Procol Harum - Man With A Mission - San Francisco 1991 video free download

Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, October 3, 1991.

2012 brings an early "new testament" show with a brilliantly-playing Matthew Fisher, a seldom heard guitarist (Tim Renwick) and a new Procol Harum band, ready for the decades that would follow, here on my channel!

Eighth number, again from the new album, "The Prodigal Stranger".

The number was often performed during '90s but has been heard only once in the current millennium (Manchester, 2001, arranged to be played with the Hallé Orchestra and Choir).

The piano is of course quite similar to the recorded version, although much more "realistic", I personally find the solo much interesting than the relatively dull original one, and of course quite similar to the one recorded live the following year.

Hammond: only Fisher can sound nasty AND elegant at the same time! And isn't the comping true genius, especially from the piano solo onward?

Also notice the lines played near the end: something similar can be heard on the "One More Time - Live in Utrecht 1992" album, but on this version they are much more prominent.

Tim Renwick, as usual, does a great job, albeit quite different from Trower and Witehorn. The song would gain a real guitar solo the following year, for now that..."something" will have to suffice.

The drumming is surely much better than the improbable "echoing" one that we can hear on the album! That track was probably the worst offender on the album when drum mixing was concerned.

Dave Bronze provided bass on the original track, I'm not too familiar with his playing on this tune, but, at least superficially, he seems to be following the pattern he laid down the previous year (including the chorus, which, interestingly, resembles a bit the one of Rambling On, the classic song recorded by Procol in 1968 on the album "Shine On Brightly").