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, Tournament of Friendly Cards is coming out as a reissue now, when you go back
00:17and listen to something like that, what's your feelings about it?
00:22We of course had a lot of single success on Tournament of Friendly Cards. We had two fairly
00:30big singles, Games People Play and Time. It was Eric's debut as a singer. I'd not let
00:38him loose on the vocal mic for a master take before then.
00:44He didn't do too bad in the end, did he?
00:46He did really well. I'm never allowed to forget that it was clearly a mistake that I forbade
00:54him from singing until that point. He ended up singing other hits like Don't Answer Me
01:01and Primetime was another one he sang. It's been great to revisit it. It's interesting
01:17to hear Eric's songwriting diaries, which were the initial moments, the initial plucking
01:28the ideas out of thin air for the songs. They make an interesting chronicle. There's
01:35a couple of my own instrumental demos as well. It gives, especially to a projectologist as
01:44we call them, it gives a little insight into how the album came together.
01:50This was the first big commercial breakthrough, because you said the hits, wasn't it, for
01:56the band? And yet, as you say, you also can still walk into Tesco and not get noticed.
02:02What was that like, having big, massive success, and yet no one knew who you were?
02:11It was amazing. There's a story, I've told it occasionally, of going to Tower Records
02:22in Hollywood. It's no longer there, unfortunately, but arguably one of the most famous record
02:28stores in the world, right there in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard. I walked in there because
02:35I was short of copies for promotion. I walked in and bought four copies of iRobot, four
02:41copies of Tales of Mystery and Imagination, four copies of Pyramid, plunked them down
02:46on the desk, gave them my credit card and said, yes sir, fine, can I see some ID, please?
02:58So yeah, I've reveled in being unrecognized. The fact is, we vowed that we were a studio
03:07outfit. We said, we're not going to go out and play live, which was actually a huge mistake,
03:13I think. If we'd taken the plunge and said that we would go out and play live, we could
03:18have been as big as anybody.
03:20However, given the longevity that the project and you, yourself as a musician, since have
03:28the endearing appeal still, do you think that perhaps, had you done what you said you weren't
03:38going to do, perhaps we wouldn't almost be sat here now talking about Don't Have A Friendly
03:42Card. I know it's hypothetical, but there is a chance that could have blown the mystique
03:48in a way. The fact that because you were so unique, because there really weren't that
03:55many what was seen as studio projects. I'm sure there were people that probably didn't
04:01think Alan Parsons was a person, it was just the name. That maybe what's endured wouldn't
04:09have endured quite the way it has.
04:13I think there was strength in our mystique, and I believe that to this day. But if I hadn't
04:21gone on the road, I'd be broke now, I think. It's with the record business the way it is.
04:29As a fan, getting to see you perform these great songs is terrific. I just love it, and
04:35I'm not the only one. What was it like for you being able to suddenly, was it sort of
04:40breaking free, it's like finally I'm on stage doing...
04:43Well you know, I'm no virtuoso. I can play keyboards and guitar well enough to put a
04:52song together, and I'm okay as a rhythm guitarist, but the last time I played lead guitar was
04:59in this blues band in the 60s, so I really pretty much, when I came to work here at Abbey
05:06Road, I pretty much hung up my guitar for it. Blew the dust off many years later, but
05:14I concentrated on the studio career rather than the musician career. But hey, the first
05:20tour was magical. Standing on a stage, playing the songs, getting the reaction. Beyond belief
05:29experience really.
05:30So you really enjoy it?
05:31Oh yeah, love it.
05:32It'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 is in mainland
05:43Europe and in places like South America and Mexico. We have a huge following in those
05:50places. The UK somehow, from the live market, is elusive.
05:56One thing we were talking about before you came in was the way that The Outer Pastures
06:00Project has ingrained itself into the cultural psyche in a bizarre way. Sirius is such a
06:08popular song to be used in American sport, on TV, the Mike Myers films. You must kind
06:20of enjoy that, but it must be a bit bizarre as well.
06:25It's a little bizarre, yes. Sirius was not written as a sports theme, and yet it seems
06:32to be used by just about every basketball team in America for walk-on music. It was
06:37used also by the New Orleans Saints at their successful win at the Super Bowl a few years
06:47back. It was just written as an intro for Eye in the Sky, not as anything else. So,
06:54yeah, strange.