From the liner notes...
The Alan Parsons Song Book is an album to give you the
opportunity to enjoy the music of the Alan Parsons Project
played by
The Alex Bollard Assembly
and to accompany these vital musicians on their trip to the exciting experience
of unlimited sound possibilities.
Alan Parsons
(1949) is one of England's most musical phenomenons [sic].
He was so blown away be [sic] hearing the
Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album in
1967, that he applied for and successfully landed a job at
the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.
Parsons worked
with the Beatles on the "Abbey Road" album and continued
his relationship with Paul McCartney, recording "Wild
Life" and "Red Rose Speedway". He also was nominated for
a Grammy Award for recording Pink Floyd's classic "Dark
Side Of The Moon".
In 1974
Alan Parsons met
Eric Woolfson,
who was soon to function as
Alan Parsons' manager and
shortly thereafter as his musical partner.
Alan and
Eric started
The Alan Parsons Project and their explorations into the
sound and structure of symphonic pop music led to several
wonderful albums during the 1970s and the 1980s.
The Project's first album was
"Tales of Mystery and Imagination"
which was
recorded over a two year period. It met with good, though not overwhelming,
public response.
The
"I Robot" album (1977) was a huge success.
Some artists with new and innovative ideas run out of creative fuel
after a time, but The Alan Parsons Project has continued to
evolve and to take their own music higher and further.
Among the Project's best albums are
"Eve" (1979),
"The Turn Of A Friendly Card" (1980)
"Eye In The Sky" (1982),
"Vulture Culture" (1985), and
"Gaudi" (1987).
All pieces in this "Alan Parsons Song Book" are spellbinding,
mindbending, hypnotic. With all their variety - and there is
a huge range of dynamics in the songs, written by
Parsons and
Woolfson
- there is always a sense of unity and peace, nature
and silence and personal thought. It is almost as if
Alan and
Eric had set out to produce
only classics, masterpieces - and
calmly went ahead and did just that.
The wonderfully rich, vibrant sound to
The Alex Bollard Assembly
never had more intrinsically superb material to
apply itself to than on this compact disc. Together the 19
highlights from the Song Book of
Alan Parsons form a
collection of tunes that are indisputably outstanding.
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There are multiple versions of this album...
- The first appears to be the Star Inc. release from Holland.
The artwork on the liner notes as an aerial view of Egypt
over the Nile river along some ancient Egyptian monument.
There is also an image of a nude female torso intertwined
a là the mummy artwork on ToMaI.
- The second is a Dutch release from CNR Music, as part of
the Songbook Series. It specifically states that "this
compilation [is] licensed by Star Inc. Music - Holland".
The artwork on this liner note is an outer-space view,
with a transparent prism with a beam of light emitting
from the left side and exiting to the right in the full
spectrum, a là Dark Side Of The Moon.
- The third is a German release from Arcade consisting of
a different track ordering. The artwork on the front is
a collage with a red pyramid on sandy dunes, a blue/black
road down the left side with a gray sphere. The sky has
swirling clouds, and in the center of a spiraling cloud
is a blue eye (in the sky). This version does NOT have
the liner notes as the other two (Star Inc.) releases.
This is the only release which identifies the players.
- Some versions of this album are entitled "The Musical World
Of Alan Parsons" (and also "El Mundo Musicale De Alan Parsons" thanks
to a cunning reversible cover)
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General notes...
The instrumental pieces are produced by Ed Starink (Star Inc.!).
It is not known whether or not these pieces, which
appear on the Synthesizer Greatest albums in less foreshortened forms, were
performed solely by Ed Starink, or with the help of Alex
Bollard Assembly members. Also, the Star versions
incorrectly identify Ed Starink instead of Alex Bollard as
the producer of track 2.
The second paragraph of the liner notes (above) seems to have
been lifted almost directly from those to be found in
The Best of the Alan Parsons Project.
This album is well worth having (IMO) and is also very cheap.
There is another cover album which seems to be based on this one.
See
The Songs of Alan Parsons.
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This is the cover of the Arcade release, mentioned above.
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