A Whiter Shade of Pale

Song meaning of A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum and what it is about

At a party, Keith Reid came up with the song's starting point and title. The remark "You've turned a whiter shade of pale" was said to a woman at the party, and he overheard it being said. Only two of the original song's four verses are audible on the recording. Procol Harum has performed the third verse live more frequently than the fourth.

Reid was quoted in the February 2008 issue of Uncut magazine as saying:

'I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene. I wasn’t trying to be mysterious with those images, I was trying to be evocative. I suppose it seems like a decadent scene I’m describing. But I was too young to have experienced any decadence, then. I might have been smoking when I conceived it, but not when I wrote. It was influenced by books, not drugs.'

The song is odd both thematically and structurally. There are only two verses and a chorus in the recorded version, which is 4:03 long.

Many dictionaries have noted the phrase "a whiter shade of pale" has become more common in English over time.

A Whiter Shade of Pale lyrics by Procol Harum

We skipped the light fandango

Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor

I was feeling kind of seasick

But the crowd called out for more

The room was humming harder

As the ceiling flew away

When we called out for another drink

The waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later

As the miller told his tale

That her face, at first just ghostly

Turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, "There is no reason

And the truth is plain to see"

But I wandered through my playing cards

And would not let her be

One of sixteen vestal virgins

Who were leaving for the coast

And although my eyes were open

They might just as well have been closed

And so it was that later

As the miller told his tale

That her face, at first just ghostly

Turned a whiter shade of pale

And so it was that later

As the miller told his tale...