The Alan Parsons Project - Tales Of Mystery And Imagination (1987 Remix) (1987)

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Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe) is the debut studio album by British rock band The Alan Parsons Project. 

It was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom by Charisma Records. 

The lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe, attracted a cult audience. 

The title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories of the same name.
Musicians featured on the album include vocalists Arthur Brown of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown on "The Tell Tale Heart", John Miles on "The Cask of Amontillado" and "(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether", and Terry Sylvester of The Hollies on "To One in Paradise". 

The complete line-up of bands Ambrosia and Pilot play on the record, along with keyboardist Francis Monkman of Curved Air and Sky. 

"The Raven" features actor Leonard Whiting on lead vocals, with Alan Parsons performing vocals through an EMI vocoder. According to the album's liner notes, "The Raven" was the first rock song to feature a digital vocoder. 

The prelude section of "The Fall of the House of Usher", although uncredited, is taken verbatim from the opera fragment "La chute de la maison Usher" by Claude Debussy which was composed between 1908 and 1917. 

"The Fall of the House of Usher" is an instrumental suite that runs more than 15 minutes and takes up most of Side 2 of the recording.

In 1987, Parsons completely remixed the album, including additional keyboard and guitar passages and narration (by Orson Welles) as well as updating the production style to include heavy reverb and the gated reverb snare drum sound, which was popular in the 1980s. 

He also made the end of side A segue into the start of side B due to the remix of the album being released when CD's were commercially available, thus no need to stop playback to change sides. 

The CD notes that Welles never met Parsons or Eric Woolfson, but sent a tape to them of the performance shortly after the album was manufactured in 1976.

The first passage narrated by Welles on the 1987 remix (which comes before the first track, "A Dream Within a Dream") is sourced from an obscure nonfiction piece by Poe – No XVI of his Marginalia (from 1845 to 1849 Edgar Allan Poe titled some of his reflections and fragmentary material "Marginalia.") The second passage Welles reads (which comes before "The Fall of the House of Usher" (Prelude), seems to be a partial paraphrase or composite from nonfiction by Poe, chiefly from a collection of poems titled "Poems of Youth" by Poe (contained in "Introduction to Poems – 1831" in a section titled "Letter to Mr. B-----------"; the "Shadows of shadows passing" part of the quote comes from the Marginalia.

Track listing

1.  A Dream Within a Dream (Instrumental) - 4:13 

2.  The Raven   (Vocals: Alan Parsons, Leonard Whiting) - 3:57 

3.  The Tell-Tale Heart  (Vocals: Arthur Brown, additional vocals: Jack Harris) - 4:39 

4.  The Cask of Amontillado  (Vocals: John Miles, additional vocals: Terry Sylvester) - 4:33 

5.  (The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether  (Vocals: John Miles, additional vocals: Jack Harris) - 4:21 

6.  The Fall of the House of Usher (Instrumental) - 15:02 

      Prelude - 7:01  

      Arrival - 2:34

      Intermezzo - 0:59

      Pavane - 4:36

      Fall - 0:51

7.  To One in Paradise  (Vocals: Terry Sylvester, additional vocals: Eric Woolfson, Alan Parsons) - 4:44

8.  Eric´s Guide Vocal Medley - 9:23

9.  Orson Welles Dialogue - 3:05

10.  Sea Lions In The Departure Lounge - Sound Effects and Experiments - 2:38

11.  GBH Mix - Unreleased Experiments - 5:22 

Personnel

• Alan Parsons – EMI vocoder (2), Projectron synthesizer (3, 7, 10), recorder (5), additional vocals (11), synthesizer (3-4 on 1987 remix), cathedral organ (5 on 1987 remix) producer, engineer
• Eric Woolfson – keyboards (1-3, 5, 7), backing vocals (2, 4), harpsichord (4), organ (7), additional vocals (11), synthesizer (9 on 1987 remix) executive producer
• Andrew Powell – orchestral arrangement (2-4, 6, 8, 10), orchestral conductor (2-4, 6, 8, 10), keyboards (7), organ (9)
• Francis Monkman – organ (7), harpsichord (9)
• Billy Lyall – keyboards (1, 3), recorder (1), piano (4-5), Fender Rhodes electric piano (11), glockenspiel (11)
• Christopher North – keyboards (2)
• Orson Welles – narration (1 and 6 on 1987 remix)
• Leonard Whiting – lead vocals (2), narration (11)
• Arthur Brown – lead vocals (3)
• John Miles – lead vocals (4-5), electric guitar (5)
• Jack Harris – additional vocals (3, 5)
• Terry Sylvester – additional vocals (4), lead vocals (11)
• Jane Powell – backing vocals (11)
• Smokey Parsons – vocals
• Bob Howes & the English Chorale – choir (2-4)
• Westminster City School Boys Choir – choir (11)
• David Paton – acoustic guitar (1, 11), backing vocals (1), bass guitar (3-5, 7, 11)
• Kevin Peek – acoustic guitar (9)
• Laurence Juber – acoustic guitar (9)
• Ian Bairnson – electric guitar (1, 3-5, 7, 11, 2 on 1987 remix), acoustic guitar (1, 11)
• David Pack – electric guitar (2)
• Joe Puerta – bass guitar (1-2)
• Les Hurdle – bass guitar (6)
• Daryl Runswick – double bass (9)
• David Katz – violin, orchestra leader (6, 8, 10), orchestra contractor
• Jack Rothstein – orchestra leader (6, 8, 10)
• David Snell – harp (9)
• Hugo D'Alton – mandolin (9)
• Stuart Tosh – drums (1-5, 7, 9, 11), timpani (3), backwards cymbals (3)
• Burleigh Drummond – drums (2)
• John Leach – cimbalom (9), kantele (9)
• Dennis Clarke - saxophone, clarinet

Production 

• Gordon Parry – engineer
• Tony Richards – assistant engineer
• Chris Blair – assistant engineer
• Tom Trefethen – assistant engineer
• Pat Stapley – assistant engineer
• Peter Christopherson – photography
• Aubrey Powell – photography
• Storm Thorgerson – photography
• Sam Emerson – photography
• Hipgnosis – design, cover art
• Colin Elgie – artwork, graphic design, layout design

Notes

Released: 1987

Genre:  Progressive rock, symphonic rock

Length:  42:38 (1987) 

Producer:  Alan Parsons

Label - Charisma, 20th Century Fox