ERIE (PA) — I was reading the “Irish sports pages” online in my hometown paper, the Fitchburg-Leominster Sentinel Enterprise on Saturday before the Lehigh game. I wanted to see if anybody I knew back home had ‘donned the dirt suit’ when I spied a picture of a very familiar face in the national obits and thought to myself “Oh no, not him.”

It was Eric Woolfson.

Eric was the co-founder of my favorite rock group of all time, the Alan Parsons Project and “The Voice” behind many of the band’s most memorable tunes.

In a previous “FTS” entitled “The Soundtrack of My Life” I had explained the genesis of my connection to APP and Eric’s voice. Here is what I said then:

The one tune that seared the Alan Parsons Project into my consciousness was “Time” from the “Turn of a Friendly Card” album. I was working at an easy listening station in Pittsburgh in the early ‘80s (WPNT “The Point” KDKA’s FM station) and every couple of days amidst the droning of the Bert Kampfert and Percy Faith elevator music drek, the syndicator would slyly slip in this haunting melody, delivered by the magnificent voice of Eric Woolfson.

Fast forward a few years and it’s the night of my mother’s funeral. I had tried to be so strong throughout the visitation and her burial that I had not cried a single tear. It was uncommonly warm for December, so I borrowed my sister’s Triumph TR 7 convertible with 5 speed transmission. With the top down and the radio blasting, I took off alone on the twisty New England back roads that I knew so well for a good, long, hard ride. Suddenly, there on the radio was that song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvwrSdMY7dQ

and these lyrics:

Goodbye my love, maybe for forever
Goodbye my love, the tide waits for me
Who knows when we will meet again, if ever
But time keeps flowing like a river, to the sea, to the sea
‘Til it’s gone forever, gone forever, gone forever more.

I totally lost it as I sang along with Woolfson, finally pulling off to the side of the road to shed the tears that I could not hold back any longer.

Yeah, I guess you could say that music means a lot to me.

It is difficult to choose a “Top 5” of EW vocals but here are mine (minus the aforementioned “Time”) with links to YouTube videos of each:

The title tune from “Freudiana” (which Eric turned into a successful musical):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dMrgBhwnuc

“Don’t Answer Me” from “Ammonia Avenue” (with the great animated video):

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLvFbBR4XOg

“Silence and I” from “Eye in the Sky”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnFX99flC0

Nothing Left to Lose” from “Turn of a Friendly Card”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0byQH6nCZbY

“The Same Old Sun” from the album “Vulture Culture”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrKfwJ-AhxE

Eric Woolfson was my voice. Oddly enough, Steve Balsamo was his. Here is Eric on piano and Steve with the vocals to the APP signature tune “Eye in the Sky”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMH1gUidtVE

EW’s last work was a solo effort entitled “The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was.” It starts with the song “A Golden Key”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_WumeboFZY

And these verses:

“When I was born, no silver spoon in my hand
No trumpets blew, no bells rang out thru the land”

(The later line “Among the crowd, a small invisible man” is rather ironic since Eric was 6’6” and would stand out in any throng)

The album ends with “Immortal” from Eric’s musical “Poe” whose final line is:

“If you remember me, I am immortal”

Here is Balsamo knocking this song out of the park:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuQa20SlrYA

You get the sense that Eric knew that his days were numbered by his choice of those opening and closing numbers. Ironically, Eric was working on “More of the Alan Parsons Project that Never Was” when he passed.

The response on the “Psychobabble” Roadkill APP fan message board has been overwhelming. Here is a link to it (username: app; password: APP)

http://www.roadkill.com/APP/list/09/December/

I had the great pleasure of seeing the Alan Parsons Project (minus Eric, who never toured with APP) perform with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Detroit Opera House several years ago. It was totally unreal. My hope had always been that Eric and Alan would tour with the Project, allowing me to hear my favorite group and “The Voice” together in person, but now that chance is “gone forever more.”

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: [email protected]