"La Sagrada Familia"

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Collection Audit:

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.

"Limelight"

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Collection Audit:

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.

"Snake Eyes"

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Collection Audit:

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. 

"(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether"

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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.