The Alan Parsons Project: The Turn of A Friendly Card

Louder

Alan Parsons interviewed by Prog magazine Editor Jerry Ewing about his 1980 album, The Turn of A Friendly Card.

Transcript

00:00Obviously Turn of a Friendly Card is coming out as a reissue, you know when you go back

00:17and listen to something like that what's your feelings about it? We of course had a lot of

00:25single success on Turn of a Friendly Card, we had two fairly big singles, Games People Play and Time.

00:33It was Eric's debut as a singer, I'd not let him loose on the vocal mic for a master take before

00:43then. He didn't do too bad in the end of the season. He did really well and I'm never allowed to forget

00:50that it was clearly a mistake that I forbade him from singing until that point.

00:58Yeah and he ended up singing other hits like Don't Answer Me and

01:06Prime Time was another one he sang.

01:07Yeah I mean it's been great to revisit it, it's interesting to hear Eric's what we call his

01:20songwriting diaries which were the you know the initial moments you know the initial plucking the

01:28ideas out of thin air for the songs and then they make an interesting chronicle and there's a couple

01:35of my my own instrumental demos as well and it gives an uh you know especially to a a projectologist

01:44as we call them um it gives a little insight into how the how the album came together together.

01:50This was the first big commercial breakthrough really and you know because you said the hits

01:54wasn't it for the band and yet as you say you also can still walk into Tesco and not get noticed.

02:01What was that like you know having big big massive success and yet no one knew who you were?

02:10It was it was amazing I mean uh I I there's a there's a story um I I've told it occasionally of uh

02:20tower uh going to tower records in Hollywood it's no longer there unfortunately but uh the arguably one

02:27of the most famous record stores in the world um right there in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard and I

02:32walked in um there because I was short of copies for promotion I walked in and bought four out four

02:40copies of iRobot four copies of Tales of Mystery Imagination four copies of Pyramid plunked them down on

02:46the desk gave gave them my credit card and said yes sir fine can I see some IG please so

02:56amazing so yeah I mean I I've I've reveled in being unrecognized and you know the fact is we we

03:05we vowed that we were a studio outfit we we we we said we're not going to go out and play live which

03:11was actually a huge mistake I think I think if we if we'd uh taken the plunge and said that we would

03:17go out and play live we could have been as big as anybody. However given the longevity that that the

03:24the project and you yourself as a musician since have the enduring appeal still do you think that

03:32perhaps had you have gone sort of done what you thought you said you weren't going to do perhaps we

03:40wouldn't almost be sat here now talking about turn of a friendly card I mean it's I know I know it's

03:44so hypothetical but there is a chance that that could have blown the mystique in a way I mean the

03:50fact that because you were so unique as because there really weren't that many sorts what was seen as

03:57studio projects you know I mean I'm sure there were people that probably didn't think Alan Parsons was a

04:03person it was just the name you know that that that maybe what what's endured wouldn't have endured

04:10quite the way it it has. I think there was there was strength in our mystique and I believe that to

04:19this day but if I hadn't gone on the road I'd be broke now I think it's uh you know with the record

04:26business the way it is yeah. I mean yeah as a fan getting to see you perform these great songs is

04:33terrific I mean I just love it and I'm not the only one um yeah what was it like for you though being

04:39able to suddenly was it sort of breaking free it's like finally I'm on stage doing you know well you

04:44know um I'm I'm no virtuoso I I mean I I can play keyboards and and guitar well enough to to put a song

04:52together but uh and I'm I'm okay as a rhythm guitarist but uh um the last time I played lead guitar was in

04:59this blues band in the 60s so I mean I I really uh pretty much when I came to work here at Abbey Road

05:07I pretty much hung up my uh guitar for you know blew the dust off many years later but uh I I concentrated

05:15on on the studio career around the musician career but hey the first tour was was magical I mean

05:22standing on the stage playing the songs uh getting the reaction uh uh beyond belief experience for

05:30anyone. Do you still really enjoy it? Oh yeah love it. It's a pity we don't see you more often over here

05:35I have to say. Funnily enough uh our level of success in the UK is nothing like what it is in in

05:42mainland Europe and in places like uh South America and Mexico you know we we have a huge following in

05:50those places something the UK somehow from the live market is eluded. There's one thing we were

05:56talking about for you before you came in was that the the way that the Alan Parsons project has just

06:01sort of ingrained itself into sort of like the cultural psyche in a kind of bizarre way that like

06:07Sirius is such a popular song because it's used in in American sport on tv the the the Mike Myers films and

06:16you know it's like does that I mean you must sort of kind of enjoy that but it must be a bit bizarre as

06:22well. It's it's a little bizarre yes um I mean Sirius was not written as a sports theme and yet and yet

06:31you know it seems to be used by just about every basketball team in America for for walk-on music

06:36um it was used uh also by the New Orleans Saints at the uh their successful uh quite uh win for the

06:46at the Super Bowl a few years back um not it was just written as an intro for Eye in the Sky not as

06:52anything else so uh yeah strange

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