Robin Trower by Rob Blackham
Robin Trower discusses his musical career and the 50th anniversary release of ‘Bridge Of Sighs’. Robin shares insights into its recording process, working with Geoff Emerick, and the inspiration behind its songs. He also talks to Jason Barnard about his time in Procol Harum, subsequent solo career, collaborations with Jack Bruce, and his upcoming live shows.
‘Bridge of Sighs’ has been re-released a few times but this seems to be the most definitive.
Yeah, I think they wanted to make a big deal about it because of it being 50 years.
Tell us about the background behind the period that ran up to ‘Bridge Of Sighs’, because the recording started at Olympic Studios before moving to Air.
Yes. We did two or three tracks at Olympic, and then we were lucky enough to get into Air London with Geoff Emerick engineering. So that was, that was a big deal.
You were in the classic line-up with James Dewar and Reg Isidore. You’d been playing live a lot, so you must have been well honed.
That’s right, the original lineup. Playing added a tremendous amount to ‘Bridge Of Sighs’ being the second album, where we’d done a lot of touring, especially in America. I think we’d already played a couple of them live. So that was a good thing as well, which added to the confidence.
It was an album that was hugely popular. There’s so many different styles and shades on there and accessible for the mainstream. It’s typified by ‘Lady Love’ which was a very commercially sounding track.
Yeah, a happy accident. We actually laid the original down at Olympic. I’m pretty sure it was that one and ‘Little Bit Of Sympathy’.
The title track ‘Bridge Of Sighs’ has that power trio heaviness.
Yeah, a lot to do with the way that track sounds is down to Geoff Emerick because he came up with a unique way of recording the guitar. That adds to the mystique of the sound of it. So he was instrumental in getting a bigger, bolder sound. As far as I know, he was the first guy to ever use staggered mics. In other words, he had three different mics on the guitar, each one further away. That’s what sort of created what I would call big sounds.
It was named after a racehorse, is that right?
Yeah, I was reading a paper and saw, Bridge Of Sighs to win today, was the headline. I thought, oh Bridge Of Sighs, what a great title. It stuck with me and when it came to work on the song itself, it popped back into my head.
The vocals of James on ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ must be some of the best vocals put down in a studio, surely.
Amazing. You know, so gifted, Jimmy. He was such a gifted musician and obviously had this beautiful instrument of a voice. You know, wonderful.
One of the inspirations behind ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ was James Brown.
I nicked a chord change from a James Brown track called ‘Down and Out in New York City’. It was in a film, Black Caesar. So the chorus on ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ is a pinch from the chorus on that song, just the chord sequence.
But the lyrics relate to your time in Procol Harum.
It did. It’s about the things that weren’t right, it probably applies to everybody in a band at that time. Things weren’t quite as straight as you would like.
You weren’t afraid to push the guitar work at times. ‘Day Of The Eagle’ being a great example of a fabulous guitar solo.
I was always doing what felt right to me. It was no conscious effort in the way stuff came out. It’s just purely heartfelt. Just the way it felt right, that was the way it went.
Then from this box set, the third CD is a recording of you at the Record Plant. Did listening back to it bring back any recollections?
I can’t say it did. I vaguely have a picture of my mind of playing in that studio at Record Plant with an audience but that’s as far as it goes. It’s so long ago and there’s been so many gigs. I think it was recorded or maybe it went out live as a radio show.
Who were your influences as a guitarist?
Obviously my biggest influence was Scotty Moore, Elvis’s guitar player, because it was because of him I wanted to play guitar. So that’s where it all begins. Then I think the next biggest influence would be B.B. King, you know which kind of changed the direction of my lead work quite a bit I think. Then Albert King and Jimi Hendrix. I think of Albert King, B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix as my three mentors.
What led you to joining and forming The Paramounts?
I was a big fan of a band that I used to see locally, that was from Romford, used to come down to Southend to play when I was about 16. I think I first saw them when they were called the Fabulous Rockefellers. That’s what planted the seed of starting The Paramounts, really, is my admiration for that band.
Were you on ‘Poison Ivy’?
I was.
What were you playing with Gary Brooker and the guys around that time? Was it a lot of Lieber-Stoller material or was it much broader?
Around that time we were doing a lot of rock and roll but we were also doing rhythm and blues. We were doing the odd Bobby Bland track. We used to do a medley of James Brown ‘Live At The Apollo’. We used to do tracks from that and we had a pretty pretty broad selection of stuff that we were doing.
What happened after the break-up of The Paramounts and before you joined Procol Harum? Were you in other groups?
I did have a little band locally called The Jam. Just a three piece again. I think after I’d been doing that for a little while, I got a call from Gary saying, “Would I like to join Procol?”. That was the beginning of that era.
This was after the release of ‘Whiter Shade of Pale’, so you went into a period of amazing success. It must have been quite a contrast.
It was quite difficult to take it on board actually, that I was joining a band that was already number one. But we immediately went in to make the first album so you just start to concentrate on what you’re doing.
It was a very productive period of singles and albums in the late 60s and early 70s. Alongside touring, it must have been very busy.
Yeah it was a lot of fun, great fun in fact. Any time I get to play guitar is always magic to me.
