The Alan Parsons Project

The Alan Parsons Project were a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990,[1] whose core membership consisted of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson. They were accompanied by a varying number of session musicians and some relatively consistent band members such as guitarist Ian Bairnson, arranger Andrew Powell, bassist and vocalist David Paton, drummer Stuart Elliott, and vocalists Lenny Zakatek and Chris Rainbow. Parsons was an audio engineer and producer by profession, but also a musician and a composer. A songwriter by profession, Woolfson was also a composer, a pianist, and a singer. Almost all the songs on the Project's albums are credited to "Woolfson/Parsons".

The Alan Parsons Project
Background information
OriginLondon, England
Genres
Years active1975–1990
Labels
Associated acts
Websitewww.The-Alan-Parsons-Project.com
Past membersAlan Parsons
Eric Woolfson

The Alan Parsons Project released eleven studio albums in its 15-year career (the twelfth, The Sicilian Defence, was originally recorded in 1979 and released in 2014), including the successful I Robot and Eye in the Sky. Some of their most notable songs are "The Raven", "(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether", "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", "Games People Play", "Time", "Snake Eyes", "Sirius"/"Eye in the Sky", "Old and Wise", and "Don't Answer Me".

Career

1974–1976: Formation and debut

Alan Parsons met Eric Woolfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1974. Parsons acted as Assistant Engineer on the Beatles' albums Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970), engineered Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), and produced several acts for EMI Records.[2] Woolfson, a songwriter and composer, was working as a session pianist while composing material for a concept album based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe.[3]

After Parsons asked Woolfson to become his manager, he managed Parsons's career as a producer and engineer through a string of successes, including Pilot, Steve Harley, Cockney Rebel, John Miles, Al Stewart, Ambrosia, and the Hollies.[2] At the time, Parsons was frustrated by accommodating the views of some of the musicians he felt interfered with his production. Woolfson came up with the idea of making an album based on developments in the film industry -- the focal point of the films' promotion shifted from film stars to directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. If the film industry was becoming a director's medium, Woolfson felt the music business might well become a producer's medium.[4]

Recalling his earlier Edgar Allan Poe material, Woolfson saw a way to combine his and Parsons's talents. Parsons produced and engineered songs written and composed by the two, and the first Alan Parsons Project was begun. The Project's first album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976), released by 20th Century Fox Records and included major contributions by all members of Pilot and Ambrosia, was a success, reaching the Top 40 in the US Billboard 200 chart.[2] The song "The Raven" featured lead vocals by the actor Leonard Whiting. According to the 2007 re-mastered album liner notes, this was the first rock song to use a digital vocoder, with Alan Parsons speaking lyrics through it, although others such as Bruce Haack pioneered this field in the previous decade.

1977–1990: Mainstream success and final releases

Arista Records then signed the Alan Parsons Project participants for further albums. Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Project's popularity continued to grow. (However, the Project was always more popular in North America, Ibero-America, and Continental Europe than in Parsons's home country, never achieving a UK Top 40 single or Top 20 album).[5] The singles "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", "Games People Play", "Damned If I Do", "Time" (the first single to feature Woolfson's lead vocal) and "Eye in the Sky" had a notable impact on the Billboard Hot 100. "Don't Answer Me" became the Project's last successful single in the United States; it reached the top 15 on the American charts in 1984. After those successes, however, the Project began to fade from view. There were fewer hit singles, and declining album sales. 1987's Gaudi would be the Project's final release, though it had planned to record an album called Freudiana (1990) next.

The musical Freudiana

Even though the studio version of Freudiana was produced by Parsons (and featured the regular Project backing musicians, making it an 'unofficial' Project album), it was primarily Woolfson's idea to turn it into a musical. This eventually led to a rift between the two artists. While Parsons pursued his own solo career and took many members of the Project on the road for the first time in a successful worldwide tour, Woolfson went on to produce musical plays influenced by the Project's music. Freudiana, Gaudi, and Gambler were three musicals that included some Project songs like "Eye in the Sky", "Time", "Inside Looking Out", and "Limelight". The live music from Gambler was only distributed at the performance site in Mönchengladbach, Germany.

