The MARK’S VINTAGE VINYL page features something from Mark’s collection of recordings from over the years. Most of it is on vinyl – hence the name – though there will be a few entries from his CDs (remember those?).
I Robot, by The Alan Parsons Project
- Second album by the British progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released in 1977.
- Alan Parsons of the Alan Parsons Project was primarily a sound engineer and producer who wanted to expand into songwriting and performance. He had gained fame as an assistant engineer for the Abbey Road and Let It Be albums from the Beatles, and as the lead engineer on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album, for which he was nominated for a Grammy award.
- He teamed with songwriter Eric Woolfson in 1976, and they co-created The Alan Parsons Project. They used session musicians and typically had a guest vocalist for their songs. They became popular with progressive rock fans.
- The second album, I Robot, was inspired by the Isaac Asimov 1950 science fiction book about artificial intelligence.
- It peaked at #9 on the Billboard 200 album chart. Three singles were released – only I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You broke into the top 40.
- While not released as a single, classic rock stations discovered the song Breakdown, which continues to be played frequently on these stations.
- I was a big fan of The Alan Parsons Project. I saw them sort of a second tier progressive rock band that by the end had a pretty good run at making music. Here’s the fourth song from the album, Breakdown. Loved the lyrics at the end…”Freedom, freedom, we will not obey. Freedom, freedom, take the wall away,” sung by the New Philharmonia Chorus.