Procol Harum: “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (1967)
My first semester at Yale, in the fall of 1967, Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” always seemed to be playing on the jukebox at Hungry Charlie’s when I wandered over there from the library for my mid-morning coffee. That’s when doing research suddenly got lonely and a break to talk with other grad students seemed a terribly good idea.
We skipped the light fandango / Turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor...
I didn’t even like the song back then but it stuck in my head. Now, fifty-one years on, it’s a meme in my head, a mind worm standing in for a time and a mood.
***
I remember arguing about who was the best drummer, jazz’s Elvin Jones or rock’s Ginger Baker. It seemed a slam dunk to me. No insult to Baker, but it had to be Jones. I wasn’t even convinced that Baker was the best rock drummer. How could he be when Mitch Mitchell was still around? Buddy Miles replaced Mitchell on drums when Hendrix disbanded the Experience and formed his Band of Gypsies, but Buddy Miles was never the best rock drummer, just the meanest.
***
At a street dance in New Haven in 1968 or 1969, we danced to the Box Tops, who were hot then, though not for long.
Another night, Larry and Diane Powell hosted a party at their apartment, people jampacked in their living room, dancing until clothes clung to bodies, everyone soaked in perspiration. I had this great flower shirt. It had puffy sleeved and long, pointed collars, and lots of buttons, and a bold blue, violet, green and light gray flower pattern on the diaphanous weave cloth. When we were done dancing, I could have wrung sweat out of it.
I wore that shirt on and off for almost twenty years, until the fabric was so thin it couldn’t be worn any longer. Before I threw it away, I took a photo of the cloth so I could remember what it looked like.
Here’s Esther in a min-skirt. She was made for them. Look at the hair! Gorgeous!
In ’68, Esther was in a review at Branford College, written by two of the three men in the photograph below, both undergrads. I loved the lyrics of this one song, which she sang.
Someone just told me that pot is a fad / And I’m feeling’ so bad / Because a rhinoceros / Covered in phosphorus / Took me to lunch with his Dad….
Here we were afterwards. 
Très romantique! 
ADDITIONAL LISTENING
MUSIC & ME 