(autor, aliás, da música Tijolinho - um dos grandes sucessos da Jovem Guarda) que já havia tocado com várias bandas mas oportunamente estava sem banda fixa. Como os quatro rapazes tinham a mesma afinidade musical, após algumas conversas e encontros Bitão aceitou o convite e no início de 1969, mais precisamente no dia 18 de fevereiro, fizeram o 1o ensaio juntos sendo essa a data oficial da fundação da nova banda que após quase dois meses de ensaios ainda não tinha nome. Foi então que um grande amigo dos rapazes: Marco Aurélio, o Lelo, sugeriu “PHOLHAS”, que grafado com “PH” ficava um tanto quanto diferente, sendo prontamente aceito sem restrições por todos.
Já com o novo nome a banda fez sua estréia oficial num baile no bairro do Tatuapé em maio daquele mesmo ano e apenas três anos depois, após muitos e muitos bailes com enorme sucesso, o “PHOLHAS” tinha conseguido incorporar ao seu patrimônio uma das melhores aparelhagens dentre os grupos musicais da época e também uma enorme legião de fiéis admiradores.
Com essa crescente popularidade era inevitável que o caminho natural das coisas fosse a gravação do 1o disco, o que tornou-se realidade em 1972 quando dois diretores da gravadora RCA Victor foram a um ensaio dos rapazes ficando impressionados com a qualidade instrumental-vocal e as composições da própria banda, a qual havia optado por cantar e compor em inglês, até porque na época 90% da programação das rádios e TVs era de sucessos internacionais e a MPB não tinha a mesma força atual.
O “PHOLHAS” lança então em setembro de 1972 o LP Dead Faces do qual foi extraido um compacto duplo com as canções My Mistake, Pope, Shadow of love e My first girl, que chegou ao 1o lugar das paradas apenas 3 meses após o lançamento, vendendo a fabulosa quantia de 400.000 cópias!, isto lhes concedeu o primeiro disco de ouro da carreira. Nesta época o grande público chegou a pensar que o “PHOLHAS” fosse um grupo americano, coisa que os rapazes sempre fizeram questão de desmentir explicando que eram apenas 4 brasileiros cantando em inglês a fim de internacionalizar mais suas próprias canções, a exemplo do que também fazem hoje em dia alguns grupos nacionais como o “Sepultura”; a seguir vieram as canções She Made Me Cry, I Never Did Before e Forever, todas com vendagem superior a 300.000 cópias, firmando o “PHOLHAS” como um dos maiores fenômenos no cenário “pop” musical brasileiro o que levou a RCA a lançar o LP Dead Faces, em 1975, na Espanha e em toda América do Sul com o título “HOJAS” dando mais um disco de ouro ao grupo.
veja mais em www.pholhas.com.br
A White Shade of Pale
Pholhas Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And turned cartwheels across the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said "There is no reason...
And the truth is plain to see"
But I wandered through my playing cards
And would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might just as well have been closed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
Pholhas's song "A White Shade of Pale" is a ballad that gives insight into a surreal scenario of a group of people dancing and having fun while the singer struggles to keep up with the pace. The initial verse sets up the scene where the singer is barely able to keep up with the merrymaking that is going on around him. He describes feeling seasick because of the frenetic energy of the dance. Even when he requests for another drink, he is taken aback when the entire ceiling disappears.
Later on in the song, the scenario switches, and the miller tells his fable to everyone gathered around. The singer then notices a woman, whose face had been ghostly before, turned an even whiter shade of pale. She utters there is no reason, and the truth is plain to see, but the singer's mind wanders off to something else entirely. He reminisces about a group of sixteen virgins who were leaving for the coast. Although he could see the women, he might as well have been blind as he paid them no attention. The woman he noticed earlier then appears before him, shaking him back to reality, and once again he sees her face, now whiter than ever.
The songwriters create an atmosphere where it is not easy to discern what is dream and what is reality. The dancing sequence spirals out of control, with lines like "the room was humming harder" and the bizarre phrase "We skipped the light Fandango," giving the lyrics a hallucinatory quality. The verses are packed with images and metaphorical language, making the lyrics fascinating and open to multiple interpretations.
Line by Line Meaning
We skipped the light Fandango
We danced with joy and excitement
And turned cartwheels across the floor
We were carefree and lost in the moment
I was feeling kind of seasick
I was overwhelmed and disoriented
But the crowd called out for more
Despite my unease, the audience wanted to see more
The room was humming harder
The energy in the room was increasing
As the ceiling flew away
The experience became surreal and almost dreamlike
When we called out for another drink
We were trying to escape the reality of the situation
The waiter brought a tray
The waiter provided a temporary distraction from our troubles
And so it was that later
After some time had passed
As the miller told his tale
As a story was being told
That her face at first just ghostly
She appeared pale and sickly at first
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She became even more pale and almost ghostlike
She said "There is no reason...
She declared that there was no logical explanation
And the truth is plain to see"
The truth was evident and undeniable
But I wandered through my playing cards
I was preoccupied and distracted by my own problems
And would not let her be
I refused to confront the situation at hand
One of sixteen vestal virgins
She was one of many innocent and pure individuals
Who were leaving for the coast
They were departing for a new and unknown adventure
And although my eyes were open
I was aware of what was happening around me
They might just as well have been closed
I was emotionally and mentally distant from the situation
And so it was that later
As time passed
As the miller told his tale
As the story continued
That her face at first just ghostly
Her appearance was still pale and sickly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
Her condition became even more severe
Writer(s): Gary Brooker, Keith Reid
Contributed by Callie A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.