Procol Harum - The Hand That Rocks The Cradle - 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!

Eleventh number, one of my favourite songs from "The Prodigal Stranger" (1991).

First, let explode a myth introduced long ago on this song. The author of one article about this song on Beyond the Pale (www.procolharum.com , the strongly reccomended source of information for many Procol Harum fans) wonder about the unusual (for Procol) key of E this song seems to be in, noticing also that that key would bring the organ player to solo in the improbable key of F# and, noticing that the glissandos sounds as if they were played on white keys even if the notes played are indeed "black" (nice catch, non many would have noticed that), suggests that the solo was somehow transposed from a more comfortable key.

Of course, the explanation is a lot simpler: the song is, always had been, in E flat, the solo is thus performed in F (probably one of the keys used more frequently when keyboards are involved) and the whole song was speeded up during production, sharping it up.

The song itself was performed from time to time in the promotional tour for the 1991 album, but rarely after 1993, I doubt it was performed after fisher left in 2003. Interestingly it's credited Brooker / Reid / Thompson, I'm not even sure who Thompson is or if he helped with the music or the words.

The piano sounds, of course, similar to the record, including the gospel-like intro, as actually does most of the other instruments. not a surprise, given that, with the exclusion of Tim Renwick, the personnel is the same.

The organ solo would change a lot in the future (occasionally ending with a very effective modulating descent that led back to the chorus), but in 1991 was more or less similar to the original idea. The comping is another of the many example of the unique "wild but elegant" Hammond that Fisher provided for "The Prodigal Stranger".

Great work from Tim Renwick, who manages to recreate the feel of the record.