 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2009) |
| Vulture Culture | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 15 February 1985 | |||
| Recorded | May – July 1984 | |||
| Studio | Abbey Road Studios, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 37:59 | |||
| Label | Arista | |||
| Producer | Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson | |||
| The Alan Parsons Project chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Rolling Stone | [2] |
Vulture Culture is the eighth studio album by the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1985 via the Arista label.
The first side of the LP (CD tracks 1–4) consists entirely of four-minute pop songs, and the second side varies widely, from the subdued funk of the title track to the bouncing instrumental "Hawkeye".
At the beginning of 1985, the lead single "Let's Talk About Me" reached the Top 40 in Germany (where the album was No. 1 [3] ), in Switzerland (where Vulture Culture was No. 2) and in the Netherlands. [4] The song features voice-over commentary from Lee Abrams, credited on the album as "Mr. Laser Beam" (an anagram of his name).
In the charts, Vulture Culture was a success in continental Europe, often reaching the Top 10, [5] and in Oceania; whereas it was less successful in North America. It was the last album by the band to be certified Gold.
The song "Hawkeye" is an instrumental but does contain a line from Monica, a woman working at the canteen in Abbey Road Studios. The line she says is: "Only what's on the menu".
This is the only Project album that does not feature the orchestration of Andrew Powell.
Vulture Culture was the last Project album recorded on analogue equipment, and as with the previous two, mixed directly to the digital master tape.
All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.
| No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Let's Talk About Me" | David Paton | 4:29 |
| 2. | "Separate Lives" | Eric Woolfson | 4:38 |
| 3. | "Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)" | Chris Rainbow | 4:52 |
| 4. | "Sooner or Later" | Eric Woolfson | 4:24 |
| No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Vulture Culture" | Lenny Zakatek | 5:22 |
| 2. | "Hawkeye" | (Instrumental) | 3:48 |
| 3. | "Somebody Out There" | Colin Blunstone | 4:54 |
| 4. | "The Same Old Sun" | Eric Woolfson | 5:26 |
Vulture Culture was remastered and reissued in 2007 with the following bonus tracks:
| Chart (1984–85) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report) [7] | 32 |
| Canada RPM [8] | 25 |
| Italian Albums ( Musica e Dischi ) [9] | 17 |
| Norway | 9 |
| Spanish Albums (AFYVE) [10] | 2 |
| UK Albums Chart | 40 |
| US Billboard 200 | 46 |
| Chart (1985) | Rank |
|---|---|
| Canada [11] | 94 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada) [12] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| Germany (BVMI) [13] | Gold | 250,000^ |
^ 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.
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.
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.
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. It had originally been intended to focus on "great women in history", but evolved into a wider concept. The album name was the same as Eric Woolfson's mother-in-law.
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.
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.
Freudiana is a rock opera by Eric Woolfson. It was to be the 11th album by the Alan Parsons Project, but during its development, Woolfson had creative differences with Alan Parsons. The production, released in 1990, utilizes the Project's personnel as well as many guest vocalists. Alan Parsons later began his career as a solo artist with his 1993 album Try Anything Once, which was musically in a direction more or less continued from that of the Project's 1987's Gaudi.
"Eye in the Sky" is a song by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released as a single from their sixth studio album, Eye in the Sky (1982), in May 1982. It entered the US Billboard charts on 3 July and hit No. 3 in October 1982, No. 1 in both Canada and Spain, and No. 6 in New Zealand, becoming their most successful release. The instrumental piece entitled "Sirius" segues into "Eye in the Sky" on the original recording.
"The Raven" is the first song by the Alan Parsons Project, recorded in April 1976 at Mama Jo's Studio, North Hollywood, Los Angeles. It is the second track on their debut album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, which is a tribute to author and poet Edgar Allan Poe. Though the song is based on Poe's poem of the same name, and is almost a verbatim recital of the lyrics of the poem, Poe is not given song writing credit. It is credited to Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.
"Time" is a song released in 1981 as a single by the Alan Parsons Project. It was from their 1980 album The Turn of a Friendly Card. In the U.S., the song peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart, "Time" peaked at #10. In addition, "Time" spent two weeks at #14 on Cash Box, making it the group's second most successful single. Cash Box ranked it as the 94th biggest hit of 1981. Outside the US, the song peaked at #30 in Canada.
The Essential Alan Parsons Project is a compilation album released by English progressive rock musician Alan Parsons and The Alan Parsons Project on 6 February 2007. It was released through Sony BMG as part of The Essential album series. The album featured some of the band's best known songs as well as some rare tracks.
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. 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. "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 in the Poe musical and features Woolfson's one and only guitar solo.
Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination is an album by Eric Woolfson. It contains some, but not all, of the songs from his musical Edgar Allan Poe.
"I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" is a song by the British progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project, featured on their 1977 album I Robot. Written by band leaders Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" was sung by pop singer Lenny Zakatek, who would go on to sing many of the band's songs. In the United States, the song was a moderate success and charted at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Don't Answer Me" is a 1984 song by the Alan Parsons Project from the album Ammonia Avenue. It reached number 15 on the Billboard charts in the United States and was the final Billboard Top 20 hit for the group. It also reached number 58 in the United Kingdom, the group's highest chart placing in their native country. The music video was rendered in comic book style, with art and animation by Michael Kaluta.
