The Turn of a Friendly Card
| The Turn of a Friendly Card | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by The Alan Parsons Project | ||||
| Released | 1 November 1980 | |||
| Recorded | Late 1979 – Mid 1980 | |||
| Studio | Acousti Studio, Paris, France | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 40:25 | |||
| Label | Arista | |||
| Producer | Alan Parsons | |||
| The Alan Parsons Project chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Rolling Stone |  [2] |
The Turn of a Friendly Card is the fifth studio album by the British progressive rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released on 1 November 1980 by Arista Records. The title piece of the album, which appears on Side 2 of the LP, is a 16-minute suite, which was broken up into five tracks, with the five sub-tracks listed as sub-sections. The Turn of a Friendly Card album spawned the hits "Games People Play" and "Time", the latter of which was Eric Woolfson's first lead vocal appearance.
In popular culture
The album's title track was covered by German funeral doom metal band Ahab for their album 'The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" in 2015.
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.
| Side one | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length |
| 1. | "May Be a Price to Pay" | Elmer Gantry | 4:58 |
| 2. | "Games People Play" | Lenny Zakatek | 4:22 |
| 3. | "Time" | Eric Woolfson | 5:04 |
| 4. | "I Don't Wanna Go Home" | Lenny Zakatek | 5:03 |
| Side two | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Lead Vocals | Length |
| 1. | "The Gold Bug" | Instrumental | 4:34 |
| 2. | "The Turn of a Friendly Card
| Chris Rainbow (1, 2, 5), Eric Woolfson (4), Instrumental (3) | 16:24 |
Though numbered as a single work, "The Turn of a Friendly Card" is split into five tracks.
The Turn of a Friendly Card was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:
- "May Be a Price to Pay" (Intro/demo)
- "Nothing Left to Lose" (Basic backing track)
- "Nothing Left to Lose" (Chris Rainbow overdub compilation)
- "Nothing Left to Lose" (Early studio version with Woolfson's guide vocal)
- "Time" (Early studio attempt)
- "Games People Play" (Rough mix)
- "The Gold Bug" (Demo)
Personnel
- Stuart Elliott - drums, percussion
- David Paton - bass guitar
- Ian Bairnson - electric, acoustic and classical guitars; pedal steel guitar on "Time"
- Eric Woolfson - piano, harpsichord, lead vocals
- Alan Parsons - whistling and finger snaps on "The Gold Bug", Clavinet on "The Gold Bug" and "The Ace of Swords", harpsichord on "The Ace of Swords", backing vocal on "Time"
- Chris Rainbow - lead and backing vocals
- Dave Terry - lead vocal
- Dennis Clarke - saxophone
- Lenny Zakatek - lead and backing vocals
- The Philharmonia Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Andrew Powell
Produced and engineered by Alan Parsons
Executive producer: Eric Woolfson
Mastering consultant: Chris Blair
Sleeve concept: Lol Creme and Kevin Godley
Additional instrumentation
"The Gold Bug", which references the same-titled short story by Edgar Allan Poe, includes a whistling part by Parsons, who imitates the style of Ennio Morricone's legendary Spaghetti Western film themes,[3] and wordless vocals by Rainbow, while the main theme is played on an alto saxophone. The saxophone player, originally credited as Mel Collins, is instead credited on the liner notes for the remastered edition as "A session player in Paris whose name escapes us"; this refers to the fact that the saxophone part is a composite of several separate takes. Similarly, the accordion part on "Nothing Left to Lose" is credited in the liner notes to "An unidentified Parisian session player". Also on "The Gold Bug", the newer liner notes credit a "Harmonized Rotating Triangle" to drummer Stuart Elliott. This refers to the phasing sound effects heard throughout the rhythm-free introduction to the piece.
Charts
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | The Billboard 200 | 13 |
| 1980 | UK Albums Chart | 38 |
| 1980 | Norway | 11 |
| 1981 | Canada | 16 |
Notes
- ↑ The Turn of a Friendly Card at AllMusic
- ↑ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews
- ↑ Ennio Morricone's main theme for the 1964 film A Fistful of Dollars (as heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_UD-zxgRUs) similarly features a whistled melody over an arpeggiating acoustic guitar.