Gary Brooker is dead. His song pictorializes my life

Feb 25, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I was a teenager during the age of the hippies. One of the pop songs that challenged the domination of the music of the Beatles, at a time when the tunes of the Beatles had no rivals, was a composition, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, done by a group with a strange name – Procol Harum.
Whether you liked jazz, Hindi film music, calypso, rhythm and blues, reggae, etc., a Whiter Shade of Pale was a haunting pop song with strange lyrics. The song became an instant international success and today is generally accepted by all music reviewers as one of the most enduring pop ballads in music history.
It has been covered by countless artists, some of whom are fantastic singers but the original is simply way, way in front. Sarah Brightman with her operatic touch comes close to my liking but not good enough to match Procol Harum’s masterpiece. The BBC in 2009 noted that A Whiter Shade of Pale was the most played song in the UK during the past 75 years.
I never bothered with knowing about the group and the singer. I didn’t know the singer’s name. I just liked the song. It was when I reached my 30s, something happened to me. I detected a personal connection with a song named “Limelight” by a group titled Alan Parsons Project. “Limelight” was about me and what my father wanted to be and couldn’t be and that I had to be my father’s replacement.
In my column of Sunday, May 24, 2020, captioned, “A song for me and the heroes I see from my window,” about the recount of the ballots for the March 2020 election that was taking place at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, I brought out the personal connection between the song and my life.
I repeat it here. The meaning of the lyrics of “Limelight” is not about fame and wanting to be in the public eyes. It is about wanting a public platform to speak to the world about the rights and wrongs of life, about helping people gain freedom and justice and denouncing those who deny happiness to others.
I was sad when I read that Gary Brooker who sang A Whiter Shade of Pale and Limelight died last Saturday. It always touches you when a singer and actor that you have personal memories of die.
I remember when Bollywood superstar, Rajesh Khana passed away, there was literally an ocean of memories taking over me. No singer or actor invokes memories of my mother like Rajesh Khanna. No actor reminds me of my formative years from 18 years onwards as Rajesh Khanna.
I am typing this piece here on Mash Day at 5:30AM while my wife is fast asleep. When the sun rises, I will leave the house with my dog without her knowing to touch down at the National Park and on the seawall. In my discman (yes I use that relic and I enjoy using it), I will play a CD titled “Anthology” by the Alan Parsons Project. I will skip to number 14 on the list, which is Limelight. Below are the words of a song, that is personal to me, sung by the late Gary Brooker. If you watch it on YouTube, I hope you like it.

LIMELIGHT

“I can see the glow of a distant sun
I can feel it inside
Maybe this day could be the one
I can hear the roar of a distant crowd
They are waiting for me
Calling my name
Shouting out loud

Holding on isn’t always easy
I ain’t gonna change my mind
Limelight you were all I ever wanted
Since it all began
Limelight shining on me
Telling the world who I am
Limelight don’t let me slip right through your fingers
There’s a long way to fall
After all the years of waiting
I’m gonna show them all

I can see the world in a different light
Now it’s easy to say
Where I went wrong
What I did right
I can hear the beat
Of a different drum
Take it all in my stride
Hold my head high
Second to none

Holding on wasn’t always easy
Nothing can change my mind
Limelight you were all I ever wanted since it all began
Limelight shining on me
Telling the world who I am
Limelight don’t let it slip right through your fingers
There’s a long way to fall

After all the years of waiting,
I’m gonna show them all
Maybe the role’s not easy
Maybe the prize is small
After all the years of waiting,
I’m gonna show them all.”
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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