Search - The Alan Parsons Project :: Tales of Mystery and Imagination

A masterpiece reimagined...

William M. Feagin | Upstate New York, USA | 09/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The very concept might be daunting to most musicians...but then, Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson aren't (and never were) most musicians. For a first effort from such an outfit, they don't come much better or more ambitious than Tales of Mystery & Imagination. Putting works of literature to music is a task not everyone is up to--Camel attempted something like this with Paul Gallico's novel "The Snow Goose," but their work was entirely instrumental (and gave the record company fits for that very reason, although it has truly stood the test of time). Here, the APP adapt the words of these works as lyrics; we hear Alan Parsons through Vocoder on "The Raven" along with Leonard Whiting (actor best known for his role as Romeo in Franco Zeffirelli's filmed version of "Romeo and Juliet" from 1968) delivering that poem detailing the events of a "midnight dark and dreary." We get Arthur Brown's ("Fire," his big from 1968) tortured delivery of "The Tell-Tale Heart," and the quieter (yet no less tortured) John Miles on the always-chilling "The Cask of Amontillado." "The Fall of the House of Usher" is the true tour de force here, a genuinely scary piece of music. Both that track and the album opener "A Dream Within a Dream" are plenty chilling even without Orson Welles' narrative on the original 1976 album, but Welles' narrative adds something that is undeniably dramatic and certainly adds to the atmosphere on the 1987 remix.



Add here the 8 bonus tracks--4 on each disc--that give some insights into the creative process behind the album, and you've got a Deluxe Edition truly worthy of that appellation. Highly recommended."

A Worthy Packaging of One of the Most Unique Albums Ever Rec

Parrish A. Highley | Somewhere I've Never Travelled | 11/20/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What makes the first "Project" so great is that there had been nothing like it before and there has yet to be anything quite like it since. When I asked Alan Parsons how he saw his artistic legacy, he replied that his partnership with Eric Woolfson was somewhat trend-setting at the time. There had been producing songwriters like Lee Hazelwood who would write material for Nancy Sinatra to sing, but the concrete partnership between a producer and a songwriter was a bit of an oddity in 1975. The result was the first "producers' album" (please note the location of the apostrophe) in modern recording history. Eric Woolfson's affinity for not only the prose and poetry of Edgar Allan Poe but for the author's humanity as well culminates in the closing epic To One In Paradise which was written and sung from the point of view of troubled writer himself.



When I listened to the demos that Eric Woolfson created on his own prior to meeting Alan Parsons, it occured to me just how fortuitous their then-friendship would become. The songs that Woolfson composed were catchy, clever, and even witty at times, but they lacked a much needed refinement to make them appeal to a larger audience. The bonus material in this deluxe edition is every bit a testament to Parsons' ability to hone a diamond in the rough as it is to Woolfson's songwriting prowess. As an ardent fan of both artists, I'm just really thankful these two gentlemen bumped into each other in the cafeteria at Abbey Road and managed to see eye to eye.



The original liner notes from 1976 failed to mention The Fall Of The House Of Usher: Prelude was Andrew Powell's orchestral arrangement of an unfinished composition by none other than Claude Debussy called "La chute de maison Usher" from the French. Parson's liner notes from the 1987 remaster corrected this oversight, but these new liner notes focus almost entirely on the artistic identity of The Alan Parsons Project. I wonder if any casual fan would even bother to read these, but ardent fans certainly will. In short, I think a schism can be avoided if one considers how similar the artistic identity here mirrors the artistic identity of the works of William Shakespeare. Many, like myself, believe Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, actually wrote the Sonnets, Histories, and Tragedies while William Shakespeare wrote the comedies that together comprise the Shakespearean canon. However, that analogy falters somewhat in that the identity of Edward de Vere was genuinely hidden from the rest of the world whereas Eric Woolfson's was not.



For those reluctant to spend the sum necessary to purchase the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab release of the original 1976 mix, this package does offer a nice alternative. Most audiophiles will almost certainly prefer the dynamic range of the aforementioned MFSL release as well as the 1987 remix, but for those who listen to music on smaller portable systems, in the car, or on headphones this version will likely be more than satisfactory. While I do wish that this deluxe edition was available on Sony's Super Audio CD, I'm not about to give up hope that it may someday. To hear this work of art in quadraphonic surround with the Orson Welles narrations occupying the center channel would be a A Dream Within A Dream come true!



Largely misunderstood by the vacuous music press of the day, Tales of Mystery and Imagination gained the recognition it so richly deserved over time. That this work of art would be so bedevilled with such bad press seems almost too appropriate given all the misconceptions that surrounded Poe throughout his life and even more so after he died. I would strongly recommend any ardent fan of The Project also take a look at Eric Woolfson's finest musical Poe: More Tales of Mystery & Imagination for a closer look at the man who would become the single most influential writer that America ever produced."