"Snake Eyes"

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Because of the new edition of The Turn of a Friendly Card that's coming out, the APP have posted a few audio clips of interviews with Eric Woolfson about the album.  A few days ago, they tweeted this one, which includes the opening of "Snake Eyes."  When I heard it, I realized that the bass part is just one note, so I thought, "That'd be pretty easy to figure out."  And the melody didn't sound too hard either.

This is just the first twenty seconds or so.

The Turn of a Friendly Card Deluxe Edition

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[source]

35th Anniversary Deluxe edition of 'The Turn of a Friendly Card' will be released on 6th November 2015. 2CD package includes re-mastered original album, 17 previously unreleased bonus tracks (including Eric Woolfson's songwriting diary home demos) plus 10 bonus tracks and new booklet with lyrics, notes on the making of the album and rare photos. 2CD and Standard Digital format will be available as well as a Limited Edition vinyl 7" of three single edits.

"One Good Reason"

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An-other one of the parts from Ammonia Avenue that I thought would be pretty easy to figure out is the bass part in "One Good Reason."  The rhythm was actually the hardest part.  This is just the first two verses, although I ended on a D note for the first bridge ("I keep making the same mistake…").  I don't think there's a "proper" bass part for the bridges, but there's a repeated D note in the bottom register of a synth part.

The bass parts during the rest of the song are pretty much the same as those that I have in my recording, so I didn't play through the whole song.

"Don't Answer Me"

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I listened to Ammonia Avenue this morning, and I tried to pick out some parts that would be pretty easy to figure out.  I started with the glockenspiel part of "Don't Answer Me" (at least I think it's glockenspiel; the credits on their website don't list glockenspiel specifically, but there is just general "percussion").  I figured out only the parts during the choruses (although I'm not too confident in the last two phrases).

The chords came pretty easily too, although I'm unsure of one in the later part of the chorus.

My recording is just the first minute and a half or so because it would have been boring otherwise, since I know only the chords and a short glockenspiel part.

I found it interesting that the verses start with a C major to A minor modulation, which is the difference of only one note (C, E, G to C, E, A) and the choruses do the same thing, albeit with C major to E minor (C, E, G to B, E, G).

"The Cask of Amontillado"

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I recently read Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado," so naturally I got to thinking about the APP song.  Last night I figured out the chords (although they're not really played so obviously in the original; they're more-or-less implied by the arrangements), at least most of the bass part, and I think all of the fuzz guitar part.

This is only the first half, but the second half is pretty much the same.

"Turn Your Heart Around"

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Verulam Cover Project:

I listened to Colin Blunstone's On the Air Tonight yester-day morning, and last night I tried figuring out just the opening piano part of "Turn Your Heart Around."  I ended up getting the chords too. 

It's not that interesting to listen to though.

I figured out the opening keyboard part and the chords to "Turn Your Heart Around."  I used the version from On the Air Tonight for my recording, but I checked the version on Keats, and - while I haven't investigated to see if the structure is the same - I discovered that it's a whole-step higher.  Additionally, where the On the Air Tonight version opens with piano, the Keats version uses some type of synthesizer.

Keats

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Verulam Cover Project:

To-day I listened to Keats' eponymous and sole album because - according to Russo's Collector's Guide - it was released to-day in 1984. 

I haven't done any work yet in trying to figure out the parts (this was only the second time I've listened to it), which is actually a good thing because I've decided to switch the banner it's under.  At the beginning of the year, I started an-other one of these blogs for the Alan Parsons Project (although I haven't done as much work on that as I have on this project), and since Keats is more of an APP side-project than a Zombies side-project, it makes more sense to put it there.  The only Zombies member Keats has is Colin Blunstone, but three of the four other Keats members were mainstays of the APP session musicians - Ian Bairnson, David Paton, and Stuart Elliott.  Additionally, Eric Woolfson was involved in putting the band together, and Alan Parsons produced the album. 

Switching the blog that Keats is on is also beneficial because it avoids confusing their "Tragedy" and Argent's "Tragedy" in the tags.  However, there will be a slight complication with "Turn Your Heart Around" - a Keats song that Blunstone re-recorded for his On the Air Tonight album.

 Just an administrative note; I'm adding the Keats album here.

"The Tell-Tale Heart"

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I recently read Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," and while I was reading it, I found a few interesting APP-related things.

