APP Stereotomy

Examining and trying to learn all the parts to music by the Alan Parsons Project

[appstereotomy]

I decided to move this project over to Blogger for various reasons.  I won’t be deleting anything here, but this blog will be inactive from now on.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

Yester-day I learned the guitar arpeggios and the bass part for the introduction of “Dancing on a Highwire” (on Ammonia Avenue).  I tried figuring out these guitar arpeggios a few months ago without any luck, so it was good to finally get them.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

I was recently thinking about “In the Real World” and thought that it sounded like it would be pretty easy to figure out, completely forgetting that I already figured out some parts for it about a year ago.  Of course, I neglected to write those down, so I basically had to re-learn it (I wrote the parts down this time).

In re-learning it, I figured out the fuzz guitar part, and - while recording this, actually - I discovered that I was missing some notes in the glockenspiel part during the chorus.  I’d thought it just doubled the synth part, but it has two notes to itself too.

[januaryscloak]

A number of my 2017 musical projects are just continuations of on-going projects, so here's a review of those: Classical Music Queue A c...

2017 Musical Projects

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

Last night I learned the bass part in “Nothing Left to Lose,” up until the tempo change, at least.  There’s a minor difference in rhythm during the second chorus, but my recording doesn’t encompass that; it’s just the first two verses and the first chorus.

After eight measures of Bb notes in alternating octaves, there’s a section in the verses that descends diatonically, skipping octaves after every pair of notes and then going back to single note octave-skipping:

(click here for a larger image)

I’m not sure if it’s intended as a sort of reference or homage to it, but Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 has this same feature in the second movement (the Air):

(notation found here)

I’ve found that same feature in some other pieces too (like Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Op. 40), but because I first encountered it in that Bach piece, that’s what I thought of first.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

Last night, I figured out some parts from “Let Me Go Home” from Ammonia Avenue.  The part that’s doubled on guitar and bass is played during the other verses too.

I might have some of the bass part in the wrong octave; it’s hard to tell.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

I meant to record this yester-day, but I was too busy.  After I listened to Vulture Culture a few days ago, I figured out some of the synth parts during the chorus of “Somebody Out There.”  There are two phrases after the chorus, and they’re the same after the second iteration (just in different octaves), but they’re different after the first occurrence.  I’m not sure I have that second phrase right.  On the whole, my recording doesn’t sound that great because I still know virtually nothing about synths.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

I listened to Vulture Culture yester-day, and I learned a couple parts.  First, I have what I guess is a synth part from “Separate Lives.”  The closest match on my keyboard is actually calliope.  I’d thought that this is just the same phrase repeated (so it’s played four times), but the third iteration has a different rhythm, and the fourth iteration (which I don’t have yet) has different notes.

I also figured out that the synth part that begins the song is just A notes an octave apart.  I’m not sure how long that lasts though or if the notes change later on.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

I listened to Tales of Mystery and Imagination yester-day.  When I listened to it a while ago, I thought the bass part in “The Fall of the House of Usher: Pavane” sounded like it would be pretty easy to figure out.  I also discovered that there’s mandolin in this, and since I have a mandolin, I wanted to figure out that part.  I also got some of the keyboard parts.  Based on the credits on the APP website, I think there’s harpsichord and (in the 1987 version) a synth that plays almost the same part; it’s just the final note in the phrase that’s different.

I don’t have an upright bass, so I just played the bass part on electric bass, and I’m still not very good at mandolin tremolos, so those aren’t that great.

Also, this is only one section of the song.  However, I did learn a couple guitar chords for a later iteration of the other section.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

I don’t think I’ve done much on this side of the project, but here’s a reminder that I’m including Keats (an APP side-project) with the APP stuff.  I listened to the Keats album a couple days ago, and I was just going to try to figure out the bass part during the verses of “Heaven Knows,” but I think I got the whole thing, plus a bit of the piano part.

I did the guitar chords as a last-minute thing, and it might have been better without them because 1) my guitar tone doesn’t really match (it never does) and 2) I played a G major where now I think it’s a G minor (the song’s in F major, so the B would be flat).

This isn’t the whole song, but the parts I didn’t include just repeat parts that I did record.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

I recently listened to I Robot for my Collection Audit project (twice actually, since I have the CD reissue of the original album and the Legacy Edition).  I felt like I should do some more work on this project, so I figured out the piccolo trumpet part in “Don’t Let It Show.”  It’s just a small part, and I don’t even know how to play piccolo trumpet (I recorded this with the fake trumpet on my keyboard); I was hoping that learning this part would help in figuring out what key “Don’t Let It Show” is in, but all I know is that it has a lot of sharps or flats.  There are a lot of accidentals in this part.

