It was the last week of March in 1984 that I became an Alan Parsons Project fan. “Don’t Answer Me” was climbing the charts, eventually becoming a top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. I knew of the Project before that – “Damned if I Do” and “Games People Play” were album rock staples and “Eye in the Sky” had been a huge pop hit (the biggest of the Project’s career) a couple years before. However, I hadn’t plunked down change for an APP album – until that week when I took the leap and grabbed up not just Ammonia Avenue, which featured “Don’t Answer Me,” but also The Best Of collection which had been released just a few months earlier.
A year later I would joyously plump for 1985’s Vulture Culture and a year after that for Stereotomy. As I was prone to do when discovering music in the ‘80s, I started dipping into the back catalog. Beyond the hits, I stumbled across gems like “Old and Wise” and “Turn of a Friendly Card.” Most amusingly though was, in May 1986 when I was anticipating a new album by Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung. I fell in love with this song on the radio that I thought was surely by him. I was wrong – it turned out to be “Breakdown,” from the nearly-decade old APP album I, Robot.
I learned the requisite back story necessary to claim a band as a new favorite. It turns out the Project’s namesake did engineering work on classic albums such as The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. However, Alan Parsons wasn’t alone in the creation of those prog-lite concept albums forged from 1976 to 1987 that sold over 40 million albums worldwide. The group owed as much to Eric Woolfson – a songwriter, keyboardist, singer, and manager who lent his chops to some of the group’s best-known songs such as the aforementioned “Eye in the Sky” and “Don’t Answer Me.”
Following 1987’s Gaudi, the Project disappeared for three years, returning in 1990 with Freudiana. The thing confusingly was not credited to anyone, suggesting that it was a new group called Freudiana. However, this Eric Woolfson-helmed project was clearly the Project with Parsons producing and credits including longtime APP players Ian Bairnson on guitar, Stuart Elliott on drums, and orchestral arrangements from Andrew Powell. John Miles and Chris Rainbow, who’d warbled on past-Project tunes, also put in appearances.
There was something different, though. Peppered with far more guests and stretched to twice the length of the average APP album, this felt more like a musical cast album. Sure enough, there in the liner notes was the statement that “the first stage production of Freudiana has its world premiere in December 1990 in Vienna.” Hmm. This was definitely a new direction for the band.
It proved to be a new direction, but for Woolfson, not Parsons. While Woolfson was eager to explore musical theater, it was the jumping off point for Parsons. The Project was no more. Woolfson went on to craft the musicals Gaudi (1995), Gambler (1996), and Poe (recorded 2003, premiered 2009). He also wrote the music and lyrics for 2007’s Dancing Shadows, which won for Best Musical at the Korean Tony Awards.
This year, I was overjoyed to stumble across The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was, an album from Woolfson that combined some unreleased material from the Project days alongside songs crafted for his musicals. Sadly, it would be Woolfson’s finale. As I scanned the various comments on Facebook this morning about who was headed off to work and who needed coffee and who wasn’t enjoying the weather, I stopped sharply upon a fan notice: Eric Woolfson had died of cancer at the age of 64 on December 2, 2009 – a date that will now, sadly, overshadow that wonderful week in March 1984 when I became a fan. Farewell, Eric. You will be missed.
“Somewhere in the midst of time/ When they ask you if you knew me
Remember that you were a friend of mine
As the final curtain lifts before my eyes/ When I’m old and wise.”
- “Old and Wise” – Alan Parsons Project
Click here to hear an early version of the song that featured Eric Woolfson’s guide vocal.
Also check out my page on the detailed history of the Alan Parsons Project as well as the solo work of Parsons and Woolfson at DavesMusicDatabase.com.
DavesMusicDatabase.com is devoted to ranking, rating, and reviewing music of all genres and eras. The DMDB blog serves up album and song reviews, best-of lists, music history snapshots, and music-related essays.
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Showing posts with label Gaudi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaudi. Show all posts
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 1987
Alan Parsons Project Gaudi released
Gaudi |
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Released: February 7, 1987 Peak: 57 US, 66 UK, 53 CN, 61 AU Sales (in millions): -- Genre: progressive rock lite |
Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.
All tracks written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson. The ‘v’ after the song listing indicates who does lead vocals. Total Running Time: 38:39 The Players:
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Rating:  3.273 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings)
Awards: (Click on award to learn more).
