Alan Parsons Project The Sicilian Defence released

The Sicilian Defence Alan Parsons Project

Released: March 23, 2014 Recorded: 1979 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock lite

Tracks: Song Title [time] P-K4 [5:00] P-QB4 (aka “Elsie’s Theme”) [6:22] Kt-KB3 [3:07] Kt-QB3 [1:15] P-Q4 [3:54] PxP [3:27] KtxP [4:01] Kt-B3 [0:53] Kt-QB3 [8:16] P-Q3 [3:30] All tracks composed by Eric Woolfson. Total Running Time: 39:52 The Players: Alan Parsons (keyboards, synthesizer, programming, producing, engineering) Eric Woolfson (piano)

Rating: 2.444 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings)

About the Album: In 1979, the Alan Parsons Project were exhausted and ready for a break. However, their record company, Arista, set release dates for the band’s third and fourth albums. The Project responded by recording two albums at once. Parsons said in 2013 that they told the label, “These are your last two albums. Now give us a new deal.” WK The first of these, Eve, received a 1979 release date. The second, The Sicilian Defence, was not as well received. Named after a chess move, the album was a collection of instrumentals recorded on the spot in three days instead of the usual months it took them to craft an album. OS There is some discrepancy as to whether the material was recorded in 1979 or 1981, but the stories seem to point more to 1979. In an event, the songs were “produced rather lazily and poorly written on purpose as to figuritively raise the middle finger to Arista.” LM The album was really a collection of “incomplete sketches that were never fleshed out into proper songs, and whose titles follow a particular variation of the ches opening for which the album was named. WK The record company was reportedly “so horrified by the results that they stashed it away in their vaults, never to be released.” LM Parsons himself said it was “created with very little effort or enthusiasm” LM and that “it doesn’t have the polish or finesse that all the albums that were released previously had. It’s really not up to the standard of the real Project albums.” WK In 2005, he said “it 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.” WK Of course, the hype machine kicked in for fans of the Project who wanted to hear every scrap produced by the group. The album gained a “reputation for being a musical joke, or even a display of musical hooliganry.” OS Fans may have been led to believe that “Alan and Eric had really let their hair down on this one, making something of a [Beatles’] ‘Revolution No. 9,’ or of a Metal Machine Music,” OS the infamous Lou Reed album many cite as unlistenable. As such a work would have been very uncharacteristic of the usual polish associated with the Project, it naturally created “an atmosphere of intrigue.” OS However, an edited version of P-QB4 was retitled as Elsie’s Theme and included on the 2008 reissue of Eve. The original is one of the longest tracks and “has the prettiest melody on the album, nocturnal and elegant, that may deserve salvation, even if six minutes is still overkill.” OS In 2014, the full album was released as part of the 11-CD box set The Complete Albums Collection. There was nothing “atonal or rebellious or hooliganish” OS about the album. It consists of “a bunch of instrumental numbers – all of them rhythmic, usually set to simple drum machine patterns, all of them played either on synthesizer or on piano, all of them probably largely improvised, but mostly in standard keys, using standard chords, and generating the usual melancholic aura associated with the Project. Nothing particularly exciting and nothing particularly awful.” OS The longest track on the album, Kt-QB3, “mainly consists of one single jazzy theme looped on endless repeat, and could, perhaps, work as a rhythm part for a more elaborate composition, but nothing else.” OS There are other tracks which sound like, “say, an early underworked demo for Pink Floyd’s ‘On the Run’…and others sounding like equally underworked demos for the Project’s own stuff, usually with one or two basic mu¬sical ideas per track.” OS Parsons said in 2016, “I’m happy that it’s fulfilling a need to document, historically, the entire catalog of the Alan Parsons Project, but it’s not our finest hour by any stretch of the imagination.” WK Certainly “it ain’t [Bob Dylan’s] Blonde on Blonde where composing and recording on the-spot are concerned” OS but it is “interesting to hear…what kinds of things Parsons could come up with when working on autopilot.” OS Notes: This appears to only be available as a part of the 11-CD box set The Complete Albums Collection.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Alan Parsons Project LM Lost Media Archive “The Alan Parsons Project ‘The Sicilian Defense’ (Found Unreleased 1979 Album)” OS Only Solitaire (6/12/2014) WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 9/24/2021.

