This week I was watching Rick Beato interviewing Alan Parsons who is now in his 70s. A remarkable man who must be one of the few producers to go on to have hit records as an artist. Though he was beaten to it by Norman ‘Hurricane’ Smith, who was also a Pink Floyd producer, like Alan.
His insights were fascinating, having engineered at Abbey Road and worked with The Beatles and Pink Floyd, being the engineer on Dark Side Of The Moon and others, like Ambrosia, an American prog band, and Al Stewart’s Year Of The Cat.
But it’s his time with the Alan Parsons Project which really interests me today. If you think about 70s progressive rock it tends to be a strident, often complex, often classically informed artform but APP were a different hybrid. Softer and often more romantic and often instrumental. They released their first album in 1976 Tales of Mystery and Imagination which made #56 in the UK and #38 in the USA. I was in the fifth form at the time and don’t really remember it, unlike follow-up I Robot with its distinctive Hypnosis cover and label. Having your own artwork on the label was a real sign of credibility. It sold a million in America, got to #9 and #26 in the UK. The sci-fi nature of the cover attracted a lot of us and it was, by and large, more laid back and thoughtful than many.
The cast of musicians on all albums is huge. Eric Woolfson, Parson’s partner, was a struggling songwriter for many years and sings some of the songs. I remember thinking it must be a concept album, which appealed to me, but I had no idea what about. Despite selling well, some of my peer group hated it and saw it, in the age of punk, as emblematic of everything that was wrong. Thinking it was sleepy and a bit smug. I disagreed profoundly, but in fact, though they sold 50 million, critically, they were widely panned. And that’s my main memory of them around the turn of the decade. This kind of keyboard-led instrumentals were very much not the fashion and they faded from my life until 1982. Meanwhile, they were busy being massive in America with the next three albums being top 30 and top 20 on the album chart.
It was when the single Eye In The Sky was released that I sat up and noticed them again.
Although not a hit in the UK, it was a #3 in America and the album #7 and #27 in the UK and the single seemed to get a lot of airplay. I was very taken with it and bought the album. Colin Blunstone was brought in to sing the gorgeous ballad ‘Old And Wise’ with tremendous melody and emotion. It scraped in to the UK chart at #74 but wasn’t released stateside. Sirius from that album is apparently used at sporting events in America, which seems odd, considering the music. It’s very commonplace.
The next album did even better at #24 in the UK. Ammonia Avenue took ICI Billingham chemical works as inspiration for the cover which was near where I lived. The industry did look like the digestive system of a robot.
They released 11 albums in total, sold over 50 million records but were never fashionable. Alan was nominated for 14 Grammy’s and earned an OBE. Their class remains undiluted by the passing years.
Alan Parsons - a remarkable man...
