Promo for Welles-narrated Alan Parsons album

[Le Chiffre]

Here's a well-done little homemade promo video for Alan Parsons' first album, the Edgar Allen Poe-themed TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, that uses the original radio spot by Orson Welles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9kB_HnGaa4

And here is Welles's complete audio readings for the project, which was presented as a bonus track on the CD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-6hsLYhhaE

[Wellesnet]

40th anniversary reissue:
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Mystery-Im ... s+poe+40th

[Terry]

I'm still cheesed off that Parsons et al stole the writing credit for Debussy's "La chute de la maison Usher." Contemptible, but it's a gorgeous recording of it nonetheless.

[Le Chiffre]

Parsons was pulling one of Led Zepellin's games in using another artist's work without giving credit, but you're right: like Zep he made something remarkable out of it. Since Debussy died some 50-60 years before he did it, I suppose there's no one to object except his estate. Debussy's opera was unfinished too (a 'la Welles), but others have attempted to do something with it as well. In fact, I think a couple of completions of it are on Youtube.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Alan Parsons Project in a nice little 1,000 seat theater about a year ago. It was a terrific show, and I was really glad to see that they still use Welles's voice to introduce a couple of the songs in their set.

[Terry]

20 years ago I saw him open for Yes; both bands were in fine form, they both used a surround sound mix to great effect, but I don't recall hearing any Orson samples (and I certainly would had any been used.)

I assume you've heard the final APP album, Freudiana, which Alan and songwriter Eric Woolfson agreed to release without any artist credit. Subsequently, and understandably, it's quite overlooked, which is a shame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjABnNsfy_8

[Le Chiffre]

Incredible what's on Youtube these days; pretty much the whole history of music, the whole history of recording.

Fruediana is a very fine album, like most of their works together. I like the way each album had some kind of driving concept behind it, making them more like a symphonic statement. I think a snippet of Orson's voice is used on other Parsons albums besides the Poe album, like 1995's A VALID PATH. Good to see prog rock in general getting some respect again, as in Yes going into the R&R HOF this year.

Maybe they don't use Welles's voice in all their concerts. When I heard them, it was used to introduce THE RAVEN. Manowar used Welles's voice in concert too, when they would play BATTLE HYMNS. But then, I wouldn't pay much to hear Manowar just because of one song, unless I was in a headbanger mood, which is pretty rare these days.