I Finally Listened To Alan Parsons

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Hey folks, how we doing? Welcome back to the channel. My name is Dave Wildheart and welcome to the place where we check out live musical performances. And this week or in today's video, we're checking out Alan Parsons and the song Sirius / I in the Sky. This is from the Never Ending Show Live official video. Hmm, official live video. How exciting. Um, this is from Scott from my Patreon.

[00:00:26]Thank you very much, Scott. You're always sending through these fantastic requests and it's always very interesting to see what I get from you cuz sometimes it's mad funny, sometimes it's this, sometimes it's all a bit all over the place and I love it. Um, he says, "I don't see that you've reacted to any Alan Parsons project." Correct.

[00:00:43]Let's go with Don't Answer Me.

[00:00:46]And then he says, "On second thought, let's go with Sirius I in the Sky." Um, so Alan Parsons, I really he has passed me by completely. I have heard his name thrown around for years, obviously.

[00:01:00]I couldn't name I'm sorry, I was kind of spitting on the microphone there. I couldn't name you any of his songs. I don't know even what type of musical direction he goes in. I think maybe he was on a Rick Beato video or something.

[00:01:10]Is that that's the kind of area we're talking, it's kind of Rick Beato interview area. Was there an interview with Rick? There might have been it. Um, but look, he was a sound engineer first, an audio engineer. He was a sound engineer on Abbey Road by the Beatles, Let It Be by the Beatles and Dark Side of the Moon.

[00:01:29]So, working in the industry, shall we say, and then proceeded to have his own group and yeah, has a musical career after that. Plays guitar, keyboard, bass, vocals, flute.

[00:01:43]How we getting flute? But you can see already from this very first picture, I know this is not Alan Parsons, so ignore that. Um, yeah, I got the lyrics up. Um, apparently it's about a breakup and then once you break up with someone, you can see um, you can read their mind, you can see all the things they do wrong, things that they you don't like about them. I don't know, something like that. But this was his biggest song. It got number three in the US in 1982.

[00:02:09]Um [snorts] So, this is his hit.

[00:02:13]Right? This is his, um, Cheating Texas, basically. Um, this is seg- the Serious I don't know what it says it's Serious segue the instrumental piece Serious segues into I in the Sky on the album.

[00:02:26]On the single, it doesn't do that, but we've obviously got the instrumental going into the song. So, that's very exciting.

[00:02:33]Let us listen.

[00:02:37]>> [music] >> That I recognize.

[00:02:45]That I recognize.

[00:02:49]>> [music] >> Such a cool keyboard riff there.

[00:03:00]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hello.

[00:04:01]>> [music] [music] >> Like I don't know why that riff or that keyboard the the notes he's playing, it really triggers a memory or something in my head.

[00:04:15]I couldn't tell you why or for what reason it does. I do like it. It's kind of like this simple kind of keyboard riff. Is it riff? It's not riff, is it? Riff is very much guitar, but it's got the delay on it. Yeah, it's got this kind of delay on it which reminds me a little bit of the you know, like the intro to, um, The Who.

[00:04:35]Baba O'Riley. Is that what it is? Baba O'Riley? Um, similar vibes, though. And it's got the stomping like beat coming in. I mean, yeah, similar time, similar music kind of that sounds bloody great, isn't it? Um, what a huge crowd and a huge band he has. Quite unexpectedly. I mean, it it's clearly kind of going to be some progy thing.

[00:04:56]Right? Maybe not clearly, but it feels quite progressive, quite pro rock. Um, which no doubt is what he was known for.

[00:05:03]But it's, uh just I don't know just the the the the energy in that room I guess it's his biggest hits or this maybe is the last song they play. The energy is absolutely huge. Um, so let's let's get into it. I guess that was the end of, um, the the segue. And I was going to note that was Serious and that was the segue.

[00:05:22]>> [music] >> They're almost fading out, huh? Like a live fade out.

[00:05:42]Okay, now we're in the song.

[00:05:47]Here comes Alan.

[00:05:54]So many guys on stage playing Don't acoustic guitar, electric solo guitar, another electric, bass, drummer, keyboard player, and Alan floating in and out of keys and guitar on the acoustic for this song. Wild.

[00:06:11]He's about to start singing.

[00:06:13]Don't think [music] sorry's [singing] easily said.

[00:06:22]Don't try turning [music and singing] tables instead.

[00:06:30]You've taken lots of [music] chances before.

[00:06:34]But I ain't going to give any more.

[00:06:36][music and singing] Don't ask me. That's how it goes. This part of me knows what you're thinking.

[00:06:47]Don't say you won't regret.

[00:06:55]Don't let the fire [music and singing] rush to your head.

[00:07:04]I've heard the accusation [music] before.

[00:07:07]The sky.

