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How a tea break at Abbey Road led to a prog-rock partnership that sold 50,000,000 records
A chance meeting in Abbey Road Studios’ canteen in 1974 brought engineer and producer Alan Parsons together with songwriter Eric Woolfson. Woolfson pitched an album inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, and the collaboration became The Alan Parsons Project, a partnership that helped shape progressive rock.
Parsons had worked on albums by The Beatles, Wings, The Hollies and Pink Floyd, while Woolfson wrote songs for other artists. They combined Woolfson’s writing with Parsons’ production, using a group of session musicians to record their Poe-inspired material at Abbey Road. The article’s headline says the partnership went on to sell 50 million records.
In short
- A 1974 Abbey Road meeting sparked a musical partnership.
- Woolfson proposed songs inspired by Edgar Allan Poe.
- The Alan Parsons Project later sold 50 million records.
Explained simply
Progressive rock is a style of rock music that often uses elaborate arrangements, longer songs and ideas drawn from literature or other art. In 1974, songwriter Eric Woolfson proposed an album based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, the 19th-century American writer known for tales of mystery and the macabre.
Woolfson joined forces with Alan Parsons, an engineer and producer who had worked on records by The Beatles, Wings, The Hollies and Pink Floyd. Woolfson wrote the songs, while Parsons shaped their sound, using session musicians to record the music at Abbey Road Studios.
Their partnership became known as The Alan Parsons Project. It brought together songwriting and studio production in a way that helped shape progressive rock, and the headline credits it with 50 million record sales.
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