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About the Album: This was the last Alan Parsons Project studio album, although Parsons would continue to work with Eric Woolfson and release albums under his own name. “True to form, they took on one last big theme;” DV this time the album draws inspiration from the unfinished Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona which was designed by Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi, who died in 1926. Unfortunately, the album “lack[s] the assertiveness or the instrumental endowments that usually occur within the Alan Parsons Project's work.” AMG “The songs…have difficulty supporting any imagery or symbolism concerning the album’s main character, which was done masterfully more than ten years earlier with Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a musical voyage through Edgar Allen Poe’s work. Here, the songs stand up well individually, but Parsons is a conceptual virtuoso who usually ties together his main idea through the use of each separate song. Although Gaudi isn't without some minor merit, its lasting impression doesn’t leave much regard for its central character.” AMG One plus: “unlike the previous two Project discs (Stereotomy and Vulture Culture), Gaudi has an orchestra again, arranged by Andrew Powell, and it grabs the center stage…early and refuses to let go. This results in a disc that really sounds like Parsons again: rich, sweeping, cinematic, and really, really well produced.” DV “The usual lineup of Miles, Woolfson, Zakatek, and Rainbow share the singing duties, with Geoff Barradale taking over on Standing on Higher Ground.” AMG “With a leaner, edgier sound” AMG this “straight-ahead power rock piece [is] driving and upbeat” DV and the best representation of “the easiness and touch that should have enveloped this album.” AMG “La Sagrada Familia is a magnum opus with powerful vocals by John Miles.” DV The song ranks as one of the Project’s best non-singles ever crafted. “Too Late is an oddly bittersweet song about unfinished love.” DV Money Talks “is the closest to hard rock the Project ever got, and includes at least one amusing dig at the music industry (‘Billboard, Cashbox / Money talks...’).” DV Like “In the Real World” on 1986’s Stereotomy, this song has the feel of a shoulda-been-album-rock hit. “The two Requisite Eric Woolfson-Voiced Attempts At American Soft Rock Chart Success (Closer to Heaven and Inside Looking Out) fall somewhat flat.” DV “The album does reveal some passion with the last track, Paseo de Gracia, a finely orchestrated instrumental done exquisitely in full Parsons style” AMG and featuring “a lovely piece of flamenco guitar.” DV “Gaudi would be the last heard from Alan Parsons…until 1993. It was an interesting way to go out, and leaves one wondering, once again, what would have happened if Arista Records had stopped meddling. Like Gaudi’s cathedral, it’s a work of art that has to be experienced to be enjoyed.” DV Notes: The 2008 remaster included alternate versions of “Too Late,” “Standing on Higher Ground,” “Money Talks,” “Closer to Heaven,” “Paseo de Gracia,” and “La Sagrada Familia.” |
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First posted 3/24/2008; last updated 9/23/2021. |
Saturday, January 24, 1987
Alan Parsons Project “Standing on Higher Ground” charted
 | Standing on Higher GroundThe Alan Parsons Project |
Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson (see lyrics here) First Charted: January 24, 1987 Peak: 3 AR, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.64 video, -- streaming |
Awards:Click on award for more details. 
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About the Song:1987’s Gaudi proved to be the last hurrah for the Alan Parsons Project. The group, helmed by Parsons and singer/songwriter Eric Woolfson, launched in 1976 with Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Despite never touring, the Project built a following through their well-produced conceptual albums that traversed progressive-rock-lite territory. Songs such as “Damned if I Do” and “Games People Play” became staples at album rock radio. After peaking with 1982’s “Eye in the Sky,” a #3 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, the Project’s commercial appeal waned. 1984’s Ammonia Avenue produced two top-40 hits, but “Let’s Talk About Me” from 1985’s Vulture Culture only reached #56. “Stereotomy,” the lead single from the 1986 album of the same name, barely scraped the charts at #82. Those songs, however, did show the band still had a following at album-rock radio as they all reached the top 10 there. “Standing on Higher Ground” and “Prime Time,” from 1984’s Ammonia Avenue, were the most successful, each reaching #3. Still, Gaudi was the lowest charting album of the Project’s career, peaking at #57. “Standing on Higher Ground” “seems to be about enlightenment, both its advantages and pitfalls.” SF However, since album “is a tribute to celebrated architect Antoni Gaudi…perhaps it refers to him and his work.” SF Many singers have taken the mike for Alan Parsons Project and this time it was Geoff Barradale of the band Vitamin Z. He would later manage the Arctic Monkeys. Resources:
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First posted 7/6/2022. |
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