This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their
talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to
classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor,
done to stretch their performance and composition range, A Salty Dog was
recorded in a reasonable amount of time, giving the band a chance to fully
develop their ideas. The title track is one of the finest songs ever to
come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock
ever heard, and a very succinct example at that at under five minutes'
running time -- the lyric and the music combine to form a perfect mood
piece, and the performance is bold and subtle at once, in the playing
and the singing, respectively. The range of sounds on the rest includes
"Juicy John Pink," a superb piece of pre-World War II-style
country blues, while "Crucifiction Lane" is a killer Otis Redding-style
soul piece, and "Pilgrim's Progress" is a virtuoso keyboard
workout. A Salty Dog was reissued by Repertoire Records in 1997 with enhanced
sound and the lost B-side "Long Gone Geek," a Robin Trower guitar
workout par excellence.
(by Bruce Eder, All
Music Guide)
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