ALAN PARSONS: TALES…(RARE SEALED MFSL/LOW # 0053)

$

101

THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT

TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION – EDGAR ALLAN POE

MOBILE FIDELITY SOUND LABS 1-204

ANADISC 200

LOW# 0053

STILL SEALED!

This MFSL Anadisq 200 heavy vinyl Half Speed re-issue is a piece of musical history and is the only audiophile pressing of this classic recording.

• MFSL provides the highest level of recorded sound available
• Virgin Vinyl significantly reduces background noise
• Half-Speed production and Mastering by Original Masters
• Specially plated and pressed on 200 grams of Hi-Def Vinyl
• Special Static Free Dust Free Inner Sleeve
• Heavy Duty Still Sealed Protective Packaging

 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Audiophile Records are not simply luxury, they are the best vinyl ever stamped and essential to maximizing your system.... 

ALL LONG OUT OF PRINT.

You will be one of the last to own this MFSL Limited Edition sonic gem especially in this "low numbered 53 pressing".

Review

This "project," led by former Beatles engineer Alan Parsons, was recorded at Abbey Road and featured a session group including Terry Sylvester and Arthur Brown (he of the "Crazy World"). It made its first and best album (if not its most popular one) by interpreting the ominous poems and stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Heavy on synthesized keyboards and dramatic choral parts, it's rock soundtrack music minus the film. The group went on to make a series of similar followups, notably including I Robot and Eye in the Sky, but this is the place to start. * * * *

- William Ruhlmann, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

The Alan Parsons Project: Tales of Mystery and Imagination – Edgar Allan Poe

After Dark Side of the Moon, Parsons continued his successful run in production and engineering, working on projects by Pilot ("Magic") and Cockney Rebel ("Judy Teen," "Mr. Soft"), whose songs topped the UK pop charts. He also spun the dials on the first two Ambrosia albums, and earned a second Grammy® nomination for his efforts. "Immediately after the Floyd experience, I became a pop record producer. The album I made with Ambrosia was very prog-rock, I also did their second album called Somewhere I've Never Traveled. The structure of the Pilot song 'Magic' I believed paved the way for my future work with the Project. People have said to me that 'Magic' was unmistakably my work, and if it hadn't had such poppy lyrics, it might have been on a future Project album."

Even though by now Parsons was one of England's top producers, success on the pop charts didn't equate to success in his bank account, and after a chance meeting with another Abbey Road resident, songwriter Eric Woolfson, Parsons decided to form his own performing group - a group unlike any other in rock music history. "When the success with Cockney Rebel and Pilot came, I had two consecutive #1 records on the UK charts, and I had no money in the bank, so I thought something was wrong. I had met Eric through his production work at Abbey Road, and he said to me, 'if you ever need a manager, I'm here - and by the way, I have a couple of songs I'd like you to consider.' At that point, I decided that I was going to be the first producer to have a manager. And those songs became the background of the first Project album."

Like Parsons, Eric Woolfson also worked at Abbey Road. While under the employ of Andrew Loog Oldham, Woolfson's songs had been covered by such artists as Marianne Faithfull and Chris Farlowe. "The only big hit that I had at that time," said Woolfson, "was a #1 in France, where you can sell a lot there and nobody outside of France ever hears of it. The song was 'Sole,' and it won a song festival in 1971. Because of my association with Andrew Loog Oldham, I saw the Rolling Stones around the office from time to time – at one stage Mick Jagger asked me to teach him how to play the piano."

The two men shared ideas for a concept album of their own, based on the works of writer Edgar Allan Poe. As they talked, the concept grew into songs and lyrics and melodies. Before long, Parsons and Woolfson had scripted out an entire album, and signed a recording contract with 20th Century Records. Joining their collective was arranger Andrew Powell, who had previously founded the live electronics group Intermodulation, as well as such prog-rock groups as Come to the Edge and Henry Cow.

The completed album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination featured a cornucopia of singers and musicians, many of whom had worked with Parsons in the past. The group Ambrosia played on several songs, John Miles sang lead on two tracks, including the Top 40 song "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" (20th Century 2297), while Arthur Brown resurrected his "Crazy World" persona to add his vocals to "The Tell-Tale Heart." Actor Orson Welles even added a narrative introduction to the album (it was recorded too late too make the initial release, but was restored when Tales of Mystery and Imagination was re-mixed and re-released in 1987).

"When we did the Tales album," said Woolfson, "we were experimenting with recording sounds using a dummy head with microphones in its ears. The dummy head had hair on it, and this recording engineer would come in and brush its hair. Anyway, it was August in London I recall, and we wanted to get the effect of thunder and lightning through recording on the dummy head. And the weather was hot everywhere, when suddenly in St. John's Wood, where Abbey Road Studios was, there was a flash storm, and there was thunder and lightning right there. We opened the back doors of the studio, rushed out with the dummy head to record with it, and the rain was coming down so hard, it hit on the rubber of the dummy head and it wouldn't record properly. David Paton, the bass player and I, we got a hold of a sheet, and we stood outside in the pouring rain, holding a sheet over this rubber head, waiting for some thunder and lightning. Suddenly there was this most enormous flash of lightning and peal of thunder, and we both burst out laughing - which completely ruined the recording. We did get some other thunder that was later used on the Tales album, though."

The album was credited to "The Alan Parsons Project," an encompassing sobriquet in which the leader was Parsons himself, as engineer, producer and co-songwriter - similar in calling the works of the O'Jays and the Three Degrees the "Gamble and Huff Project." And when the Tales of Mystery and Imagination album was a success, staying on the album charts for nearly a year, Parsons and Woolfson signed a long-term deal with Arista Records for their next recording collaboration.

Tracks:

Side 1

1. A Dream Within A Dream [instrumental] – 3:43
2. The Raven – 4:01
3. The Tell-Tale Heart – 4:40
4. The Cask of Amontillado – 4:29
5. (The System Of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether – 4:15

Side 2

1. The Fall of the House of Usher [instrumental] - 15:04
   a)      Prelude – 5:51
   b)      Arrival – 2:36
   c)      Intermezzo – 1:06
   d)      Pavane – 4:44
   e)      Fall – 1:07
2. To One in Paradise – 4:14

SHIPPING COSTS ARE PER EBAY ESTIMATES – PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DISCUSS OTHER OPTIONS.

INSURANCE IS ALWAYS OPTIONAL – HOWEVER WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ITEMS SHIPPED WITHOUT IT.

WORLDWIDE PURCHASES ARE MOST WELCOMED!

IF THIS ITEM IS A "BUY IT NOW or BEST OFFER" PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE - EVERYTHING WE SELL NEEDS A GOOD HOME - WHICH IS IMPORTANT!

THANKS AND GOOD LUCK!