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I remember years ago when a dear friend and I would turn over the cardboard and joke about the three beautiful women... "Bwah, how pimpled!"
I know people often criticize those who start talking about memories, but good music lives off them, it's what makes it loved because it recalls splendid or sad moments of one's life... so much so that I want to talk about memories. I open the case: inside, serious as two Jedi knights on Tatooine, two bearded men wander among the many ochres that color the mythical "Ruelle de la Fonderie." Beautiful, right?
The first time I placed the vinyl on the turntable (dot dot dot), the needle running through the grooves (line line line) brought strange sounds to my ears (dot dot dot): back then I didn’t understand, now I know what it was, that obsessive Morse code plea for help opens the first real '70s song of my life, "Lucifer." Obsessive loops of a melody that gets into your head and heart: for me (used to the excellent domestic singer-songwriting) it was something new. In hindsight, it's an excellent instrumental, typically Parsonian, with the unsettling repetition of the same theme, a path already tested in previous works (an example is "The Voice" from "I Robot"). Back then, I simply liked it.
I don't know why, I waited days upon days before listening to other tracks… but I remember great curiosity in wanting to know the voice of this Alan Parsons.
The strange thing, yet well-known, is that with ten albums now under their belt, his voice is still something I haven't quite deciphered, so much is it disguised, when it's there, by choruses and various vocoders (wow, what a super alliteration...), but then you wonder why it was a project...
The sharp voice I discovered to be Lenny Zakatek introduces "You Lie Down With Dogs," a strange and enjoyable track with filtered choruses and typical guitar riffs from ballads. The sense of subterfuge is also provided by the lyrics (“You are a stupid woman, but I love you,” “You lie down with dogs, getting up with fleas. Get off and find yourself another lover”). The intro that leads to the following track, along the same lines, is very beautiful: “I'd Rather Be A Man” features bassist David Paton on vocals and always confirmed to me the idea of an obsession, or why not an anticipation (Eve, in addition to being a name, means eve) for God-only-knows-what... it talks about a woman, again, like throughout the entire LP, a woman with a corrupt soul from which the man distances himself; very loosely, the summary is: “I'd rather be a man than stain my soul like you; blame it on the apple tree, but you don’t fool me: your jeans are tight, but the butt's flabby. I'd rather be a man because I wouldn’t want to be like you.”
Turn the page… Next is “You Won’t Be There,” a beautiful and sweet ballad performed by Dave Townsend, minimal on drums and delicate on guitar. This time it talks about the other side of the woman, and it's a love song… “Because, if you love me, why do you have to leave me? When I need you, you won’t be there.” The song closes with a sort of unidentified grate that connects it to the last track on the side, the beautiful “Winding Me Up” (featuring Chris Rainbow, a skilled performer of many gems from the Alan Project), closing this hypothetical trilogy of the fair sex. This time the feeling is one, as the title suggests, of excitement: the man is confused, out of women because of the woman, but not because she’s particularly strong, but because she caught him off guard, exposing his false behavior.
You flip the vinyl, but the male anguish continues: once again Lenny Zakatek, with a great voice, in the role of someone who doesn’t want to get attached to a woman and suffers terribly when spending nights alone (“I am damned because I love you…”). Musically, a very nice song, with Ian Bairnson (the trusty guitarist) and Stuart Elliott (drums) in great shape.
But how does the woman live this situation? The only album where this happens, a she (a lady she, Clare Torry directly from the marvelous vocalizations of the dark side of the Moon) is at the microphone to encourage her better half of the sky, to fully live her life, daring more and not allowing the man to make her head spin…
And if a man must be, let there always be a “Secret Garden”: the beautiful instrumental opens up an ocean of horizons on love and leads to the last track, again with a female voice (the talented Lesley Duncan). "If I Could Change Your Mind” is a poignant ballad, where the melancholy for what wasn't grates the liver: “I can’t deny being alone since you left… Oh, if only I could make you change your mind…”
Beautiful album, ultimately; a concept once again between two opposing worlds as “I Robot” was, to underscore once again the great work of Alan Parsons and the trusty Eric Woolfson, resulting in at least five excellent LPs in the seventies. I remember a certain satisfaction from the very first listens. I remember the joy of my father who introduced me to them.
I always remember, and with pleasure.
