"Pyramid... the last remaining wonder of the ancient world."
The brief introduction to this concept, contained in the booklet, ends like this:
"Pyramid, the last wonder of the ancient world".
It is 1978 and Arista released this new concept of that "project" which at the beginning of its career had launched into avant-garde experimentation, also being the first in history to use a vocoder, an instrument that distorts the human voice. Calling it a "group" would actually be incorrect, for the Alan Parsons Project was already bizarre in itself, breaking the standard of a group, the "bass - drums - guitar" triangle: they did have a guitarist, a drummer, and a bassist, but they were followed by a remarkable orchestra directed by a genius such as Andrew Powell.
Alan Parsons in the guise of a jack-of-all-trades (Synths, backing vocals, production..) and Eric Woolfson as lyricist/singer. This concept album, well, is perhaps the clearest and "purest" of the Parsonsian discography and is based on a single concept "What ascends, then falls". This expression is rendered in the preface to the second track "What goes up...". The record opens with the instrumental "Voyager", a theme that will be resumed later in the next album "Eye in the Sky", opening on a simple arpeggio from which other intertwining threads are born, to which bass and drums, percussion, and sound effects are added. Just as in the group's first album "Tales Of Mystery And Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe", the first short instrumental, having reached its peak, descends, leaving only a simple bass line and percussion. On this is based the already mentioned "What Goes Up...". This song could summarize the entire album well, "What goes up, must come down": there are no prayers, no destiny, no possibility, everything that is possible can do, "even a miracle", must fall. Always. A quick reprise of the theme of "Voyager" and a vibrato close the song. Woolfson reaches the vocals and lifts, hesitantly, the famous "The Eagle Will Rise Again": the message of the song is as sad and pessimistic as the previous one, the days of life are like grains of sand falling from the hands at the command of the wind. At one point the narrator rebels against his useless condition and screams, shouts "Let me see the light, let me be the light!". But there is nothing to be done. The relentless passage of time will cover his life as well. A small interlude, "One More River", which aims to break a little the chain of pessimism created by this album. However, it emphasizes the concepts, don't look back because there is another river, another bridge. Don't get distracted. Distant bell tolls and a fragile flute melody rise among the scorching sun. A loud noise, then the endless march. Well, what to say, "In the Laps Of Gods" brings to mind the times of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and almost, closing your eyes, you can see rows and rows of slaves carrying huge boulders to build the grandiose monument that will bring prestige to the sovereign for millennia to come. Suddenly the music stops, and an obsessive and uneven bass theme enters, initially hesitant, then continuous and pounding. The monument is finished, perhaps, and the people pay homage to the supreme ruler, the choir rises, grandiose, majestic. Hail to the King, Praise to the King And glory to His name forever. Gloria, Hosanna! a furious theme of strings that chase each other in a crescendo of choirs and those of trumpets, the roar of the French horns concludes the piece which, in my opinion, is the most beautiful and grandiose of the concept.
And so, we completely change, contrary to those who say that Alan Parsons' music is monotonous, from the great splendors of the Egyptian empire, we move to the schizophrenia of a poor man for pyramids. He sees them everywhere, poor devil, in every place, they're ruining him as if it were a drug. He believes they help him live, eat, drink, and sleep better, he thinks they help him cultivate delightful things. By now his library is crammed with essays on the Mayans, and his pajamas offer a panorama of the pyramids of Giza. He realizes that all he has gained from it is a sharp pain in the neck and a shrill and continuous barking. He is now crazy, losing his mind, and exclaims "all you need is a pyramid!". This masterpiece of a song ends and immediately the atmosphere (Pyramidal, I would say) transforms into a crescendo of synthesizers and muffled drums in a futuristic setting of space research and cosmic adventures. "Hyper Gamma Spaces" is the ideal end of this concept and could give a hope that might counter the pessimism at the beginning: after all there's always the future, tomorrow is another day, and... who knows. Perhaps we will be able to reclaim the lost wonders. It would be the ideal ending, all beautiful and serene! Indeed, let's throw ourselves into the future, let's place ourselves in the hands of science. But no, Woolfson cannot forget that after all the wonders of Egypt, the space travels, the inner journeys, the madness, the death of time, after all that there is only a man closed in on himself, there remains only an almost vegetable, a shadow of the long-forgotten presence of a single individual.
