Repent Walpurgis

Matthew Fisher wrote "Repent Walpurgis", his first official songwriting credit, an instrumental that closes the UK debut at 5:05; MusicBrainz also lists a title, "Fortuna (Repent Walpurgis)". The Italian-language title is "Fortuna", on a 1968 Italian single paired with "Il Tuo Diamante", and a French single of 1968 paired it with "Conquistador". Wikipedia says it is after works by Widor and Bach; the fan site Beyond the Pale names only Bach and not Widor, and the two do not agree. Larry Pennisi, in an article on the site, reports that Fisher called the credit a booby prize, that it was built on the four main chords of the Four Seasons' "Beggin'" (by Bob Gaudio), and that a section from Bach's "Ave Maria" (the Prelude in C) sits in the middle, added at Brooker's request; Fisher credits Trower's guitar with much of the atmosphere. Ron Cooper called it probably the most brilliant thing that Procol ever did, and Paul Williams wrote in Crawdaddy in 1967 of Trower crying out like Thomas Hardy at century's end.

It is slow, with lead guitar over crashing drums, church organ and piano. An earlier alternative stereo take of 7:26 has faster drums, Trower strumming from the start and looser organ, with the Bach section returning after a second solo; Clyde Johnson saw the band play that arrangement in 1969.

It was certainly played at Edmonton on November 18, 1971, as the last item of a conjectural setlist, and it closed the main set at Utrecht on February 13, 1992, a live version from which is a bonus track on the 1995 Castle CD single of "A Whiter Shade of Pale". At the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia on May 6, 2003 it was played just before the interval at waltz tempo with a drum solo; at the Westbury convention on July 12, 2014 a solo version for bass by Jack Vees and a full-band arrangement were both played. Setlist.fm has no entries, so there is no play count. We found no covers or samples, and could not tell whether our upload is the 1967 take, the Utrecht live version or another.