The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was

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Eric Woolfson sings The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was
The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was.jpeg
Studio album by
Released April 6, 2009
RecordedOctober 2008
Genre Progressive rock
Length42:51
Label Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Limelight Records
Producer Eric Woolfson
Eric Woolfson chronology
Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination
(2003)
Eric Woolfson sings The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was
(2009)
Professional ratings
Review scores
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Eric Woolfson sings The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was is an album by the progressive rock musician Eric Woolfson, co-creator with Alan Parsons of The Alan Parsons Project, as well as main songwriter and manager of the band. Released in 2009, this was Woolfson's final album before he died of cancer in December of that year. [2] The album includes songs that remained unreleased since the Project time for various reasons; however, as Woolfson himself remarks in the booklet, Parsons' dislike for some of Woolfson's compositions would have often caused them to be excluded from a Project album in its very early stages - such as, for example, "Steal Your Heart Away", an "unashamedly commercial" song with a conventionally sentimental lyric, which Parsons, in Woolfson's words, would have absolutely detested. [3] "Somewhere in the Audience" and "Immortal" are slightly re-arranged and re-recorded versions of two of Woolfson's demos for his 2003 musical about Edgar Allan Poe; the final versions of these songs, sung by the musical's protagonist Steve Balsamo, are featured on the album Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination . "Train to Wuxi" was the original version of "Train to Freedom", which is also included (with different lyrics) in the Poe musical and features Woolfson's one and only guitar solo.

Contents

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Eric Woolfson

  1. "Golden Key" - 4:12
  2. "Nothing Can Change My Mind" - 4:00
  3. "Rumour Goin' Round" - 4:39
  4. "Any Other Day" - 3:08
  5. "I Can See Round Corners" - 5:15
  6. "Steal Your Heart Away" - 3:20
  7. "Along the Road Together" - 3:21
  8. "Somewhere in the Audience" - 4:36
  9. "Train to Wuxi" - 4:19
  10. "Immortal" - 6:02

Personnel

Personnel as listed on CD booklet:

Notes
Bairnson, Elliott and Paton are all former members of The Alan Parsons Project. Their parts on "Any Other Day" and "Rumour Goin' Round" were recorded respectively in 1982 and 1985 during sessions for the band's albums Eye in the Sky and Stereotomy , as the two tracks are outtakes from those albums (the latter also features multi-instrumentalist Richard Cottle, who joined the band in 1984); Bairnson's guitars on "Along the Road Together" and "Somewhere in the Audience" were played and recorded in 2009 at his home studio in Marbella, Spain, as a personal favour to Woolfson. [4]

Related Research Articles

The Alan Parsons Project

The Alan Parsons Project were a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson. They were accompanied by a varying number of 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 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".

<i>Tales of Mystery and Imagination</i> (Alan Parsons Project album) 1976 studio album by The Alan Parsons Project

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Ian Bairnson is a Scottish musician, best known for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project. He is a multi-instrumentalist, who has played saxophone and keyboards, although he is best known as a guitarist. He is also known for preferring the sound of a sixpence to a plectrum.

David Paton

David Paton is a Scottish bassist, guitarist and singer. He first achieved success in the mid-1970s as lead vocalist and bassist of Pilot, who scored hits with "Magic", "January", "Just a Smile" and "Call Me Round" before splitting in 1977. Paton is also known for his work in the original lineup of The Alan Parsons Project (1975-1985), and for working with acts such as Kate Bush, Camel and Elton John.

"(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether" is a 1976 single by The Alan Parsons Project which first appeared on their album Tales of Mystery and Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe. The single reached number 37 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 62 in Canada. Like the other songs on the album, it is based on a story by American author Edgar Allan Poe, in this case "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" (1845); the song was written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, and was originally recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London in September 1975. The 1987 reissue featured a "cathedral organ".

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References

  1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Review: Woolfson Sings the Alan Parsons Project That Never Was". Allmusic . Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  2. Musician Eric Woolfson dies aged 64
  3. Eric Woolfson's notes on CD booklet.
  4. Quoted on CD booklet.