The present is the present, there is no past and no future, there are no rows of slaves near the pyramid and there are no extraordinary journeys in the cosmos, but only a man, immersed in his solitude, flattened by the incessant passage of time, crushed, oppressed, killed, psychologically assassinated. He seems to appeal in prayer to everything that has passed, to everything that happened before: "Look at me now, a shadow of the man I used to be. Look through my eyes and through the years Of loneliness you'll see. In the shadow of a lonely, lonely man, I can see myself!" "Look at me now, a shadow of the man I once was. Look through my eyes and the years of loneliness that you will see. In the shadow of a desperately lonely man, I can see myself!"...
I think the inner cover of the LP well reflects this idea. There are sarcophagi, symbols, schemes, geometric operations, algebraic calculations, analysis of heartbeats, wires, cables, creepy bent razor blades, in the background the immense pyramids, flying saucers, cold space equipment. At the bottom right, a desperate half-figure man, shrunken, covers his eyes with his hands, alone, abandoned, flattened. The history and the despair that transpired from it have destroyed him. He turns against his creator.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 The Eagle Will Rise Again (04:22)
Lead Vocal: Colin Blunstone
And I could easily fall from grace
Then another would take my place
For the chance to behold your face
As the days of my life are but grains of sand
As they fall from your open hand
At the call of the wind's command
Many words are spoken when there's nothing to say
The fall upon the ears of those who don't know the way
To read between the lines, that lead between the lines, that lead me to you
All that I ask you
Is, show me how to follow you and I'll obey
Teach me how to reach you I can't find my own way
Let me see the light, let me be the light
As the sun turns slowly around the sky
Till the shadow of night is high
The eagle will learn to fly
As the days of his life are but grains of sand
As they fall from your open hand
And vanish upon the land
Many words are spoken when there's nothing to say
The fall upon the ears of those who don't know the way
To read between the lines, that lead between the lines, that lead me to you
Show me how to follow you and I'll obey
Teach me how to reach you I can't find my own way
Let me see the light, let me be the light
And so, with no warning, no last goodbye
In the dawn of the morning sky
The eagle will rise again
06 In the Lap of the Gods (05:30)
Hail to the King,
Praise to the King
And glory to His name forever.
Gloria, Hosanna!
07 Pyramania (02:43)
There are pyramids in my head
There's one underneath my bed
And my lady's getting cranky
Every possible location
Has a simple explanation
And it isn't hanky-panky
I had read
Somewhere in a book, they improve all your food and your wine
It said, that everything you grow in your garden would taste pretty fine
Instead, all I ever get is a pain in the neck and a
Yap yap yap yap yap yap yap
I've consulted all the sages
I could find in yellow pages
But there aren't many of them
And the Mayan panoramas
On my pyramid pajamas
Haven't helped my little problem
I've been told
Someone in the know can be sure that his luck is as
Good as gold, money in the bank and you don't even pay for it
If you fold, dollar in the shape of the pyramid that's printed on the back
It's no lie, you can keep the edge of a razor as sharp as an eagle's eye
You can grow a hedge that is vertically straight over ten feet high
All you really need is a pyramid and just a little luck
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la ooh
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la ooh
I had read somewhere in a book they improve all your food and wine and
I've been told, someone in the know can be sure of his good luck and
It's no lie, all you really need is a little bit of pyramidic luck
09 Shadow of a Lonely Man (05:34)
(Lead Vocal - John Miles)
Look at me now, a shadow of the man I used to be
Look through my eyes and through the years of loneliness you'll see
To the times in my life when I could not stand to lose, a simple game
And the least of it all was the fortune and the fame
But the dream seemed to end just as soon as it had begun, was I to know?
For the least thing of all that was on my mind, was the close at the
End of the show
The shadow of a lonely man, feels nobody else
In the shadow of a lonely, lonely man
I can see myself
(looking out of nowhere, looking out of nowhere)
But the sounds of the crowds when they come to see me now, is not the same
And the jest of it all is I can't recall my name
But i'll cling to a hope till I can't hold on anymore, anymore
And for all the acclaim I am all alone and I see as I look through the door
The shadow of a lonely man, there's nobody else
In the shadow of a lonely, lonely man
I can see myself
Look at me now, a shadow of the man I used to be
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By Quijote
Here comes Voyager. No title was ever more fitting. A lightning bolt of four notes. It propels me into the metropolitan space to conquer.
But what a great album Pyramid!