DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM George Davis, center, held the guitar he won in the Star-Bulletin Father's Day contest. The guitar from Harry's Music was signed by "A Walk Down Abbey Road" musicians, from left, Todd Rundgren, Jack Bruce and Christopher Cross.

Isle Beatles tribute next
project for Parsons

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By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com

Alan Parsons is sitting on his patio just minutes from downtown Santa Barbara, while at a next-door neighbor's house, a dozen roosters are crowing so loud that his dog charges the fence barking to shut them up.

"Hard to believe this is almost the middle of the city," he says. "That's one reason I love it here."

Parsons, 53, is one of the most celebrated rock 'n' roll engineers in history and leader of the Alan Parsons Project. Now he's in Honolulu for his debut as one of a half-dozen acclaimed musicians kicking off the second annual tour of "A Walk Down Abbey Road: A Tribute to the Beatles" tomorrow at the Blaisdell Arena.

Joining Parsons are bluebloods of rockdom: Jack Bruce (Cream), Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross, Grand Funk's Mark Farner and Eric Carmen. The "house orchestra" will include Bruce; Parsons; Goffrey Townsend, John Entwhistle's guitarist; and drummer Steve Murphy from Trans-Siberia Orchestra.

Parsons was the head engineer at Abbey Road Studios in London, where he engineered Beatles records and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon."

As a child he played piano, guitar and flute but later took on the role of listener rather than player. In the late '60s he turned his attention to a career at Abbey Road, where he worked with the Beatles as assistant engineer on the "Let It Be" and "Abbey Road" albums.

A long association followed with the studio and Paul McCartney. When the Beatles split up, Parsons went on to engineer such classics as Wings' "Red Rose Speedway" album and the singles "Hi Hi Hi" and "C Moon." He had a similar association with the Hollies, working on hits such as "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" and "The Air That I Breathe."

'A WALK DOWN ABBEY ROAD' Where: Blaisdell Arena When: 7 p.m. tomorrow Tickets: $35 at the Blaisdell box office and Ticket Plus outlets Call: 593-8333

In 1974, Parsons and Eric Woolfson, with whom he had worked at Abbey Road, started adapting selected works of Edgar Allen Poe to music. Two years and thousands of feet of tape later, the Alan Parsons Project was born: The highly acclaimed "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" album -- Parsons' favorite -- was the first in a series of award-winning albums including "I Robot," "Pyramid," "Eve," "The Turn of a Friendly Card," and "Eye in the Sky."

In addition to receiving gold and platinum awards internationally, Parsons has received 10 Grammy nominations for engineering and production.

The Beatles "Tribute" was conceived by Parson to spice up his act. "We were looking for a way to make our show more exciting and get some big names involved, but then we didn't think getting the names alone would be enough," he said.

Parsons toyed with the idea of adding Pink Floyd material to his show, but as the tour was about to begin last year, the idea of a Beatles tribute popped up.

"It seemed like a good idea because their greatest-hits album was No. 1 on the charts, so rather than just embellish my show, we decided to make the Beatles the show," he said.

"This was all Parsons' concept," Rundgren said. "I've done this thing before, albeit with a real Beatle; I've been out with Ringo twice. That may be the reason I got a ring to do this, but he didn't call me up and say, 'What do you want to do?' He already had the concept, sort of an Alan Parsons Beatle Project."

Parsons is not as comfortable playing live as he is being behind the scenes. "I don't have the pedigree like the other guys," he said. "I'm no singer, really, and usually just put the song list together and have arrangements in place. My job has always been in the studio."

More pragmatically, being a studio engineer gave Parsons longevity in a difficult business and "the power to develop and change as a producer," he said.

That's included started a company devoted to improving the sound quality of film and video. He's also turned his hand to directing music-based TV programs. His "London Calling" developed into an MTV series, and he was instrumental in the creation of Music Box, the European music cable service.

Parsons' next album -- expected to be completed next year -- will be a departure.

"It has a lot more electronic flavor, which I hope will make it more appealing to a less mature audience," Parsons said, laughing. "I would l-o-v-e to make a record where I wasn't steered by any commercial value.

"But this now is the nature of the music business, which is run much more by accountants than musicians."

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