Information AboutAlan Parsons |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ALAN PARSONS | |
| english record producers | |
| audio engineers | |
| people from london | |
| british expatriates in the united states | |
| 1948 births | |
| living people | |
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He began his musical career as a staff engineer at EMI Studios, and first garnered significant industry exposure via his work on the Beatles ' 1969 masterpiece '' Abbey Road ''. Parsons subsequently worked with Paul McCartney on several of Wings ' earliest albums; he also oversaw recordings from Al Stewart , Cockney Rebel , Pilot , Ambrosia , and the Hollies , but solidified his reputation by working on Pink Floyd 's '' Dark Side Of The Moon ''. Alan Parsons was known for going beyond what one would consider the normal scope of a recording engineer. He considered himself to be a recording Director and was known to compare what he did with albums to what Stanley Kubrick did on film. This is obvious in his work with Al Stewart's " Year Of The Cat ", where Parsons added the Saxophone part and transformed the original folk concept into the Jazz influenced Ballad that put Al Stewart onto the charts. It is also seen in Parson's influence on the Hollies " He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother " and " The Air That I Breathe ", sharp departures from their 60s pop "Stay", "Just One Look", "Stop, Stop, Stop", "Bus Stop" , or "It's In His Kiss" . Although an accomplished Vocalist and Flutist , Parsons only sang infrequent and incidental parts on his albums. Recordings featuring his Flute are virtually unknown. Influenced by his work on Stewart's concept album '' Time Passages '', Parsons decided to begin creating his own thematic records; along with songwriter Eric Woolfson , he soon founded The Alan Parsons Project . Although Parsons played keyboards and infrequently sang on his records, the Project was designed primarily as a forum for a revolving collection of vocalists and session players — among them Arthur Brown , ex-Zombie Colin Blunstone , Cockney Rebel 's Steve Harley , the Hollies ' Allan Clarke and guitarist Ian Bairnson — to interpret and perform Parsons and Woolfson's conceptually-linked, lushly-synthesized music. The Project debuted in 1976 with '' Tales Of Mystery And Imagination '', a collection inspired by the work of Edgar Allan Poe . The album was remixed for release on CD and includes narration by Orson Wells which was left off the vinyl version. Similarly, the science fiction of Isaac Asimov served as the raw material for 1977's follow-up '' I Robot ''. With 1980s '' The Turn Of A Friendly Card '', a meditation on gambling, the Alan Parsons Project scored a Top 20 hit, " Games People Play ". 1982's '' Eye In The Sky '' was their most successful effort, and notched a Top Three hit with its title track. While 1984's '' Ammonia Avenue '' went gold, the Project's subsequent LPs earned little notice, although records like 1985's '' Vulture Culture '' and 1987's '' Gaudi '' found favor with longtime fans. Following the breakup of The Project, he went on to create several solo albums:
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