Alan Parsons Project “Damned if I Do” charted

Damned if I Do The Alan Parsons Project

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Alan Parsons Project Eve released

Eve Alan Parsons Project

Released: August 27, 1979 Peak: 13 US, 74 UK, 10 CN, 14 AU, 2 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Genre: progressive rock lite

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Lucifer [5:09] You Lie Down with Dogs [3:45] I’d Rather Be a Man [3:52] You Won’t Be There [3:37] Winding Me Up [4:00] Damned if I Do [4:50] Don’t Hold Back [3:36] Secret Garden [4:40] If I Could Change Your Mind [5:49] Total Running Time: 39:23 The Players: Alan Parsons (producing, engineering) Eric Woolfson (keyboards, executive producing) Ian Bairnson (guitar, backing vocals) David Paton (bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) Stuart Elliott (drums, percussion, backing vocals) Andrew Powell (orchestral arrangements) Duncan Mackay (keyboards) Lesley Duncan, Chris Rainbow, Clare Torry, Dave Townsend, Lenny Zakatek (vocals)

Rating: 3.271 out of 5.00 (average of 17 ratings)

The Project’s Fourth Album The two primary members of the Alan Parsons Project, Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, worked with a slew of session musicians and vocalists over the years to craft a “cultivated respect via a small-but-loyal cult audience: sci-fi geeks, audiophiles, musicians into ‘the craft,’ and basically anyone with a decent pair of headphones or an expensive stereo system.” SS On their fourth album, 1979’s Eve, they matched the top-30, gold-selling status of previous album, 1978’s Pyramid. This album, however, spawned the group’s biggest hit to date – “Damned if I Do” – which reached #27 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Polarizing Album Perhaps no album polarizes the Alan Parsons Project fan more than this one. “One camp believes that it’s the worst thing that Parsons ever put together…Another camp believes it’s a misunderstood masterpiece. Fascinatingly enough, this may be one of those rare situations where both are half-true.” DV On one hand, you can find comments like “Eve…involves some of this group’s most intricate songs” AM that “are highly entertaining with catchy rhythms and intelligent lyrics. Musically, the tempo appealingly switches back and forth from slow to quick, as does the temperament of the album.” AM On the other hand, you’ll find comments like “Eve offers plenty of sonic grandeur [but] the lyrics are almost clumsy and sententious enough to give sex a bad name.” RS Even more brutal is the claim that “Eve is perhaps the worst engineered Project CD, for starters, its sound muddy and shallow in places…The drums lack punch in most cases, a sad undermixing of talented drummer Stuart Elliot, and David Paton’s bass work is little more than average.” DV The Concept There is an equally polarized view of the merits of the concept. One description calls this one of the Project’s “finest marriages of both concept and music.” AM It says the theme “deals with the female’s overpowering effect on man. Each song touches on her ability to dissect the male ego, especially through sexual means, originating with Eve’s tempting Adam in the beginning of time. Not only does this idea gain strength as the album progresses, but a musical battle of the sexes begins to arise through each song.” AM Look around, though, and you’ll find a very different opinion: “Eve purports to be a song cycle evoking Woman, yet the portrait thrown up by this 3-D space-rock oratorio is of some whory Victorian witch in a leather headdress flicking her garter belt and hissing curses. ‘I’d rather be a man than sin my soul like you do,’ announces David Paton, playing one of the LP’s four male accusers. ‘You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas,’ spits another. That about sums up Eve’s sexual politics. When it’s finally Woman’s turn to reply — Woman gets only two cuts to Man’s four — she’s made to whine about being lonely.” RS "On…I Robot, the Alan Parsons Project’s bombastic and synthesized orchestral pop rock proved to be a nifty idiom for exploring man-machine myths. But the more human the theme, the more inappropriate such a style becomes. And how much more human can you get than a concept album concerned with sex?” RS With such differing opinions, it is hard to draw a conclusion. Personally, I consider this one the Project’s weaker efforts musically, lyrically, and conceptually that started with an idea that could have been one of their best works. With the Project’s affinity for using a number of vocalists, this could have been a much more interesting (and balanced) study of relationships between man and woman with an attempt to see both points of view. Having said that, the individual songs are not completely without merit, even if the overall theme slips into a woman-bashing fest. Conclusion In the end, one must accept that “Eve…is neither as great as some claim, or as bad as some others insist. Alan Parsons, with or without Eric Woolfson, is one of the most underrated and original voices in progressive rock history, but even he has some misses. Eve has to be counted as one, recommended for only the completist and the fan.” DV Reissue A 2008 reissue added demos and rough mixes of six of the song from the album along with an edited version of “Elsie’s Theme” from The Sicilian Defence, an album recorded by the Project in 1979 but not released until 2014. The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Lucifer Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson Vocals: NA (instrumental) Released: single (August 1979), Eve (1979) B-side: “I’d Rather Be a Man” Peak: 50 CL Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 6.05 streaming About the Song: "The dominating fury of Lucifer, a powerful instrumental” AM opener, “may be the best instrumental Parsons recorded in the seventies, if not all time; its driving keyboard line and eerie Morse code intro is hypnotic.” DV

