Eve | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 1979 | |||
Recorded | December 1978–June 1979 | |||
Studio | Super Bear Studios | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 39:23 | |||
Label | Arista | |||
Producer | Alan Parsons | |||
The Alan Parsons Project chronology | ||||
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Singles from Eve | ||||
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Eve is the fourth studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in September 1979 by Arista Records. The album's focus is on the strength and characteristics of women, and the problems they face in the world of men. [2] It had originally been intended to focus on "great women in history", but evolved into a wider concept. [2] The album name was the same as Eric Woolfson's mother-in-law. [3]
Eve is the Alan Parsons Project's first album with singer Chris Rainbow. The album's opening instrumental "Lucifer" was a major hit in Europe, and "Damned If I Do" reached the US Top 40, peaking at No. 27, and reaching No. 16 in Canada. [4] "Lucifer" also is used as title track for the German political TV show Monitor.
The album features two different kind of morse codes. At the beginning is a piece of morse code randomly taken from short wave when the album was produced. It can be - as far as the transmission is audible - translated as "...West European cities and marches by millions in eng Egyptian president Anwar Sadat...". Anwar Sadat was in the news all over the world at the time when the album was made. In several press releases, the following text can be found: "On March 27, the Arab world protested the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty with bombs in Israel and Paris, Palestinian demonstrations in West European cities and marches by millions in Baghdad and Damascus denouncing Egyptian President Anwar Sadat as a traitor". It looks like the morse code is a part of this release and perhaps edited in the studio due to a missing part, since there is no pause. On another channel you can hear something like a call sign from a coast radio station in Senegal "VVV de 6WW".
Further on in the song, the name "Eve" is repeated on keyboard in morse code.
The gatefold cover art for Eve by Hipgnosis features three women wearing veils (two on the front, one on the reverse), with their faces partially in shadow. The shadows and veils partially conceal disfiguring scars and sores (the lesions were not real, however [5] ). Controversy over the disfiguring of the models' faces brought comment from Eric Woolfson, "The cover seemed a mis-match to me. It was a brilliant cover from Hipgnosis, but it didn't reflect my thinking at all, or relate to what is made clear on the Record." [3]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
Christgau's Record Guide | D [7] |
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | [8] |
Rolling Stone | [9] |
Smash Hits | 8/10 [10] |
The Globe and Mail wrote that, "like its trio of predecessors, Eve has occasional moments of melodic splendor punctuated by lengthy periods of accompaniment for riding elevators." [11]
Elsie's theme from "The Sicilian Defence" (the project that never was) was from an experimental album entitled "The Sicilian Defence". Recorded at the same time as Eve, the album was not released at the time. [3] "Lucifer (Demo)" was recorded in a beachfront apartment in Monaco. [3]
All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.
No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length |
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1. | "Lucifer" | (Instrumental) | 5:09 |
2. | "You Lie Down with Dogs" | Lenny Zakatek | 3:47 |
3. | "I'd Rather Be a Man" | David Paton | 3:53 |
4. | "You Won't Be There" | Dave Townsend | 3:34 |
5. | "Winding Me Up" | Chris Rainbow | 4:04 |
Total length: | 20:27 |
No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Damned If I Do" | Zakatek | 4:50 |
2. | "Don't Hold Back" | Clare Torry | 3:37 |
3. | "Secret Garden" | Rainbow | 4:41 |
4. | "If I Could Change Your Mind" | Lesley Duncan | 5:49 |
Total length: | 18:57 |
Eve was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:
Two of the lead singers on the album, Clare Torry and Lesley Duncan, previously performed on Alan Parsons' signature engineering work, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon .
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Canada (Music Canada) [26] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
Germany (BVMI) [27] | Gold | 400,000 [28] |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [29] | Gold | 7,500^ |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [30] | Gold | 50,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [31] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
The Alan Parsons Project were a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompanied by varying session musicians and some relatively consistent session players such as guitarist Ian Bairnson, arranger Andrew Powell, bassist and vocalist David Paton, drummer Stuart Elliott, and vocalists Lenny Zakatek and Chris Rainbow. Parsons and Woolfson shared writing credits on almost all of the Project's songs, with Parsons producing or co-producing all of the band's recordings.