The source for this part of the APP song (near the end of the song):

Heard all the things in Heaven and Earth
I've seen many things in Hell
But his vulture's eye of a cold pale blue
Is the eye of the Devil himself

is actually near the beginning in Poe's story.  Poe's narrator says, "The disease had sharpened my senses - not destroyed - not dulled them.  Above all was the sense of hearing acute.  I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth.  I heard many things in hell" and "One of his [the old man's] eyes resembled that of a vulture - a pale blue eye, with a film over it."  It's interesting that the APP changed "heard many things in hell" to "seen many things in Hell" - it emphasizes visual nature and eyes.  (There might also be some relation to later APP albums in that quote, specifically Vulture Culture and Eye in the Sky.)

Poe's "There was nothing to wash out - no stain of any kind - no blood-spot whatsoever" results in the APP's "And he won't be found at all / Not a trace to mark his fall / Nor a stain upon the wall."

Poe has a long section devoted to the sound in his narrator's head:

My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they [the policemen] sat and still chatted.  The ringing became more distinct: - it continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness - until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears.

There's a paragraph break, and then the narrator says, "No doubt I now grew very pale…"

In the APP's "The Tell-Tale Heart," this is rendered as:

Louder and louder
Till I could tell the sound was not within my ears
You should have seen me
You would have seen my eyes grow white and cold with fear

The narrator's "eyes grow[ing] white" is not specifically mentioned in Poe's story, merely that "I now grew very pale."  However, the addition of the eyes is interesting because it provides a sort of comparison between the narrator's "white and cold" eyes and the old man's "eye of a cold pale blue."  Both sets of eyes (or, rather, the narrator's eyes and the old man's single eye) are "cold" and pallid.

In Poe's story, the old man's eye itself isn't described as cold, but rather coldness is the effect it has on the narrator:  "Whenever it [the old man's eye] fell upon me, my blood ran cold" and later "I saw it with perfect distinctness - all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones."

Sight is important not only with regard to the old man's eye, but also to the narrator's visibility.  In Poe's story, there are the lines "But you should have seen me.  You should have seen how wisely I proceeded - with what caution - with what foresight - with what dissimulation I went to work!"  There are two "you should have seen"s and also "foresight."  Likewise, the APP song has "You should have seen me / You would have seen my eyes."

Hiatus on Cyclical Listening

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For about four months now, I've been listening to one of the APP albums every Tuesday, cycling through them chronologically.  I think I've gone through two complete cycles (although, for some reason, I seem to have started with The Turn of a Friendly Card), but I'm not going to continue that, for the foresee-able future at least.  I have a lot of other projects that I'm doing, some of which I've been neglecting, and since listening to the albums doesn't seem to have helped very much in figuring out any parts, I'm putting that part of this project on hiatus.  I'm not sure how much I'll work on this now that I'm not consistently listening to the albums, though.

"Lucifer"

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After mentioning it a few days ago, I kept thinking about "Lucifer."  Last night I figured out the guitar parts for one section (I'm pretty sure it's doubled with auto-harp).  I might have the rhythm wrong in the second half though.  I figured out an-other part too, but I'm not sure what instrument it's actually played on.  I used electric piano, but the APP website lists only "synths," so…?

In looking that up, I've discovered that the rhythm in that part spells out EVE - the name of the album - in Morse code.  I'd been suspicious of something like that.

As a basis for my recording I used the early rough mix that's a bonus track on the CD re-issue, so there might be slight differences between this and the final version.

Ammonia Avenue

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A few weeks ago, I got Ammonia Avenue on CD (with bonus tracks!), so - excepting The Sicilian Defence - I now have all of the APP albums on CD.  I listened to Ammonia Avenue to-day, and I noticed two things:

There are recurring drum parts in "You Don't Believe" that sound really similar to recurring drum parts in "Lucifer" from Eve.  The first one in "You Don't Believe" is at about 0:20, and in "Lucifer," the first one is at about 1:28.  According to the APP website, Stuart Elliot played drums on both tracks.

The other thing I noticed is a line in "Ammonia Avenue" - the title track.  After the first verse, there's this couplet:

And who are we to criticize or scorn the things that they do?
For we shall seek and we shall find Ammonia Avenue

I think that the line "we shall seek and we shall find" is a Biblical reference.  I'm not really sure how it relates to the rest of the song, but at the very least, there's a strong resemblance between that line and Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."

"You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned"

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When I listened to Eye in the Sky earlier this week, I thought the glockenspiel part from "You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned" sounded like it would be pretty easy to figure out.  I didn't have time until last night to actually do that though.

I recorded this just on (fake) piano because the fake glockenspiel sounded weird.  Eventually, I'd like to get a real glockenspiel, but I don't have the money for it.