Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Alan Parsons Project album)
Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates {{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |{{#if: 25 June 1976<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> | Template:Short description}}}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=I Robot1977studioTales of Mystery and ImaginationTAPP-TalesOfImagination.jpgThe Alan Parsons Project25 June 1976<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>July 1975 – January 1976Template:UblTemplate:Hlist40:34 (1976)/42:38 (1987)Template:HlistAlan Parsonsx|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}} Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) is the debut studio album by British rock band the Alan Parsons Project. It was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Charisma Records<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and 20th Century Records in the rest of the world.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of the same name.
Musicians featured on the album include vocalists Arthur Brown of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown on "The Tell Tale Heart", John Miles on "The Cask of Amontillado" and "(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether", and Terry Sylvester of The Hollies on "To One in Paradise". The complete line-up of bands Ambrosia and Pilot play on the record, along with keyboardist Francis Monkman of Curved Air and Sky.
Tales of Mystery and Imagination peaked at No. 38 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. The song "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether" peaked at No. 37 on the Pop Singles chart, and No. 62 in Canada.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Composition
"The Raven" features actor Leonard Whiting on lead vocals, with Alan Parsons performing vocals through an EMI vocoder, which was manufactured by EMI Central Research Laboratories and stored in Abbey Road Studios.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Parsons described the device as "a very cumbersome thing that was very much in its early stages."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
The prelude section of "The Fall of the House of Usher", although uncredited, is taken verbatim from the opera fragment "La chute de la maison Usher" by Claude Debussy which was composed between 1908 and 1917.<ref>The Cambridge companion to Debussy, p. 297 n. 100 / edited by Simon Trezise, Cambridge University Press, 2003.</ref> "The Fall of the House of Usher" is an instrumental suite that runs more than 15 minutes and takes up most of Side 2 of the recording.
Artwork
The album's cover art was made by Hipgnosis. Storm Thorgerson said that Eric Woolfson and Parsons wanted a "classy" design, including a book of lyrics, lengthy credits, and a chronology of Poe's life. He described the recurring image of the "taped" man:<ref>Thorgerson, Storm: The Work of Hipgnosis: 'Walk Away René', page 131. Paper Tiger, 1978. Template:ISBN</ref>
Poe was preoccupied with entombment. Many of his characters have been incarcerated in some form or other – in coffins, brick walls, or under floorboards. We came up with the 'taped' man – a mummy-like figure who is wrapped, not in bandages, but in 2" recording tape. This motif is partially horror-like, as well as being 'entombed', and the 2" tape appropriately suggests that the album is done by a producer in a studio, as opposed to a band recording material they will play on stage. Although the clients were intrigued by this idea they did not desire a pictorial cover but preferred instead a precise graphic representation. The narrow strip of illustration from George [Hardie] shows a long shadow of the taped man.
The booklet (attached to the inside of the cover) is composed of photos related to the songs, and line drawings that explore the taped man as he thrashes about in his restricted world and strives to unravel himself. The illustrated capital letters continue the idea. The layout and drawings are by Colin Elgie. The sleeve is one of our better attempts at combining photographs and illustration.
Reception
Template:Album ratings Critical reaction to the album was mixed: Rolling Stone's Billy Altman concluded it did not completely accurately reproduce Poe's tension and macabre fear, ending by saying "devotees of Gothic literature will have to wait for someone with more of the macabre in their blood for a truer musical reading of Poe's often terrifying works."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nonetheless, the album has still garnered somewhat of a cult status amongst Alan Parsons Project fans. In July 2010, the album was named as one of Classic Rock magazineTemplate:'s "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock".<ref>Classic Rock magazine, July 2010, Issue 146.</ref>
Reissues
Originally simply called The Alan Parsons Project, the album was successful enough to achieve gold status. The identity of The Alan Parsons Project as a group was cemented on the second album, I Robot, in 1977.
In 1987, Parsons completely remixed the album, including additional keyboard and guitar passages and narration (by Orson Welles), as well as updating the production style to include heavy reverb and the gated reverb snare drum sound, which was popular in the 1980s. Parsons also made the end of side A segue into the start of side B due to the remix of the album being released when CD's were commercially available, thus no need to stop playback to change sides. The CD notes that Welles never met Parsons or Eric Woolfson, but sent a tape to them of the performance shortly after the album was manufactured in 1976.
The first passage narrated by Welles on the 1987 remix (which comes before the first track, "A Dream Within a Dream") is sourced from an obscure nonfiction piece by Poe – No XVI of his Marginalia (from 1845 to 1849 Edgar Allan Poe titled some of his reflections and fragmentary material "Marginalia.") The second passage Welles reads (which comes before "The Fall of the House of Usher" (Prelude), seems to be a partial paraphrase or composite from nonfiction by Poe, chiefly from a collection of poems titled "Poems of Youth" by Poe (contained in "Introduction to Poems – 1831" in a section titled "Letter to Mr. B-----------"; the "Shadows of shadows passing" part of the quote comes from the Marginalia.
In 1994, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) released the original 1976 version on CD (UDCD-606), making the original available digitally for the first time.