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973 by Harvest Records in the UK and Capitol Records in the US. Developed during live performances before recording began, it was conceived as a concept album that would focus on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle, and also deal with the mental health problems of the former band member Syd Barrett, who departed the group in 1968. New material was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at EMI Studios in London.
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) is the debut studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project. It was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom by Charisma Records and 20th Century Fox Records in the U.S. The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of the same name.
On Every Street is the sixth and final studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 9 September 1991 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The follow-up to the band's massively successful album Brothers in Arms, On Every Street reached the top of the UK Albums Chart and was also certified platinum by the RIAA.
Delicate Sound of Thunder is a live album by the English band Pink Floyd. It was recorded over five nights at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, in August 1988, during their A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour, and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in September 1988. It was released on 21 November 1988, through EMI Records in the UK and Columbia Records in the US.
Ammonia Avenue is the seventh studio album by the British progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in February 1984 by Arista Records. The Phil Spector-influenced "Don't Answer Me" was the album's lead single, and reached the Top 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts, as well as the fourth position on the Adult Contemporary chart. The single also reached the Top 20 in several countries and represents the last big hit for the Alan Parsons Project. "Prime Time" was a follow-up release that fared well in the Top 40, reaching No. 34. "You Don't Believe" was the first single in November 1983, reaching #54 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Since the Last Goodbye" was a minor hit.
Eric Norman Woolfson was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and co-creator of the band the Alan Parsons Project, who sold over 50 million albums worldwide. Woolfson also pursued a career in musical theatre.
I Robot is the second studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released on 8 July 1977 by Arista Records. The album draws conceptually on author Isaac Asimov's science fiction Robot stories, exploring philosophical themes regarding artificial intelligence. It was re-released on vinyl and cassette tape in 1984 and on CD in 2017.
Eye in the Sky is the sixth studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in May 1982 by Arista Records. At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards in 1983, Eye in the Sky was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album. In 2019, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
Pyramid is the third album by progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released in May 1978. It is a concept album centred on the pyramids of Giza. At the time the album was conceived, interest in pyramid power and Tutankhamun was widespread in the US and the UK. Pyramid was nominated for the 1978 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
The Turn of a Friendly Card is the fifth studio album by the British progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1980 by Arista Records. The title piece, which appears on side 2 of the LP, is a 16-minute suite broken up into five tracks. The Turn of a Friendly Card spawned the hits "Games People Play" and "Time", the latter of which was Eric Woolfson's first lead vocal appearance. An edited version of the title piece combining the opening and ending parts of the suite was also released as a single along with an official video.
Stereotomy is the ninth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1985.
Vulture Culture is the eighth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1985 via the Arista label.
Gaudi is the tenth album by The Alan Parsons Project, released in 1987. Gaudi refers to Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan Spanish architect, and the opening track references what is probably Gaudí's best known building, the Sagrada Família.
On Air is the second solo studio album by English rock musician Alan Parsons. The album's chief creative force was the Alan Parsons Project's long-time guitarist, Ian Bairnson. Its concept revolves around the history of airborne exploration.
The Time Machine is the third solo album by English rock musician Alan Parsons.
A Valid Path is the fourth solo album by English rock musician Alan Parsons. The record was released on 24 August 2004 via Artemis label.
Alan Parsons is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician and record producer.
The Best of the Alan Parsons Project is a 1983 greatest hits compilation by the Alan Parsons Project. In addition, it contained a new song "You Don't Believe", which would be included on the next Project album, Ammonia Avenue. In 1986, it had become the first album of the group to be released in the Soviet Union, although the song "Psychobabble" was removed from it. No songs from Tales of Mystery and Imagination were included, presumably because that album had not been released through Arista.
The Sicilian Defence is the twelfth and final studio album by The Alan Parsons Project, released in 2014. It was named after the Sicilian Defence, a famous chess opening. Having been released 24 years after the split of the band, it has so far only been available as part of the eleven-CD box set The Complete Albums Collection. In December 2023, it was made available for download purchase and on streaming sites.