What Are You Listening To?

[Ruby]

I’ve been poking around in the Alan Parsons Project catalogue and have listed to Stereotomy and Freudiana. I have Stereotomy (which really isn’t great, aside from the saving graces of a couple of tracks) but had never heard Freudiana before which is largely an Eric Woolfson affair that morphed into a rock opera at some stage of the proceedings. 

Rock operas are not among my favourite things (always exceptions, of course), but to give him his due, Woolfson obviously researched this concept in great depth and it’s crystal clear that both creatively and musically, he had a huge amount to do with that distinctive APP sound. The album is based on Freud's case studies and theories which were often allocated apt fictional names and titles by said analyst. There are also loads of guest vocalists on it, including Leo Sayer, Eric Stewart and Kiki Dee, to mention a few, along with some APP regulars such as John Miles and Chris Rainbow, and Woolfson himself sings lead on a choice selection. Always delivering the goods, guitarist Ian Bairnson is on both albums, as is Richard Cottle on sax and synths. 

I quite liked “Limelight” from Stereotomy, sung by Gary Brooker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2XNFgRIXEU

And this one too – the Grammy nominated instrumental “Where’s the Walrus” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj9Wzv1G0f4

I’ll have to listen to Freudiana again to absorb it properly – a few tracks didn’t do it for me at all, but the title did (and in general, there's a lot of food for thought!!) – Eric Woolfson lead vocal …