Procol Harum squeezed the recording of their fifth album Broken Barricades in between tours, as was their custom. Besides the rolling title track, the opening songs on both sides of the album (Simple Sister and Power Failure) were storming rockers. The latter particularly emphasises just what a striking drummer BJ Wilson was – one of the few players who could actually make a drum solo interesting (significantly, following a Joe Cocker session a few years before, Wilson had been Jimmy Page’s first choice to join his new band, Led Zeppelin, on the drum stool).

On its release in 1971, Broken Barricades further enhanced Procol’s standing. Three tracks were co-written by guitarist Robin Trower, who demonstrated his frustration with the restrictions placed on his playing by the ‘Procol sound’. Trower had been particularly upset by the premature death of Jimi Hendrix in London the year before, and the album’s Song for a Dreamer paid tribute to the man now recognised as rock’s most innovative guitarist.