Published on Oct 1, 1997
Since I was a young boy listening to the radio, I have always
liked the Alan Parsons Project. I remember many of their songs
being played on the radio, especially from their
Eye In The Sky album, probably the only one people know
anymore. But the band, led by the legendary engineer from Pink
Floyd’s
Dark Side Of The Moon album, was much more than the band who
“wrote” the music that the Chicago Bulls take the court to.
With an anthology due out in the coming weeks, it’s safe to say
that this band is one that’s due for a rediscovery – and is very
deserving of it. Let’s kick that process off today by looking at
the band’s third release, 1978’s
Pyramid.
The theme of this album deals, as the title suggests, with the
remaining wonder of the ancient world – but it covers more than
that. It also delves into a bit of the ancient Egyptian religion,
as well as the “pyramid power” fad that was around in the mid-’70s
(the pet rock having proven to be a bust by then). While the songs
all somewhat loop around the theme,
Pyramid as an album is a very pretty work that could have
stood on its own.
Parsons and crew start things off with a short instrumental,
“Voyager,” which builds up the intensity by adding instruments as
the piece progresses, then brings the mood back down in order to
meld with the first vocal track, “What Goes Up…”. I can’t claim I
know for fact that this is what the track is about, but it seems
like this one is sung by a pharoah and a skeptic in the time of the
building of the pyramids, and questions about whether these would
truly be structures to last for the remainder of time (“If all
things must fall / Why build a miracle at all / If all things must
pass / Even a pyramid won’t last”).
As the life of the pharoah begins to ebb away, as heard on the
track “The Eagle Will Rise Again,” the first image of Egyptian
mythology comes forth in the image of the phoenix. The gentleness
of this track impresses me, as does the vocal delivery. (I’d love
to credit the vocalist by name, but seeing that six different
vocalists are featured on this album, I can’t be sure which person
sang on this one.) The religious connotations continue on the more
uptempo “One More River,” as the pharoah makes his way towards his
soul’s final journey towards the river Styx. The final song on the
side, “Can’t Take It With You,” shows our hero having second
thoughts after discovering he must leave his earthly possessions
behind. Too late for him, he eventually will have to board the boat
for his jouney on the river Styx. This track is one of my favorites
for the vocal work, performances, and the tempo of the track.
There’s a reason this track made it onto one of the two “best-of”
discs released by the Alan Parsons Project.
Side two prepares us for a shift in theme with the instrumental
“In The Lap Of The Gods,” where the attention shifts from ur
now-deceased pharoah to a gentleman in 1978 England who is caught
up – maybe a little bit too much – in “pyramid power.” (The belief
was that anything under a pyramid would be positively affected by
the pyramid’s mystical power – that and a dollar will get you a cup
of coffee.) This manic belief in the unknown is the basis of the
track “Pyramania,” a cute, peppy number which is enjoyable to
listen to – though, as the song lets us know, our new hero’s
fascination with pyramids is causing unhappiness at home with the
wife.
Following another instrumental (“Hyper-Gamma-Spaces”), our hero
finds himself losing everything that mattered to him – in this
case, his wife – on “Shadow Of A Lonely Man.” Like the pharoah
looking to achieve immortality and lost everything he had
accumulated, the modern-day man loses love and everything that
mattered in this life, and left him a shell of what he used to be.
Kind of a lesson in there for all of us.
Sure,
Pyramid can be a real heavy listen if you sit there and
study the lyrics. But, even without the pyramid-related themes on
both sides, this album is a solid effort that includes some very
enjoyable music to listen to. Even 19 years after it was released,
this album hardly has aged a day.
So why wasn’t Parsons and his group more famous in their heyday?
Truth is, I dunno. But for the sheer quality of songwriting and
musical performance, they deserved more fame and longevity than
they earned.
Pyramid is an excellent light-pop album that allows the
listener to either enjoy it for the album it is or take a moral
away from it. Either way, it’s worth investing the few dollars it
costs for an enjoyable 40 minutes.