As keeper of The Alan Parsons Project archive, Eric Woolfson’s daughter Sally has a treasure trove of audio-visual gems still waiting to be shared with fans. She tells Prog about the challenges of keeping her late father’s creative endeavours out there.
Sally Woolfson was around three years old when her dad Eric Woolfson co-founded The Alan Parsons Project. The duo achieved more than 50 million sales from 10 albums between 1976 and 1987, delivering genius-level music mainly created by Woolfson and produced by Parsons.
Sally – whose voice is heard on the track Chinese Whispers from 1985’s Stereotomy – was once at odds with her dad’s lifestyle, but became his full-time assistant in 2002, and after that became his manager as they laid plans for his posthumous catalogue. He passed away in 2009 and, by that time, her view of the Woolfson legacy had changed.
“When I was younger, his work took him away from me,” she says. “He’d be in the studio ’til 3am then lying in ’til noon the next day, then he’d be on PR tours for weeks on end. His work was my rival, in a way, but when we worked together I was with him every single day, and it became my obsession too!”
It may be her job, but she speaks with brightness and passion of the role she regards as a privilege. She has her work cut out for her: since Woolfson was notably fame-averse, many people today don’t realise how much of APP’s output came from him. “Dad loved working with talented people and, of course, he was very talented too,” she says.
“It was about bringing the right people together for a project to get the best out of it. But he was terrified of fame. He’d seen negative aspects. It was his decision to name the band after Alan; Alan was more marketable, more sexy in a way. But Dad often said it was both the best and the worst decision he ever made. Towards the end of his life, especially working on solo projects, it was frustrating. I still find it frustrating!”
Since Eric’s death, Sally has devoted much of her time to cataloguing his extensive vault. He left not one but two houses full of memorabilia related to his output – and even 17 years on, she hasn’t finished going through it all.
“Dad was a real hoarder and he had a lot of space in those houses, and you know what it’s like: when you’ve got a lot of space, you fill it! When he died I went through everything, and it took me many years.” As a result she has 11 boxes of curated documents, one for each reissue so far, containing photos, clothes, notes, contracts and everything else one could imagine.
“That’s just the physical material – there’s audio material, too,” she notes. “We had 1,000 master tapes and we baked and digitised them all, so I have hundreds and hundreds of hours of audio. Every time we have a new album or box set or whatever it is, I go through the recordings and sort of audition everything, giving everything marks out of 10. It’s quite a process!”
Post-APP, Woolfson sometimes discovered incomplete pieces that he’d entirely forgotten about. Sally recalls: “Sometimes he’d write something and present to Alan, who’d sometimes go, ‘Oh, no, no’ – including Eye In The Sky, one of their biggest hits [it made No.3 in the US]; Alan had said, ‘I don’t like that one!’ but Dad pushed it through.
(Image credit: Future)
“We put together this album called The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was [2009], made up of songs Dad had picked out and had said, ‘This is really good; I should finish it.’ We found one called No Answers Only Questions [a bonus track on the 2007 reissue of Vulture Culture], which is a beautiful track, and the lyrics are so poignant.”
Woolfson’s vault includes a stack of songs with finished music but no lyrics, which Sally describes as “tantalising.” In the modern era an obvious question is: could they be completed? “I couldn’t write for those songs, but my sister writes lyrics,” she says cautiously. “I do ponder… it might be a terrible thing to say, but since he’s not here, could we use AI to put lyrics to some of his music? It’d be the closest thing: new lyrics generated from his own lyrics. It’s a continuous ponder!”
I hear his voice every day, one way or another. And I do feel that he’s very much alive
AI could go even further: Woolfson-sourced lyrics with vocals too. “It’s amazing, it’s terrifying, it’s confusing, it’s exciting, isn’t it?” she reflects. “But Dad was always about pioneering new technology. When a new format like CD came out, they used the Project to demonstrate its capabilities. We’ll see…”
The latest vault production is the official The Alan Parsons Project Book containing memorabilia from the band’s career and words by Prog scribe Joel McIver. There are more on the way (no details yet) and Sally remains committed to ensuring no one forgets Eric’s work.
One great example is her work in securing playback of Eye In The Sky instrumental track Sirius at the World Cup in the USA recently. “It’s always been used in America – the Chicago Bulls turned it into a real sports anthem. But to hear it on a worldwide scene… It’s a special thing for our whole family.
“My sister’s son just turned 16. She was pregnant with him when Dad died; Dad knew he was on the way but never met him. For the last year he’s been playing in the England under-15s football team. The timing! It’s magic!”
It all helps to keep Eric Woolfson’s art relevant. “He’s been gone over 16 years, but I hear his voice every day, one way or another,” Sally says. “And I do feel that he’s very much alive.” Does she find herself talking to him? “I did the other day, actually,” she replies after a pause. “I don’t normally, I can’t explain it.
“I’m driven to keep him and his music alive. I’m still discovering stuff. I haven’t covered every single album yet. It’s a treasure trove; it’s thrilling – especially the audio!”
(LouderSound)
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