The Sicilian Defence

In 1979, Parsons, Woolfson, and their record label Arista, had been stalled in contract renegotiations when the two submitted an all-instrumental album tentatively titled The Sicilian Defence, named after an aggressive opening move in chess, arguably to get out of their recording contract. Arista's refusal to release the album had two known effects: the negotiations led to a renewed contract, and the album was not released at that time.

The Sicilian Defence was our attempt at quickly fulfilling our contractual obligation after I Robot, Pyramid, and Eve had been delivered. The album was rejected by Arista, not surprisingly, and we then renegotiated our deal for the future and the next album, The Turn of a Friendly Card. The Sicilian Defence album was never released and never will be, if I have anything to do with it. I have not heard it since it was finished. I hope the tapes no longer exist.

— Alan Parsons[6]

In interviews he gave before his death in 2009,[7] Woolfson said he planned to release one track from the "Sicilian" album, which in 2008 appeared as a bonus track on a CD re-issue of the Eve album. Sometime later, after he had relocated the original tapes, Parsons had completely changed his mind about the album and announced that it would finally be released on an upcoming Project box set called The Complete Albums Collection in 2014 for the first time as a bonus disc.[8]

Alan Parsons's solo career

Parsons released titles under his name; these were Try Anything Once (1993), On Air (1996), The Time Machine (1999), A Valid Path (2004) and The Secret (2019). Meanwhile, Woolfson made concept albums titled Freudiana (1990), about Sigmund Freud's work on psychology, and Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination (2003); this continued from the Alan Parsons Project's first album about Edgar Allan Poe's literature.

Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976) was re-mixed in 1987 for release on CD, and included narration by Orson Welles recorded in 1975, but arrived too late to be included on the original album. For the 2007 deluxe edition release, parts of this tape were used for the 1976 Griffith Park Planetarium launch of the original album, the 1987 remix, and various radio spots. All were included as bonus material.

Sound

The band's sound is described as progressive rock,[9][10] art rock,[10] progressive pop,[9] and soft rock.[11] "Sirius" is their best-known and most-frequently heard of all Parsons/Woolfson songs. It was used as entrance music by various American sports teams, notably by the Chicago Bulls during their 1990s NBA dynasty. It was also used as the entrance theme for Ricky Steamboat in pro wrestling of the mid-1980s. In addition, "Sirius" is played in a variety of TV shows and movies including the BBC series Record Breakers, the episode "Vanishing Act" of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and the 2009 film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Vocal duties were shared by guests to complement each song. In later years, Woolfson sang lead on many of the group's hits, including "Time", "Eye in the Sky", and "Don't Answer Me". The record company pressured Parsons to use him more, however Parsons preferred to use polished proficient singers; Woolfson admitted he was not in that category. In addition to Woolfson, vocalists Chris Rainbow, Lenny Zakatek, John Miles, David Paton, and Colin Blunstone are regulars.[2] Other singers, such as Arthur Brown, Steve Harley, Gary Brooker, Dave Terry a.k.a. Elmer Gantry, Vitamin Z's Geoff Barradale, and Marmalade's Dean Ford, recorded only once or twice with the Project. Parsons sang lead on one song ("The Raven") through a vocoder and backing on a few others, including "To One in Paradise". Both of those songs appeared on Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976).

A variety of musicians worked with the Alan Parsons Project regularly, contributing to the recognizable style of a Project song despite the varied singer line-up. With Parsons and Woolfson, the Project consisted of the group Pilot, with Ian Bairnson (guitar), David Paton (bass) and Stuart Tosh (drums).[2] Pilot's keyboardist Billy Lyall contributed. From Pyramid (1978) onward, Tosh was replaced by Stuart Elliott of Cockney Rebel. Bairnson played on all albums, and Paton stayed almost until the end. Andrew Powell appeared as arranger of orchestra (and often choirs) on all albums except Vulture Culture (1985); he was composing the score of Richard Donner's film Ladyhawke (1985). This score was partly in the Project style, recorded by most of the Project regulars, and produced and engineered by Parsons. Powell composed some material for the first two Project albums. For Vulture Culture and later, Richard Cottle played as a regular member on synthesizers and saxophone.

