I'll be back next weekend to begin June with something that'll convince you I've gone crazy... a special project you might never expect from me, so don't stop believin'.

This small slice of 1977 right here, however, is for Gary Brooker, who'd have been 77 today had he not passed a few months back. Who was a songwriter for the ages who, as the guiding light behind the timelessly elegant band Procol Harum -- almost-Latin for "beyond these things" --  created music that will surely long outlast the merely material.--J.

5.29.1945 - 2.19.2022