The sailor leering out at you from the front cover (a parody of the old player's Navy Cut cigarette packet regarded as one of the greatest sleeve designs in rock) signals - even before you hear a note - that there is something different about A Salty Dog. But when you do listen, it becomes clear - from the sweeping title track that opens the album, to the serene 'Pilgrim's Progress' which brings it to a conclusion - that A Salty Dog is quite simply Procol's most rewarding album. In fact, it has long been viewed as their masterpiece; one of the high watermarks of late-60s rock culture as well as one of finest examples of a rock album co-opting elements of classical music. When the title track was released as Procol's fourth single during the early summer of 1969, the reviews were ecstatic. NME judged it "positively stunning"; Disc thought it "perfection"; Melody Maker's Chris Welch raved: "Their finest hour... one of the greatest pop singles to emerge in recent years." Grandiose and sweeping, the title track remains one of Procol's finest recorded moments - and its relative failure as a single, and that of the subsequent album, grows ever-more baffling with the passing years. Besides the epic sweep of the title track, the album also contained the towering 'Wreck Of The Hesperus' and 'Pilgrim's Progress'. Breaking away from their familiar piano-organ dialogue, the album also incorporated elements of folk ('Too Much Between Us'), blues ('Juicy John Pink'), and even heavy metal ('The Devil Came From Kansas'). Looking back, at the millennium's turn, The Mojo Collection remembered A Salty Dog as "a swirling, Gothic tale, drenched in salt spray... progressive rock at its very best, Procol Harum in excelsis." Certainly, few bands ever proved themselves as audacious in the studio as Procol Harum did with this album, which makes the fact that it only reached Number 27 in the UK album chart even more puzzling. Procol were a major touring attraction across in the USA around the period that the album was recorded, delivering acclaimed concert performances from coast to coast. The six bonus cuts featured on this release include four towering, previously unreleased live record