Happy Birthday, Gary Brooker [VIDEO]

Procul Harum’s Gary Brooker was born on this day in 1945 in Essex, England. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 in recognition of his charitable services. Have you ever wondered what Procul Harum means? When asked about the origins of the band’s name Gary said “We got named after a cat, a little Burmese Brown. . .that was its pedigree name: Procol Harum. It didn’t sound like anything, we didn’t really know what our music was, what box that fit in either. It didn’t fit anywhere, sort of an ambiguous name like that; it did have sort of a Latin sound to it. We found out a couple months later that if we had spelled it right, it would’ve meant "beyond these things," which is just sort of a happy coincidence. But we’ve always been happy with our name. I suppose every band is. I’m just glad we weren’t called Strawberry Alarm Clock or something. It would’ve been a bit embarrassing 35 years later.”

Wpanic41 via YouTube