The Turn of a Friendly Card is the fifth studio album by the British progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1980 by Arista Records. The title piece, which appears on side 2 of the LP, is a 16-minute suite broken up into five tra…
The Turn of a Friendly Card is the fifth studio album by the British progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1980 by Arista Records. The title piece, which appears on side 2 of the LP, is a 16-minute suite broken up into five tracks. The Turn of a Friendly Card spawned the hits "Games People Play" and "Time", the latter of which was Eric Woolfson's first lead vocal appearance. An edited version of the title piece combining the opening and ending parts of the suite was also released as a single along with an official video.
As with the band's previous albums, The Turn of a Friendly Card is a concept album with its theme focused on the gambling industry and the fate of gamblers, with more than one reference to Las Vegas (e.g. "there's a sign in the desert that lies to west" from the title piece). Musically it's a more melodic and accessible album than its predecessors.
Up to this album, all Alan Parsons Project albums had been packaged in gatefold sleeves. Increasing budgetary constraints of record companies made The Turn of a Friendly Card the beginning of all subsequently released Alan Parsons Project albums to be single-sleeve packaged.
The album was recorded in a record short time of two weeks in Paris. Usually the Alan Parsons Project would take many months to record an album.
Tracklist:
01. "May Be a Price to Pay" Elmer Gantry 0:00
02. "Games People Play" Lenny Zakatek 5:01
03. "Time" Eric Woolfson 9:25
04. "I Don't Wanna Go Home" Lenny Zakatek 14:40
05. "The Gold Bug" Chris Rainbow 19:32
06. "The Turn of a Friendly Card 24:06
i. The Turn of a Friendly Card, Pt. 1
ii. Snake Eyes 26:51
iii. The Ace of Swords 30:07
iv. Nothing Left to Lose 33:05
v. The Turn of a Friendly Card, Pt. 2 37:12
Personnel
Stuart Elliott – drums, percussion
David Paton – bass guitar
Ian Bairnson – electric, acoustic and classical guitars; pedal steel guitar on "Time"
Eric Woolfson – keyboards, piano, harpsichord, lead vocals
Alan Parsons – Projectron on "Games People Play", whistling and finger snaps on "The Gold Bug", Clavinet on "The Gold Bug" and "The Ace of Swords", harpsichord on "The Ace of Swords", additional vocals on "Time"
Chris Rainbow – lead and backing vocals
Elmer Gantry (Dave Terry) – lead vocal
Lenny Zakatek – lead and backing vocals
The Philharmonia Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Andrew Powell
Produced and engineered by Alan Parsons