[collectionaudit]

The second thing I noticed while listening to The Essential Alan Parsons Project this morning is in “La Sagrada Familia,” originally from Gaudi.  There are two recurring lines: “La Sagrada Familia for the lion and the lamb” and “La Sagrada Familia there’s peace throughout the land.”  These two lines reminded me of two things: first, Elvis’ “(There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)” and second, Isaiah 11:6-7:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.  The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

I wrote about “(There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me)” earlier this year, specifically how that Isaiah text appears to be the source of one of the verses:

Well, the bear will be gentle, and wolves will be tame And the lion shall lie down by the lamb, oh, yes And the beast from the wild shall be led by a child And I’ll be changed, changed from this creature that I am, oh, yes

It seems that Eric Woolfson (the main writer for the Alan Parsons Project) took some inspiration from one or the other of these sources, but I’m not sure how familiar he was with either (if he was familiar with them at all).

There’s a spoken part at the beginning of “La Sagrada Familia” that talks about a cathedral that Gaudí was building, so it would make sense to quote from the Bible when writing about a cathedral, yet while a lamb and a lion are both mentioned in the Isaiah text (along with peace, although not blatantly), they’re not mentioned together like they are in the Elvis song.  So while it seems that either (or both) of these could have inspired those lines in “La Sagrada Familia,” I’m not sure if that’s really the case.

[collectionaudit]

This morning I listened to the second disc of The Essential Alan Parsons Project (which I started yester-day), and I found two things to write about.  The first is pretty simple:  in the song “Limelight” (originally from Stereotomy), there are the lines “Limelight, don’t let me slip right through your fingers / There’s a long way to fall” (when it’s repeated later, it’s “don’t let it slip right through your fingers”).  Both times, there’s a melisma for “fall,” where the later notes are lower in pitch than the earlier ones, so the word itself is falling in pitch as it’s sung.

[collectionaudit]

This morning I listened to the first disc of The Essential Alan Parsons Project.  I listened to “Snake Eyes” (from The Turn of a Friendly Card) twice because I thought I noticed something and then wanted to confirm it while looking at the lyrics.

There’s a recurring section, but there are changes in it for every reptition.  The first section (referenced from the lyrics section on the Alan Parsons Project’s website) is:

Just one minute more, give me just one minute more It’s gonna be alright, it’s gonna be alright Just one minute more, then I’ll walk right through that door It’s gonna be alright, it’s gonna be alright, if ya gimme

The second iteration includes more of the “gimme one (minute) more” line:

Just one minute more, gimme just one minute more It’s gonna be alright, it’s gonna be alright, but'cha gotta Gimme one minute more, gimme one more, gimme one minute more It’s gonna be alright, it’s gonna be alright

The final section adds “gimme one more” in the backing vocals, and the second half changes the “minute” to “marker” (which I’ll admit I didn’t notice until looking at the lyrics).  The APP website formats this verse differently (ostensibly to accommodate the backing vocal parts), which I’ve followed here:

Just one minute more (Gimme one more) Then I’ll walk right through that door (Gimme one more, gimme one more) It’s gonna be alright (Alright) It’s gonna be alright, but'ya gotta

Gimme one marker more (Gimme one more) Then I'll
 walk right through that door (Gimme one more, gimme one more) Gimme one more (Don’t let me down) It’s gonna be alright, alright, alright

As that section is repeated, the “gimme one more” occurs more and more frequently, and - along with the switch from “Gimme one minute more” to “Gimme one marker more” - this illustrates something of a gambling addiction.  The singer/speaker can’t pull himself away from his insatiable need.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

This morning I listened to the first disc of The Essential Alan Parsons Project for my Collection Audit project.  I still have to write a post about something I noticed in “Snake Eyes” (which I’ll reblog here), but first, I figured out the recurring guitar phrase in “(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether.”  As I was listening to it, it sounded pretty easy; the only difficulty (which wasn’t even that difficult) was determining that one of the notes is bent.

I doubled-tracked this, mostly because my tone doesn’t match that well and I thought double-tracking it would help, but I think it might be that way in the original too.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

The day after I posted half of the opening harpsichord part in “The Ace of Swords” and said I couldn’t figure out the rest of it, I figured out the rest of it.  I was waiting to record it so I could try to figure out an-other part, but I’ve been busy lately and didn’t get around to it, so I just recorded the harpsichord part.  I’m still not that great at rolling my chords though.

[appstereotomy]

Visit Original Link

Last night, I figured out about half of the harpsichord part at the beginning of “The Ace of Swords.”  The part after this is just rolled chords, so it’s kind of frustrating that I haven’t been able to figure it out yet.