With care, I place the vinyl back in the blackest sleeve and close the cardboard: the three beautiful women with their nets and pimple-like souvenirs of who knows what event are still there, in their wait…
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 You Lie Down With Dogs (03:45)
(Lead vocal - Lenny Zakatek)
You're such a cool woman but I love you
Such a cruel woman but I love you
Open up your eyes and realise
You're such a fool woman but I love you
But you give me all that you've got to give
Cause it sure feels good to me
I'm not your only man I'm just your lover
Not your only man just another
Open up your eyes and realise
I'm gonna take what I can like any other
Cause it don't mean a thing to me
Well
You lie down with dogs you fall in with thieves
You're gonna catch something but you do as you please
You're scratchin' an itch that nothing can ease
You lie down with dogs you get up with fleas
Get out and find yourself another lover
Why don't you find yourself another lover
Open up your eyen and realise
You don't mean nothing to me I'm not your mother
You gave me all that you had to give
But there's a whole lotta fish in the sea
Well
You lie down with dogs you fall in with thieves
You're gonna catch something but you do as you please
You're scratchin' an itch that nothing can ease
You lie down with dogs you get up with fleas
05 Winding Me Up (04:00)
(Lead vocal - Chris Rainbow)
Well it was only a game she was mine for the asking
And I'd figured the whole thing out
When she told me her name it was more than a feeling
There wasn't any doubt
Well it felt so good it was hard to break it
Too much for me to explain
But in a matter of time I'm gonna be myself again
You've been
Winding me up too long
I'm over my head is it day or night
Cause woman you ain't so strong
But you caught me by suprise
Burned me with your eyes
Cut me down to size
Well it was only a game she was only a number
But I figured it out all wrong
Every time that I said I'll move on tomorrow
I hung around too long
Well it felt so good it was too hard to break it
Too much before me to face
Now I got nowhere to run she knows my every hidin' place
You've been
Winding me up too long
I'm over my head is it day or night
Cause woman you ain't so strong
But you caught me by suprise
Burned me with your eyes
Cut me down to size
Saw through my disguise
Winding me up too long
I'm over my head is it day or night
Cause woman you ain't so strong
But you caught me by suprise
Burned me with your eyes
Cut me down to size
Beat me to the prize
Hurt me with your lies
Burned me with your eyes
Cut me down to size
Saw through my disguise
06 Damned If I Do (04:50)
(Lead vocal - Lenny Zakatek)
I ain't got a heart of stone
I'm hurtin' more now than I've ever known
If you mean the things you said
I'm gonna wind up outa my head
Can't sleep alone at night
I just can't seem to get it right
Damned if I do
Damned if I don't but I love you
I don't want to tie you down
Don't need a reason to have you around
But each time you walk away
Don't be suprised if I ask you to stay
Can't sleep alone at night
I just can't seem to get it right
Damned if I do
And I'm damned if I don't but I love you
I said I'm damned if I do
And I'm damned if I don't cause I love you
I ain't got a heart of stone
You haven't left me a mind of my own
But it's got such a hold on me
I don't think I could ever be free
How can I survive
I'm fighting to keep myself alive
I'm damned if I do
Damned if I don't but I love you
Can't seem to see the light
I've done everything but I can't get it right
Damned if I do
Damned if I don't but I love you
09 If I Could Change Your Mind (05:49)
(Lead vocal - Lesley Duncan)
I prefer to spend my time in solitary ways
Keeping myself to myself
Can't pretend that it's been easy since you went away
Living with somebody else
If you should change your mind
If you should turn around and look behind
If you could see me the way I used to be
At the risk of bringing back the sorrow and despair
I would do it all again
Holding on to memories and pretending not to care
Knowing that the show was soon to end
If only I could change your mind
If only you would change
If I had the chance I'd do it all again
I would do it all again
I remember windy shores on menancholy days
Drifting along with the tide
And the joy of simple things and ordinary ways
Taking it all in my stride
If you should change your mind
If I could let you see what lies behind
If you could see need me the way it used to be
Even for the moment of the happy times we shared
Living in my dreams since then
At the risk of losing only castles in the air
Come with me and we can try again
Oh, if I could change your mind
Can't pretend it's been lonely since you went away
Oh, if I could change your mind
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