A Salty Dog

A Salty Dog is the 3rd studio album by English progressive rock band Procol Harum, originally released in 1969. The album has an ostensibly nautical theme, as indicated by it's cover (a pastiche of the famous Player's Navy Cut cigarette pack). A Salty Dog showed a slight change of direction from it's predecessors, being thematically less obscure. The title track itself was their first track with an orchestra, as would be referred to in the live album performance some three years later. In his retrospective review, Bruce Eder of AllMusic wrote, 'This album was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or it's successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range', calling the title track 'one of the finest songs ever to come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock ever heard'.