"Silence and I"

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Last night, I tried figuring out some parts for some songs.  I didn't end up getting anything, but I noticed something about the middle part of "Silence and I."  At about 3:39, there's a three-note phrase (D, Eb, F) where the first two notes are quarter notes and the third is a half note.  It's not sure specifically what instrument it's played on, but I'm pretty sure it's a woodwind (I'd guess flute or clarinet).

That same phrase (albeit in a different key, so it's F, Gb, Ab) is also in "Pyramania."  There, it's the vocal melody for "I had read" (and for "I've been told" and "It's no lie" later in the song).

According to the Alan Parsons Project's website, Andrew Powell did the orchestration for "Silence and I."  While he wasn't involved with "Pyramania," he was involved with other songs on the Pyramid album (and even back to Tales of Mystery and Imagination), so I think he deliberately put in that little quotation as a reference to that earlier APP song.

"Prime Time"

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A few days ago, I listened to Ammonia Avenue for my Collection Audit project.  Last night I tried figuring out the opening part of "Prime Time."  I think I have most of it.

I hadn't realized until figuring this out, but - like "Eye in the Sky" - "Prime Time" has palm-muted chords.  There's not really a similarity in tonality though.

"The Raven" and "Breakdown"

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Recently, I remembered something that I probably should have written about a few months ago.  Back in September, Alan Parsons posted a picture of a set list:

I noticed that he has "Breakdown/Raven."  I'm assuming that the slash indicates a transition from one to the other (like a medley), so it seems like he's aware that the same bass phrase is in both.  I figured this out and wrote about it last year, although where I was then just sort of suspicious that I had other sections wrong, now I'm pretty sure some of it's wrong.