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Thread: FEATURED CD - The Alan Parsons Project : The Turn of a Friendly Card

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    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    FEATURED CD - The Alan Parsons Project : The Turn of a Friendly Card



    Per Allmusic:
    With two of the Alan Parsons Project's best songs, the lovely ballad "Time" and the wavy-sounding "Games People Play," The Turn of a Friendly Card remains one of this group's most enjoyable albums. Parsons' idea, the subject of the album's six tracks, centers around the age-old temptation of gambling and its stranglehold on the human psyche. On "Games People Play," vocalist Lenny Zakatek sounds compelling and focused, giving the song a seriousness that aids in realization of the album's concept. With "Time," it is Eric Woolfson who carries this luxurious-sounding ode to life's passing to a place above and beyond any of this band's other slower material. The breakdown of human willpower and our greedy tendencies are highlighted in the last track, entitled "The Turn of a Friendly Card," which is broken into five separate parts. "Snake Eyes," sung by Chris Rainbow, is the most compelling of the five pieces, and ties together the whole of the recording. As in every Parsons album, an instrumental is included, in this case an interesting number aptly titled "The Gold Bug." Like most of the band's instrumentals, its flow and rhythm simulate the overall tempo and concept of the album, acting as a welcome interlude. Although short, The Turn of a Friendly Card is to the point and doesn't let down when it comes to carrying out its idea.
    http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-tu...d-mw0000191339








    Regards,

    Duncan

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    cunning linguist 3LockBox's Avatar
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    A gateway to prog I guess, although I had no concept of prog and had a passing understanding of what progressive rock was at the time. This was my first APP album purchase. My much older brother saw it in my room and made a comment that he wondered about this latest one, owning only I Robot, which led us to swapping albums. Thus began a love affair with APP.

    When I saw APP a couple of years ago he played side 2 of ToaFC in its entirety. I was glad to hear a lot of enthusiasm for this from the audience when he announced that before playing it that it had not been performed as such until then. He referred to it as a work for which he was "very proud". I yelled out, "why didn't you write more stuff like that instead of the show tunes that followed!" (no I didn't)
    Compact Disk brought high fidelity to the masses and audiophiles will never forgive it for that

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    "There's a sign in the desert that lies to the west
    Where you can't tell the night from the sunrise
    And not all the king's horses and all the king's men
    Have prevented the fall of the unwise

    And they think it will make their lives easier
    For God knows up till now it's been hard
    But the game never ends when your whole world depends
    On the turn of a friendly card"

    For anyone who has ever been to Las Vegas......that about sums it up. Best album about Las Vegas / Gambling ever written IMO. Some of Wolfson's best lyrics and the music is great too. Love this whole album

  4. #4
    Was listening to it the previous week. Pleasant album and one of the best from APP.
    Macht das ohr auf!

    COSMIC EYE RECORDS

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    Has there ever been any comment on the similarity of the title track to Stairway To Heaven?

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    For me, their best album. 'Time' is a real thing of beauty.

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    Has there ever been any comment on the similarity of the title track to Stairway To Heaven?
    I hear what you mean, but I think it has more to do with the meter than the melody.

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    Member Garyhead's Avatar
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    APP was one of the bands that got me through the Lean years of Punk & New Wave......................................I remember the release of Tales of Mystery while in High School.....had friends in Orchestra who brought it in for a listen.....opened my eyes......strings didn't need to be just Classical.....or smarmy easy listening music......
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    I hear what you mean, but I think it has more to do with the meter than the melody.
    the lyrics as well. So much so that when I read the set of lyrics that SteveSly posted above, I thought "Why is he posting the words of Stairway To Heaven?", until I took a closer look and realised that it wasn't.

    "There's a sign in the desert that lies to the west"

    cf

    "There's a feeling I get when I look to the west"

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    Member Paulrus's Avatar
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    Back in the days when this came out I sort of lumped it in with other bands I felt were too "prog-lite" to be taken seriously, including ELO and Styx. I've since come to enjoy APP -- especially the earlier albums -- when I want some ear candy without be required to pay too much attention. And there's no denying that the production values on each of those albums was ridiculously high from start to finish. It's no wonder working with Alan Parsons was on Steven Wilson's bucket list.
    I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.