Alan Parsons Live Project, June 1998 (distinct from the Alan Parsons Project live)

The Project played live only once during its original incarnation because Woolfson and Parsons held the roles of writing and production, and because of the technical difficulties of re-producing on stage the complex instrumentation used in the studio. In the 1990s, musical production evolved with the technology of digital samplers. The one occasion the band was introduced as 'The Alan Parsons Project' in a live performance was at Night of the Proms in October 1990 (prior to their break-up, they haven't played much since their dissolution), featuring all Project regulars except Woolfson, present behind the scenes, while Parsons stayed at the mixer. Except the last song, he played acoustic guitar.

Since 1993, a new version of the band toured with Parsons performing acoustic guitar, keyboards, and vocals, with various line-ups. This latest incarnation was called Alan Parsons, later renamed the Alan Parsons Live Project to be distinct from 'The Alan Parsons Project', due to Parsons' break-up with Woolfson. This version includes lead singer P.J. Olsson, guitarist Jeffrey Kollman, drummer Danny Thompson, keyboardist Tom Brooks, bass guitarist Guy Erez, vocalist and saxophonist Todd Cooper, and guitarist and vocalist Dan Tracey. In 2013, Alan Parsons Live Project played Colombia with a full choir and orchestra (the Medellin Philharmonic) as 'Alan Parsons Symphonic Project'. A 2-CD live set and a DVD version of this concert were released in May 2016.

Members
Official members
Notable contributors

Discography
Main article: The Alan Parsons Project discography

Studio albums

Compilations
  • The Philharmonia Orchestra Plays the Best of The Alan Parsons Project (1983 – orchestral album by Andrew Powell)
  • Ladyhawke (1985 – soundtrack by Powell, produced and engineered by Parsons)
  • Freudiana (1991 – Austrian Original Cast Musical Soundtrack, virtually a solo Woolfson project)

The Simpsons episode "Homerpalooza" features Homer explaining 1970s rock music to Lisa, Bart, and Milhouse: "Grand Funk Railroad paved the way for Jefferson Airplane, clearing the way for Jefferson Starship. The stage was set for the Alan Parsons Project, which I believe was some sort of hovercraft."

In the 1999 movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the weapon Dr. Evil installed on the moon is referred to as 'The Alan Parsons Project', then his son Scott Evil makes fun of him for trying to be hip by using the name of the band and other 80s references.

References
  1. "Alan Parsons – Bio FAQ Discography". Alanparsonsmusic.com. Archived from the original on 12 December 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  2. Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 729–730. ISBN 1-84195-017-3.
  3. "History @". The-alan-parsons-project.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  4. Vare, Ethlie Ann (15 March 1986). "Parsons' Latest Project - 'Stereotomy': Wide-Range Personality". Billboard. p. 76. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  5. "Alan Parsons Project". Official Charts. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  6. "Alanparsonsmusic.com". Alanparsonsmusic.com. 20 December 1948. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  7. "Eric Woolfson on Facebook". Facebook.com. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
  8. Mansfield, Brian (14 February 2013). "Alan Parsons on the road again". USA Today. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
  9. Wilson, Rich. "Alan Parsons Project: "I think we were part of the punk rebellion"". Team Rock. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  10. Houle, Zachary (3 December 2013). "The Alan Parsons Project: I Robot (Legacy Edition)". PopMatters. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  11. Stuessy, Joe (1990). Rock and Roll: Its History and Stylistic Development. Prentice Hall. p. 380. ISBN 0-13-782426-2.
  12. John Miles, Laurence Cottle, Ian Bairnson, Contributed to The Alan Parsons Project Archived 31 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
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