You Lie Down with Dogs Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson Vocals: Lenny Zakatek Released: B-side of “Damned if I Do” (9/29/1979), single (US, March 1980), Eve (1979) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.93 streaming About the Song: “The loutish ‘You Lie Down with Dogs’ bears wit with its gender inclined mud-slinging.” AM This was Lenny Zakatek’s third appearance on an Alan Parsons Project album. He most notably took the lead on their top-40 hit “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” from 1977’s I Robot.

I’d Rather Be a Man Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson Vocals: David Paton Released: B-side of “Lucifer” (August 1979), Eve (1979) Peak: 36 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.75 streaming About the Song: David Paton, formerly of the band Pilot, had worked with the Alan Parsons Project on their three previous albums as a bassist and backing vocalist. He took the lead on the single “What Goes Up…” from the previous album, Pyramid, and takes the reins again here on “I’d Rather Be a Man.”

You Won’t Be There Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson Vocals: Dave Townsend Released: single (US, January 1980), Eve (1979) B-Side: “Secret Garden” Peak: 36 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.95 streaming About the Song: “The gorgeous ‘You Won’t Be There’” AM “is a sweet, lyrical ballad, plainly illustrating Parsons’ connection with more single-oriented bands like Ambrosia.” DV The song “spotlights man's insecurity. Sung by Dave Townshend, its melodramatic feel sets a perfect tone.” AM

Winding Me Up Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson Vocals: Chris Rainbow Released: Eve (1979) Peak: 36 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.02 streaming About the Song: “The classically enhanced Winding Me Up follows suit, based on a woman's ability to dominate her mate and opening up with sound of a wind-up doll being cranked.” AM Both “funny and catchy,” DV it “may be the most underrated song in the Parsons catalog.” DV

Damned if I Do Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson (see lyrics here) Vocals: Lenny Zakatek Released: single (9/29/1979), Eve (1979) B-side: “You Lie Down with Dogs” Peak: 27 BB, 30 CB, 28 GR, 28 HR, 25 R, 10 CL, 16 CN, 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1.55 video, 3.59 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The best-known song, and highpoint of Eve, is album rock staple “Damned If I Do.” It was the group’s third top-40 album and highest chart hit yet, reaching #27 on the Billboard Hot 100. As Richard Challen says on the Spandex & Synths website, “it was an early indication of things to come.” SS Throughout the Alan Parson Project’s history, they leaned on a number of vocalists – as many as fifteen on the first four albums alone. SS This “bitter but forceful [gem] sung by Lenny Zakatek” AM may be the best rocker the Project ever created. At the time, he was with the group Gonzalez, who had a disco hit with “Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet.” However, he had already worked with the Project on the previous two albums and was “dubbed ‘The Voice’ of the Project in certain circles.” SS After all, of the group’s twelve singles released from 1977 to 1980, he sings on the three that hit the top 40. That included this song, 1977’s “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” and the top-20 hit “Games People Play” in 1980. Apart from the album, this comes across as just another man lamenting a rocky relationship; in the context of the album, though, it plays into the overly bitter “why do women treat women this way” vibe.

Don’t Hold Back Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson Vocals: Clare Torry Released: Eve (1979) Peak: 34 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.55 streaming About the Song: This song features session singer/songwriter Clare Torry, whose best-known work was as the female vocalist on Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky” on their 1973 masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon. Of course, Alan Parsons worked as an engineer on that album. In fact, he was the one who recommended her for “The Great Gig in the Sky.”

Secret Garden Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson Vocals: NA (instrumental) Released: B-side of “You Won’t Be There” (US, January 1980), Eve (1979) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.66 streaming

If I Could Change Your Mind Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson Vocals: Lesley Duncan Released: Eve (1979) Peak: 36 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.94 streaming About the Song: If I Could Change Your Mind “is wistful, elegant, and spare, a brilliant ballad with a rare female lead” DV by Lesley Duncan. Unfortunately, the effect isn’t quite the same on the album’s other female lead vocal. “Not even Clare Torry, the ethereal yodeler on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, can save Don’t Hold Back.” DV

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Mike DeGagne DV DailyVault.com review by Duke Egbert RS Rolling Stone review by Stephen Holden (originally in print issue 306) SS Spandex & Synths (3/23/2020). Review by Richard Challen. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/24/2008; last updated 9/27/2025.