He also produced the hugely successful Year Of The Cat album with Al Stewart and two albums with American progressive rock band Ambrosia. In 1975 he met Eric Woolfson who not only became his manager, but joined forces with Alan as a songwriting and performing partner for what became known as The Alan Parsons Project. The APP’s debut album, Tales Of Mystery And Imagination, based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, paved the way for a signing to Clive Davis’ newly launched Arista label and a string of hit albums, namely I Robot (1977), Pyramid (1978), The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980), Eye in the Sky (1982), Ammonia Avenue (1984), Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987). A brief venture into musical theatre resulted in Freudiana in 1990.The show ran for over a year in the historic Theater An Der Wien in Vienna. Eric and Alan then went separate ways. Eric devoted his career to the musical theatre while Parsons felt the need to bring his music to the live concert stage and to continue to record conceptual symphonic rock music. With his long-standing previous APP collaborators, guitarist Ian Bairnson, drummer Stuart Elliott and orchestral arranger Andrew Powell, Alan dropped the "Project" identity for Alan Parsons - Try Anything Once in 1994. The partnership continued for On Air in 1996 and The Time Machine in 1999. During this time the first incarnation of "Alan Parsons Live Project" toured to sell-out audiences throughout the globe.
Following Alan’s relocation to California, a new Live Project band was formed in 2003. The album A Valid Path, Alan’s foray into Electronica was released in 2004 and featured Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, The Crystal Method, Shpongle, Uberzone, PJ Olsson and Alan’s son, Jeremy. 2008 saw the reissue of all the Alan Parsons Project albums in expanded form, containing never-before-heard bonus material and a 2-CD compilation called The Essential Collection. One of the most familiar Project tracks is Sirius, perhaps best known as the Chicago Bulls theme and more recently as walk-on music for The New Orleans Saints at their triumphant Superbowl game in 2010.
Alan’s latest venture is an instructional series about recording called The Art And Science Of Sound Recording. See www.artandscienceofsound.com. All Our Yesterdays, a song written especially for the series, features some of LA’s finest musicians and a rare performance by Alan on lead vocals. Alan lives in Santa Barbara, California with his wife Lisa and her two daughters, Tabitha and Brittni, four dogs, a lop-eared rabbit, and an 18-hand Clydesdale called Dante.
The Raven
Alan Parsons Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And through my sleeping
I heard a tapping at my door
I looked but nothing lay in the darkness
And so I turned inside once more
To my amazement
There stood a raven
Whose shadow hung above my door
It spoke that one word
That I shall hear forever more
Nevermore
Thus quoth the raven, nevermore
And still the raven remains in my room
No matter how much I implore
No words can soothe him
No prayer remove him
And I must hear for evermore
Quoth the raven, nevermore
Thus quoth the raven
Nevermore
The lyrics to Alan Parsons's The Raven describe a haunting encounter with a bird that has transcended reality. The singer is woken up by a tapping at his door, only to find an eerie shadow lurking above him. The shadow is then revealed to be a raven that repeats the chilling word, "nevermore." The singer is not able to remove the bird from his room and is tormented endlessly by its ominous repetition of the word.
The poem that the song is based on, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, gives clues as to what the raven symbolizes. In the poem, the raven is seen as a messenger from the afterlife, and its repetition of "nevermore" can be interpreted as a reminder of the inevitability of death. In the song, the raven represents an unrelenting force of darkness that the singer can never shake off.
The song's use of ominous sound effects, such as creaking doors and howling winds, adds to the eerie atmosphere created by the lyrics. The repeated use of the word "nevermore," sung in a low, foreboding tone, creates a sense of dread and hopelessness. The song draws on the Gothic tradition and is a prime example of how music can be used to create a mood and atmosphere that words alone cannot.
Line by Line Meaning
The clock struck midnight
It was late at night
And through my sleeping
While I was asleep
I heard a tapping at my door
Someone was knocking on my door
I looked but nothing lay in the darkness
I didn't see anything in the dark
And so I turned inside once more
I went back to bed
To my amazement
I was surprised
There stood a raven
There was a bird called a raven standing there
Whose shadow hung above my door
Its shadow was on the door
Then through the darkness
In the dark
It spoke that one word
It said one word
That I shall hear forever more
I will always remember it
Nevermore
The word it said was 'nevermore'
Thus quoth the raven, nevermore
That's all the raven said, 'nevermore'
And still the raven remains in my room
The bird is still there
No matter how much I implore
Even though I ask it to leave
No words can soothe him
Nothing I say makes it calm down
No prayer remove him
I can't make it go away with a prayer
And I must hear for evermore
I will always have to listen to it
Quoth the raven, nevermore
The raven just repeats its word
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: ALAN PARSONS, ERIC NORMAN WOOLFSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@alexxela5086
Lyrics
The clock struck midnight
And through my sleeping
I heard a tapping at my door
I looked but nothing
Lay in the darkness
And so I turned inside once more
To my amazement
There stood a raven
Whose shadow hung above my door
Then through the silence
It spoke the one word
That I shall hear for evermore
Nevermore
Thus quoth the raven, nevermore
And still the raven remains in my room
No matter how much I implore
No words can soothe him
No prayer remove him
And I must hear for evermore
Quoth the raven, nevermore
Thus quoth the raven, nevermore
Quoth the raven, nevermore
Thus quoth the raven, nevermore
Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore, never
Nevermore, nevermore, never
Nevermore, nevermore, never
Nevermore, nevermore, nevermore, never
Nevermore, nevermore, never
Nevermore, nevermore, never
@federicopastorelli6867
2023 and I'm still listening this masterpice underrated. Alan Parson is one of the best authors of the general music
@rolfisdreamworld489
yes 🙏🏻
@renatez.9450
it's 2023 and i'm hearing this song for the first time!!! that is music. great
@emorsi
Damn... it is NOT underrated in any way. It is just old now and not played so often anymore.
@federicopastorelli6867
@@emorsi in my opinion Alan Parsons must be in the history like Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Beatles and others.
It's not enough
@susannebuchholz72
What a wonderful song! A timeless masterpiece! I have the LP "Tales of mystery and Imagination!"I could not get enough! 👏🏻
@ClassicTVMan1981X
R.I.P. Ian Bairnson, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist (1953-2023). Out of all the various musicians who played with the Alan Parsons Project, aside from of course Parsons himself and Eric Woolfson he was the only constant member to appear on all their albums; Bairnson also contributed to four of Parsons' solo albums.
@jahoosafatz
Allan Parsons had a HUGE part in the conceptualizing of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon!! He then splintered off solo, & revolutionized electronic psychedelic music! I firmly believe that he & Keith Emerson from ELP introduced us to the early inception of electronica/acid jazz!!!! I will NEVER tire of this type of music...
@j.s.connolly8579
YEP Alan Parsons was one of THE Top Influential "Prog Rock" bands of all time!
Listen to ANY Prog Rock band from YES to RUSH and even King Crimson... and you will hear smatterings of AP in their music! GREAT STUFF!!! :D
@ericjohnson3746
I was in college when this came out. A few of us were invited to my English professor's house for a get together. I brought this album. She played the whole thing and kept saying that this music was perfect for Edgar Allen Poe. She was about 25 years older than us. She brought up the album in class later and recommended it to everyone.