Are they a metaphor for something? Just a simple confusing tale? Drugged-out nonsense? Anyone?
It’s about the same subject as “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”
Yeh, but, ‘Vestil Virgins’ had me running to an encyclopedia all those years ago. I learned somethin’.
Seriously, Keith Reid’s lyrics often were designed to be evocative, not descriptive. “Homburg” was an attempt to create a song similar to “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” so it was filled with images that had no real meaning (other than being great images).
Other Procul Harum songs that were just images and didn’t describe anything include “A Christmas Camel,” “Outside the Gates of Cerdes,” and “She Wandered Through the Garden Fence.” Other songs have something of a story to them, but are filled with bizarre imagry. Asking what they mean is missing the point, and answering the question only diminishes the art.