[00:07:08]And I ain't going to take any more >> [music and singing] >> believing somebody's lies while all of the signs are deceiving.

[00:07:20]I am the >> [music] >> eye in the sky looking at you.

[00:07:25]I can read your mind.

[00:07:28]I am [music] the maker of rules, giving the fools >> [singing] >> I can change your plan.

[00:07:36]And I don't need to see any more [music and singing] to know that I can read your mind.

[00:07:45]I can read your mind.

[00:07:49]I can [music] read your mind.

[00:07:53]I can read your mind.

[00:07:58]Don't leave me.

[00:07:59]>> Um I love about the song is that it kind of builds up these layers. I guess that's some of the things if you if you're an audio engineer and you play a lot of keyboards it's all about these like pad layers, like synth layers building more and more. And even there in the first verse, he's there with the guitar that kind of kind of do nothing. Second verse just brings in these single picked kind of chords or arpeggiated kind of chords.

[00:08:22]It just brings these little bit more to give it a bit more interest. And look, his voice is kind of how do you explain it? It's quite like understated. It's quite fairly low in the mix. It's not like he's right at the front like a frontman or it it's just like another instrument in in the mix. And like I remember this song. I don't know why, again, it's this probably BBC Radio 2, but that that chorus, that hook, it really triggered some memories, some weird feelings of nostalgia in my mind. I've heard this not many times, but it has been played in my presence.

[00:09:00]I don't know. I really like it. I like the way it goes kind of this minor. The second half of the chorus is kind of this this minor when they're singing that I can read your mind. It's kind of like, uh, this sad minor sounding key.

[00:09:11]Very cool.

[00:09:12]Very cool.

[00:09:16]>> [music] >> Reminds me of something about the >> [music] >> I love the second singing as well.

[00:09:34]So, find another fool like before.

[00:09:38]Cuz I ain't going to live any more [music and singing] believing somebody's lies while all of the signs are deceiving.

[00:09:46][music and singing] I am the eye in the sky >> [music] >> looking at you.

[00:09:56]I can read your mind.

[00:09:57][music and singing] I am the >> [music] [music] [singing] >> There's >> [music] >> a lot of young kids in the audience, right?

[00:10:25]There's a young kid there. There's a youngish guy there.

[00:10:29]Like if you think about music from the '70s, right? And Alan Parsons is '70s, we were saying. He has acted 1967. That was probably his producing days when his musical career.

[00:10:44]Where is the information that they want to have?

[00:10:49]>> [sighs and gasps] >> I don't know.

[00:10:50]It's awful, isn't it?

[00:10:52]Band members. Good lord, he has a lot of former band members.

[00:10:56]Um 1976, I think was his first one. So, yeah. The fact that there's still quite a lot of young guys down the front of an Alan Parsons show, I mean it says wonders for what this music is, yeah? And thank goodness that people who are young are still listening to it because this is truly a beautifully written song.

[00:11:17]>> [music] [music] >> Oh, come on.

[00:11:57]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> That's such a fat Gibson sound.

[00:12:22]>> [music] >> Oh, we're finished. [cheering] God, that wasn't long enough.

[00:12:30]I could listen to a 9-minute version of that any day of the week. Um I love that solo at the end. That Gibson sounds so beefy, man. What a great tone he's getting out of that Gibson. I mean, surprise, surprise, huh?

[00:12:43]Gibson do good tones. There he is.

[00:12:44]There's Alan. Um I think a wonderfully arranged song, yeah? From from whenever this one was probably in the '70s. Was it '70s or '82? This one was '82, '83, I think. No, '82. Um what a cool song to have in the '80s, the early '80s when things like disco were around.

[00:13:05]And then we have this, which is this kind of proggy, dream-like music.

[00:13:10]Look, I'm just checking out the chords as well. It's it's it's it's doing a lot of different things. There's G6s, G minor 6s.

[00:13:18]Like B minor 7s, E7s. It's really um it's a very accomplished songwriter and presumably guitar and and keyboard player making a wonderful song and just it getting it exactly right, yeah? That chorus, the changes within the chorus, yeah? We you know, some choruses are the same four chords over and over again.

[00:13:41]The way it changes halfway through, goes into the upper echelons, the upper registers, and then it drops down into the I can read your mind kind of repeated hook.

[00:13:50]Look, that was really really cool.

[00:13:52]Scott, thank you very much for sending that one through. Um we probably should check out more Alan Parsons stuff. He clearly has um a a huge discography of amazing stuff.

[00:14:02]And maybe it would be cool to hear something that's a little bit more where he can release a little bit more, if you know what I mean, because this one was a single, so he's confined to a 4- 5-minute maximum.

[00:14:13]So, maybe there's something out there, an album track that's like 9 minutes long that we we can really get our teeth into. Other than that, though, thank you very much for watching, and I will see you in the next video.