In 2007, a Deluxe Edition released by Universal Music included both the 1976 and the 1987 versions remastered by Alan Parsons during 2006 with eight additional bonus tracks.
In 2016, a 40th Anniversary Edition 3CD/1BD/2LP box set was released, featuring a book, both 2007 Deluxe Edition CDs, a third disc with demos, outtakes, and other tracks, a 45 RPM 2LP set of the original album with bonus tracks, and a Blu-ray featuring a 5.1 surround sound version of the album remixed by Alan Parsons in 2016.
Track listing
Template:Track listing Template:Track listing Orson Welles' narration does not appear on the original 1976 mix of the album. It does, however, on the 1987 remix: specifically on "A Dream Within a Dream", and on the extended Prelude of "The Fall of the House of Usher".
2007 deluxe edition
Disc 1: Tracks 1–11, original album in original 1976 mix
- "The Raven" (original demo)
- "Edgar" (demo of an unreleased track)
- "Orson Welles Radio Spot"
- "Interview with Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson" (1976)
Disc 2: Tracks 1–11, original album in 1987 remix
- "Eric's Guide Vocal Medley"
- "Orson Welles Dialogue"
- "Sea Lions in the Departure Lounge" (sound effects and experiments)<ref>"Sea Lions in the Departure Lounge" uses the same announcement recording as was previously used on Pink Floyd's On the Run from the album The Dark Side of the Moon, on which Alan Parsons was engineer.</ref>
- "GBH Mix" (unreleased experiments)
Personnel
Track numbers in parentheses.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>
- Alan Parsons – EMI vocoder Template:Small, Projectron synthesizer Template:Small, recorder Template:Small, additional vocals Template:Small, synthesizer Template:Small, cathedral organ Template:Small, producer, engineer
- Eric Woolfson – keyboards Template:Small, backing vocals Template:Small, harpsichord Template:Small, organ Template:Small, additional vocals Template:Small, synthesizer Template:Small, executive producer
- Andrew Powell – orchestral arrangement Template:Small, orchestral conductor Template:Small, keyboards Template:Small, organ Template:Small
- Francis Monkman – organ Template:Small, harpsichord Template:Small
- Billy Lyall – keyboards Template:Small, recorder Template:Small, piano Template:Small, Fender Rhodes electric piano Template:Small, glockenspiel Template:Small
- Christopher North – keyboards Template:Small
- Orson Welles – narration Template:Small
- Leonard Whiting – lead vocals Template:Small, narration Template:Small
- Arthur Brown – lead vocals Template:Small
- John Miles – lead vocals Template:Small, electric guitar Template:Small
- Jack Harris – additional vocals Template:Small
- Terry Sylvester – additional vocals Template:Small, lead vocals Template:Small
- Jane Powell – backing vocals Template:Small
- Smokey Parsons – vocals
- Bob Howes & the English Chorale – choir Template:Small
- Westminster City School Boys Choir – choir Template:Small
- David Paton – acoustic guitar Template:Small, backing vocals Template:Small, bass guitar Template:Small
- Kevin Peek – acoustic guitar Template:Small
- Laurence Juber – acoustic guitar Template:Small
- Ian Bairnson – electric guitar Template:Small, acoustic guitar Template:Small
- David Pack – electric guitar Template:Small
- Joe Puerta – bass guitar Template:Small
- Les Hurdle – bass guitar Template:Small
- Daryl Runswick – double bass Template:Small
- David Katz – violin, orchestra leader Template:Small, orchestra contractor
- Jack Rothstein – orchestra leader Template:Small
- David Snell – harp Template:Small
- Hugo D'Alton – mandolin Template:Small
- Stuart Tosh – drums Template:Small, timpani Template:Small, backwards cymbals Template:Small
- Burleigh Drummond – drums Template:Small
- John Leach – cimbalom Template:Small, kantele Template:Small
- Dennis Clarke – saxophone, clarinet
Production staff
- Gordon Parry – engineer
- Tony Richards – assistant engineer
- Chris Blair – assistant engineer
- Tom Trefethen – assistant engineer
- Pat Stapley – assistant engineer
- Peter Christopherson – photography
- Aubrey Powell – photography
- Storm Thorgerson – photography
- Sam Emerson – photography
- Hipgnosis – design, cover art
- Colin Elgie – artwork, graphic design, layout design
Charts
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Weekly charts
| Chart (1976–1978) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)<ref name=aus>Template:Cite book</ref> | 45 |
| Spanish Albums (AFE)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | 17 |
| Chart (1987) | Peak position |
|---|
Year-end charts
| Chart (1976) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
38 |
| Chart (1977) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref name=charts>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation | CitationClass=web
}}</ref> |
29 |
| Chart (1978) | Position |
|---|---|
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref name=charts /> | 6 |
| Chart (1979) | Position |
|---|---|
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref name=charts /> | 12 |
| Chart (1980) | Position |
|---|---|
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref name=charts /> | 62 |
Certifications
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See also
- Edgar Allan Poe and music
- "A Dream Within A Dream"
- "The Raven"
- "The Tell-Tale Heart"
- "The Cask of Amontillado"
- "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether"
- "The Fall of the House of Usher"