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    Just saw him last May with a eight person lineup. Double 4 part harmonies and just astounding sound. While this was perhaps my 6th time seeing them, the sound seems to get bigger and better all the time. His 1st 5 albums still get some play in my rotation, especially I Robot and TTOAFC. Sadly, he is playing in Chicago the weekend of Rosfest so I will miss him this time around.

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    Member rickawakeman's Avatar
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    Was just listening to the 35th Anniversary release last week, after not having heard the LP in many years. I recalled enjoying it decades ago, so re-visiting it was enjoyable, and I'm now knowledgeable enough to hear a lot of similarities between this type of prog-lite and some '80s Camel, not surprising given some of the same musicians are involved (Chris Rainbow..David.Paton's on there, yes?)

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    Member Jerjo's Avatar
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    Still one of the best APP albums, a form that wouldn't be recaptured again until Try Anything Once.
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  14. #14
    APP was one of those bands that was enjoyable to hear on the radio, but never felt the need to buy any of their albums. I became very familiar with Games People Play from having it on one of the K-Tel cassette collections.

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    Time is a great track, and you can sing Pink Floyd's Us & Them to it and visa versa. Games People Play is a great song too. there's alot happening in it, you'd think it was much longer then the 4+ minutes it is. the title suite is fantastic too. but my favorite on this album is the opener Maybe A Price To Pay.

  16. #16
    A friend introduced me to Tales of Mystery and Imagination years ago and I loved it (still do). It got me on an APP buying kick. There were some good ones, but none that I felt were as good as Tales. A few were completely unmemorable (Vulture Culture, for instance), and others in between. I got tired of being burned, so I stopped buying more, but a few were good enough to keep, including Turn of a Friendly Card, which may be my favorite after Tales (I Robot is the other contender). I love the title track.
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    Quote Originally Posted by bob_32_116 View Post
    the lyrics as well. So much so that when I read the set of lyrics that SteveSly posted above, I thought "Why is he posting the words of Stairway To Heaven?", until I took a closer look and realised that it wasn't.

    "There's a sign in the desert that lies to the west"

    cf

    "There's a feeling I get when I look to the west"
    I get what you are saying, but the subject matter is totally different between the two songs. The APP song is about Las Vegas, the Zep song is more of a fantasy type lyric. (or something like that).

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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheLongshot View Post
    APP was one of those bands that was enjoyable to hear on the radio, but never felt the need to buy any of their albums. I became very familiar with Games People Play from having it on one of the K-Tel cassette collections.
    Did you hear all 16+ minutes of the track The Turn of a Friendly Card on the radio? IMO it's the best track on the album, just not a single.

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    TTOAFC was my first Alan Parsons Project album. Introduced to them by the two big singles and I already knew of AP from his association with Pink Floyd and the Beatles. I was anxiously waiting to get this album and I was even more impressed with the rest of the tracks. The sound was excellent and the intergration with the orchestra was awesome the vocals are always top notch. I'm a big fan of APP, from the well received early albums to the more popish later albums. I still play this album a few times a year. They are one of my fav bands.

  20. #20
    This has always been a special album for me..there is a recent 2cd version..

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    Still gets frequent play chez moi.

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    Thought there would be a little more love for this album and APP in general. Pristine sound, interesting lyrics, excellent vocalists, innovative use of the orchestra, especially early on.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tangram View Post
    Thought there would be a little more love for this album and APP in general. Pristine sound, interesting lyrics, excellent vocalists, innovative use of the orchestra, especially early on.
    APP always seems to get mixed reviews around here. Personally I loved them and own all of the albums along with Parson's post-project albums as well. This album continues to be a favorite.

  24. #24
    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tangram View Post
    hought there would be a little more love for this album and APP in general...
    So did I

    Regards,

    Duncan

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    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    My favorite APP album. Many happy hours in 1980-81, getting high and listening to this album.

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