Procol Harum & Franz Beckenbauer

What I Learnt:

The light fandango…. The miller’s tale…. The sixteen vestal virgins.

These are Procol Harum’s inscrutable lyrics from the 1967 sleeper hit ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ that are still being poured over and debated decades later. In many ways similar to Don McLean’s immortal ‘American Pie’. Unlike Don McLean, Procol Harum are white some might call a ‘one hit wonder’. But what a hit!

AWSOP is a song that makes you sad, but you aren’t sure why. Is it because the lyrics hint at a time that you can’t quite remember, though you know it was special? Is it because you never really learnt what the miller’s tale was? Or that you wish you could have known why those sixteen vestal virgins left for the coast, and what their fate came to be?

Or is it simply because the moment you hear that beautifully haunting organ piece and listen to the first line (We skipped the light fandango), you know you will never forget this song. And part of you knows that you will never be able to create something as beautiful as it?

Imagine my surprise when I learnt that Matthew Fisher’s organ introduction was so iconic that it actually received a songwriting credit.

What I Like:

Der Kaiser is no more.

There were a few players more skillful than him - Pele, Maradona, Cruyff, Ferenc Puskas to name a few. There were certainly more successful players. And one may even argue that there were more revolutionary and impactful players.

But what made Beckenbauer unique, at least in my mind, is that even though he broke the hearts of football purists forever, when his West German team beat the Dutch in 1974, no one has ever begrudged him that win. His team weren’t plucky or lucky underdogs like Fritz Walter’s team was in 1954 (or Kapil Dev’s Devils were in 1983). Nor were they stereotypical German automatons that relied on willpower, physical toughness and sometimes questionable refereeing (Schumacher in 1982) to somehow win against the odds.

No, Beckenbauer won with style, elegance and effectiveness. Which is why he wasn’t an anti-heroor was he an unlikely hero. He managed to pull off something that is rarely seen in the sporting world.

Cruyff didn’t lose in 1974, it is just that Beckenbauer won.