As expected, former Procul Harum keyboardist Matthew Fisher has been asked to play the distinctive organ melody from the band's classic 1967 hit 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' in court. As previously reported, Fisher claims that he wrote the organ bit of the track and that he should therefore be receiving a royalty payment off it, but frontman Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid, who are currently credited for creating the song, disagree.
Officials at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London set up a keyboard in the court room so that Fisher could talk through how, in his eyes, he created the piece of music. He described how he was inspired by Bach when crafting the song, but that he was aware that "this is meant to be a pop record, we didn't want anything too adventurous - too avant garde". He concluded: "I was trying to do something that sounded nice, that people would say 'oh! that is a nice tune'".
Of course, Brooker claims that the only thing going through Fisher's head when he first played the keyboard part of 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' was the tune that had already been created by him and Reid. Writing on a website dedicated to the band ahead of the trial, Brooker said: "I am shocked and dismayed that after Matthew had worked with us quite happily over the course of 40 years without him once alleging that his role on 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' was anything other than as a musician, it is only now that he claims he recalls writing part of the song. People can draw their own conclusions from this".
On the fact that his claim to royalties has come so late in the day, Fisher told the court yesterday that at the time he "was just a young musician who wanted to make music and I didn't really think of contracts". Subsequently he claims to have assumed that a credit he was given on another Procol Harum track, 'Repent Walpurgis', had been a "token gesture" intended as compensation for his lack of credit on 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale'.
Things seemingly came to ahead when Fisher left the band in 2003. Brooker claims that it was when the band had a meeting to discuss Fisher's departure that the keyboardist brought up his writing credit (or lack thereof) on the big hit - a claim which Brooker describes as "a bombshell". But Fisher says that Brooker's reaction at that meeting supports his claim. He alleges that he merely told Brooker that "what he had done to me back in 1967 was very hurtful", but that Brooker immediately knew Fisher was alluding to his lack of credit on 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale'.
The case, as they say, continues.