Do you remember writing and recording ‘Poor Mohammed’?
I do vaguely remember it. We were in London, I think. This was the last album I did with Procol. I had ‘Song For A Dreamer’ and ‘Poor Mohammed’. It was when I was starting to come up with more song ideas, guitar ideas for songs. I realised that I’d have to leave Procol and do my own thing if possible.
‘Song for a Dreamer’, that was Keith’s lyrics about Jimi Hendrix.
Yes, that was his tribute to Jimi and he just said, “I’d like to do a song as a tribute. Can you come up with any music?” He gave me the lyric and then I worked on the music for it.
After Procol you started working with Frankie Miller.
That’s right, we tried to get something going. We played a few gigs. It didn’t really take off musically like I hoped it would. But I did, through Frankie, discover Jimmy. Because Frankie brought Jimmy, James Dewar in. During the time we were working, I got to hear Jimmy singing and thought, oh, now there’s something serious. Plus, as he was a bass player as well, it meant I could go back to my favourite three piece.
‘I Can’t Wait Much Longer’, that’s a song that predates the formation of your trio, is that correct?
I think that may have been the last song that Frankie and I wrote together. I’m not sure if we actually ever played it live. It just may be a song that we had written. Anyway it suited Jimmy down to the ground vocally.
On the album ‘Twice Removed From Yesterday’, there’s just so many great tracks with Jimmy’s vocals. ‘Hannah’ being a great example.
Yeah, definitely. Jimmy was magic, no doubt about it.
We covered ‘Bridge Of Sighs’ at the start, but how did you find following it up?
‘For Earth Below’ was the follow-up. It was quite difficult because we were touring so much, I didn’t have enough time really to get stuck into writing. So, it was difficult to come up with the material for the album, but there’s some really good stuff on it.
‘Gonna Be More Suspicious’ is one of my highlights. Do you remember that song?
Yeah, I do, yeah. That’s a cracker. Really good. As you say, Jimmy’s vocals on it. Fantastic.
Bill took over on drums and you went over to the States so you didn’t record at Air.
Bill Lordan, that’s right. We were doing so much in America. We ended up recording in Los Angeles. Record Plant, in fact.
What do you remember about the album ‘Long Misty Days’?
I remember being at Jimmy’s house writing that song together. He was living in Croydon, I used to drive over sometimes from Rayleigh. We’d get together and do some writing or he would come to me. We’d mix it up like that and work on material, but everything always starts with a guitar idea. Once there’s a guitar idea, it’s built up from there, the vocal line and the lyric.
Is it frustrating when you do some of your best work, like ‘In City Dreams’ which is something that should be a hit, but doesn’t necessarily sell as much as you’d like?
It’s a little frustrating but I was very unlucky there because up to then Chrysalis material had been released through Warner Brothers. Then they decided to go alone and break away from Warner Brothers and the first album they tried to release was ‘In City Dreams’. So they didn’t have that big machine of Warner Brothers behind it so that album got a little bit lost because of that.
What led you to working with Jack Bruce?
I was always a big fan of Cream and him in Cream. I always thought he was, well, he was dynamite. [laughs]
What is your favourite material from your collaborations with Jack? Even in your third album together, ‘Seven Moons’, there is ‘Just Another Day’. Have you got any highlights?
Each album has two or three stellar pieces. For me the best of them all was ‘Different Places of the Heart’ on ‘Seven Moons’. That’s my favourite of all the songs that I did with Jack.
Was it just an easy fit working with Jack? Was it that you complimented each other in terms of your styles?
It was very easy working with him because, as I say, he was so, so good as a musician. He always knew exactly the right thing to do to support the guitar and what the vocals should be doing. So it was very easy. Plus on ‘Seven Moons’, we had a terrific drummer, Gary Husband, which added quite a lot to that album.
You’re still producing ambitious material. Can you tell us about your album ‘No More Worlds To Conquer’?
The title track was written around a documentary I saw about Alexander the Great. That’s where the idea for that lyric comes from. I think maybe I was already working on the music, and then I came up with this idea of writing about Alexander the Great. So, yeah, there’s a couple of really strong pieces on there. ‘Birdsong’ I really love, and, ‘The Razor’s Edge’. Also, ‘I Will Always Be Your Shelter’, I think is a cracker, lovely vocal from Richard.
You’ve got live dates in the UK imminently and are going back to the US later in the year.
That’s right. We’ve started to wind up again into playing live. It takes a lot of work after so many years of not playing live. I did a video recording of ‘Joyful Sky’ with Sari Schorr and that whetted my appetite for playing live again.
Fantastic. I assume on those shows the audience will get a cross-section of material, including material from ‘Bridge of Sighs’.
Yeah, I always play ‘Bridge of Sighs’. I’d be lynched if I didn’t! But I’m doing a lot of stuff from ‘No More Worlds To Conquer’, which has never been played live. So I’m really looking forward to that.
With the pandemic you were still releasing material, but you just didn’t get a chance to go out there and play it.
That’s right. The fact that I wasn’t playing live did allow me more time for writing. I’ve already got another album in the can finished and another half finished. So I’m well ahead of the game.
