Alan Parsons interviewed by Prog magazine Editor Jerry Ewing about his 1980 album, The Turn of A Friendly Card.
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00:00Obviously Turn of a Friendly Card is coming out as a reissue, when you go back and listen to
00:17something like that what's your feelings about it? We of course had a lot of single success
00:26on Turn of a Friendly Card. We had two fairly big singles, Games People Play and Time. It was Eric's debut as a singer. I'd not let him loose on the vocal mic for a master take before then.
00:44He didn't do too bad in the end of the season.
00:46He did really well and I'm never allowed to forget that it was clearly a mistake that I forbade him from singing until that point.
00:56He ended up singing other hits like Don't Answer Me and Primetime was another one he sang.
01:08Yeah, I mean, it's been great to revisit it. It's interesting to hear Eric's, what we call his songwriting diaries, which were the initial moments, you know, the initial plucking the ideas out of thin air for the songs.
01:30And then they make an interesting chronicle. And there's a couple of my own instrumental demos as well.
01:38And it gives, you know, especially to a projectologist, as we call them, it gives a little insight into how the album came together.
01:50This was the first big commercial breakthrough, really, because you said the hits, wasn't it, for the band.
01:56And 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?
02:08It was amazing. I mean, there's a story I've told it occasionally of going to Tower Records in Hollywood.
02:22It's no longer there, unfortunately, but arguably one of the most famous record stores in the world, right there in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard.
02:31And I walked in there because I was short of copies for promotion.
02:38I walked in and bought four copies of iRobot, four copies of Tales of Mystery Imagination, four copies of Pyramid,
02:45plunked them down on the desk, gave them my credit card and said, yes, sir, fine.
02:50Can I see some IG, please?
02:53So, amazing. So, yeah, I mean, I've reveled in being unrecognized.
03:02And, you know, the fact is, we vowed that we were a studio outfit.
03:08We said we're not going to go out and play live, which was actually a huge mistake, I think.
03:13I think if we'd taken the plunge and said that we would go out and play live, we could have been as big as anybody.
03:20However, given the longevity that the project and you yourself as a musician since have the enduring appeal still,
03:31do you think that perhaps, had you have gone sort of done what you thought you said you weren't going to do,
03:39perhaps we wouldn't almost be sat here now talking about Turn of a Friendly Card.
03:43I mean, I know it's so hypothetical, but there is a chance that that could have blown the mystique in a way.
03:49I mean, the fact that because you were so unique as, because there really weren't that many sort of,
03:56what was seen as studio projects.
03:58You know, I mean, I'm sure there were people that probably didn't think Alan Parsons was a person.
04:03It was just the, you know, that maybe what's endured wouldn't have endured quite the way it has.
04:12I think there was, there was strength in our mystique and I believe that to this day.
04:19But if I hadn't gone on the road, I'd be broke now, I think.
04:24It's, you know, with the record business the way it is.
04:27I mean, as a fan, getting to see you perform these great songs is terrific.
04:33I mean, I just love it and I'm not the only one.
04:36What was it like for you though being able to suddenly, was it sort of breaking free?
04:41It's like finally I'm on stage doing, you know.
04:43Well, you know, I'm no virtuoso.
04:47I mean, I can play keyboards and guitar well enough to put a song together.
04:53But, and I'm okay as a rhythm guitarist.
04:56But the last time I played lead guitar was in this blues band in the 60s.
05:01So, I mean, I really pretty much, when I came to work here at Abbey Road,
05:07I pretty much hung up my guitar for, you know, blew the dust off many years later.
05:12But, I concentrated on the studio career rather than the musician career.
05:18But, hey, the first tour was magical.
05:21I mean, standing on a stage, playing the songs, getting the reaction.
05:26Beyond belief experience for anyone.
05:30So you'll really enjoy it?
05:32Oh yeah, love it.
05:33It's a pity we don't see you more often over here, I have to say.
05:37Funnily enough, our level of success in the UK is nothing like what it does.
05:41In mainland Europe and in places like South America and Mexico.
05:46You know, we have a huge following in those places.
05:50The UK somehow, from the live market, is eluded.
05:55There's one thing we were talking about before you came in,
05:58was that the way that the Alan Parsons project has just sort of ingrained itself
06:02into sort of like the cultural psyche in a kind of bizarre way.
06:07Like, Sirius is such a popular song that's used in American sport on TV,
06:13the Mike Myers films and, you know, it's like,
06:17I mean, you must sort of kind of enjoy that.
06:21But it must be a bit bizarre as well.
06:23It's a little bizarre, yes.
06:26I mean, Sirius was not written as a sports theme and yet, you know,
06:31it seems to be used by just about every basketball team in America for walk-on music.
06:36It was used also by the New Orleans Saints at their successful win at the Super Bowl a few years back.
06:49It was just written as an intro for Eye in the Sky, not as anything else.
06:53So, yeah, strange.