Article: An Even Whiter Shade of Pale

[scottsol]

On 8/24/2017 at 4:35 PM, Gilles said:

That was until about a week ago, when I read that A Whiter Shade of Pale is an adaptation of JS Bach's Air on a G String.  I then knew that I had just found that other music.

 

My source: Eric Siblin, author of this book on Bach's cello suites https://www.amazon.ca/Cello-Suites-Casals-Baroque-Masterpiece/dp/0802145248.

 

I read it on page 252 of the pocket book edition in French, in the chapter on the 5th suite. I have no connection with E Siblin.

If Siblin actually wrote that, he was wrong. There is no doubt that Matthew Fisher's organ accompaniment owes a lot to the referenced Bach piece, but the song was written and the vocals and piano were recorded by Gary Brooker before Fisher's organ work was added.

 

Booker's work contains elements reminiscent of Baroque music, but unlike Fisher's organ work there is nothing that can be directly attributable to the Air on a G String.