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Parsons Knows

Melody Maker: July 10, 1976
By Harry Doherty

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Who, though, could be blamed for taking two steps backwards when confronted with the title: "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe?" That is the problem Parsons and company will have to surmount if their masterwork is to make the impact in Britain it deserves.

The album is an insight into the life of American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), as seen through the eyes of Parsons and Eric Woolfson, an admirer of Poe's work and at whose instigation The Project (as it was titled during its embryonic stages) was undertaken. The lyric content of the album incorporates many adaptations of Poe's work.

Parsons' musical roots lie in good commercial rock (called "pop" until the Bay City Rollers happened along). One has only to view his list of credits to appreciate this pedigree: assistant engineer on the Beatles' "Abbey Road," engineer on Paul McCartney's first two Wings' albums, "Wildlife" and "Red Rose Speedway," engineer on the Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" and producer of, among others, Cockney Rebel, Pilot, John Miles and Al Stewart.

A pop pedigree if ever there was one, put to excellent use when it came to piecing together "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination," striving for a blend between sturdy lyrical content and popular music, and, after a year's work, succeeding.

Before moving into pop engineering, Parsons worked as a laboratory research assistant with EMI, specializing in television cameras.

His first break came at the Abbey Road studios where, as resident engineer, he was assigned to work with the Beatles on "Abbey Road." His involvement with the band was at a crucial point in their career, when friction between the four members, or at least three of them, McCartney, Lennon and Harrison, was at its height.

"There was one thing really strange about that," Parsons recalled. "After the basic tracks were recorded, you'd never see all four in the studio at the same time. John would be there for a day and then George and so on. They'd just each come in for the tracks they'd written."

"The John and Yoko thing was at its peak and the others' reaction to that was a bit strong. There was a double bed moved into the studio so that Yoko could sit writing letters. Just imagine that. There was this studio full of amplifiers, guitars and all that and in the corner was this double bed."

It was noticeable that when parsons talked of his association with the Beatles, he referred constantly to Harrison, McCartney and Lennon, never mentioning Ringo Starr.

"Well, Ringo's career is rather different." Parsons thinks for a second. "Even I could sense that he was just going along with what everybody else wanted to do. If he made a suggestion or something, the others would say something like, 'Why don't you go and make a record,' which he'd do, partly with George Harrison's help."

Parsons also worked with McCartney at a time when the former Beatle was particularly prone to criticism. His first solo release, "McCartney," hadn't won much praise, and the albums Parsons engineered, "Wildlife" and "Red Rose Speedway," did little to alleviate the cynicism, especially during a spell when Harrison's and Lennon's solo careers were shaping up well.

"I remember thinking with 'Wildlife' that Paul wasn't making such a perfect record that he might have made with the Beatles. It was a good sound but he wouldn't spend quite as long getting guitar solos and harmonies right."

"As a producer, he's fairly demanding. He's often unable to describe what he wants and it's down to experimenting. He'd say: 'I want a better bass sound' and I'd say 'where's the knob on the desk to get it?'"

"Yeah, he was under so much criticism at that time with the other two doing so well and he was possibly overshadowed by them. George had 'All Things Must Pass' and Lennon was doing well with Phil Spector."

"But I've always regarded Paul as musically the cleverest of the four. It's just taste. I prefer the stuff he's done as opposed to the other two."

With the Pink Floyd, Parsons won a Grammy award for his engineering expertise on "Dark Side Of The Moon" and cites his involvement with them as a landmark in his career. After the Floyd experience, he's learned enough to become a producer but has still vivid recollections of Floyd's response to recording.

"They were very, very unenthusiastic about making records. Some of the songs on 'Dark Side Of The Moon' were tremendous, but they just treated it all as just another day of hard work. They'd want to go home and watch football or Monty Python."

"They were the most laid-back people as far as enthusiasm was concerned. I think it was a combination of superstardom and the fact that they were aware the record was their best yet and they knew they were onto a good thing."

Parsons says that if he hadn't worked on the Floyd album, he's sure he wouldn't have been able to step right into production, where his major conquests to date have been Cockney Rebel, John Miles and Pilot.

Of Steve Harley, he says, "I'd heard that he was a strange customer but I found this not to be the case when I worked with him." And of his famed ego: "It's there but I'm still not sure whether he does it as a front for publicity or not. He thrives on knocking other people's music. It's egomania really, on a musical level."

"I think, though, that he is extraordinarily talented, especially as a lyric writer. His way of projecting lyrics through pop is extraordinary. His facial expressions seem to come through on the plastic."

Parsons' involvement with Harley and Rebel ended before the last album, "Timeless Flight," when Steve decided to produce himself. It's also noticeable that the album was a relative flop.

Parsons failed to give Pilot the widespread recognition they desperately sought, and the band recently acquired the services of Roy Thomas-Baker to producer their new album.

"I don't know whether it was on a musical level or whether it was the way they were being promoted. They fell into the teenybop thing and couldn't get out of it. 10cc managed to walk across the bridge to the other side but the strange thing is that in the States when you have a top ten single, as Pilot had, you automatically sell albums."

"There had to be something wrong somewhere when this didn't happen. It's almost inevitable that they'd feel they weren't being produced properly. I obviously don't agree with them."

The loss of Rebel and Pilot has been more than compensated, though, by the addition to Parsons' fold of John Miles, who, despite all the hype that accompanied his entry to the big-time, has earned substantial credibility. Parsons is in no doubt about Miles' ability and says he is easily the greatest artist he has ever produced -- "He's one of the true greats. I think he's the greatest I've ever worked with as a performer. He's so 100 per cent there."