Pyramid

I was thinking about Pyramid yester-day and realized that it (and "Pyramania" in particular) has an appropriate theme for the Alan Parsons Project's third album since pyramids have three edges (when viewed from the side, at least).

"Pyramania"

I listened to Pyramid yester-day and noticed an interesting feature in the verses of "Pyramania," particularly the second verse.  The meaning kind of spills over the line breaks, so I'm not sure about the best way to format it, but it's something like:

I've been told someone in the know can be sure that his luck is as

Good as gold, money in the bank, and you don't even pay for it

If you fold, a dollar in the shape of the pyramid that's printed on the back

There are a number of groups of three here.  The three-syllable clauses or phrases "I've been told," "Good as gold," and "If you fold" are each set apart from the rest of the line because they rhyme with each other and because they're sung with longer note values (usually two quarter notes and a half note, in contrast to the multiple eighth notes that follow).  Unique to the second verse, these three syllables are also three individual words, and, of course, there are also three lines in the verse (as I've formatted it, at least).

These various threes in the structure of the verses reflect the three sides of the pyramid, which is the theme of the song.

"Pyramania"

In the line "You can grow a hedge that is vertically straight over ten feet high" in "Pyramania," the phrase "ten feet high" is sung to a group of ascending notes (B C D), musically giving a sense of this height.

"Silence and I"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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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.