It's difficult to imagine, but there was a time when instrumentals were actually popular music. Not just popular, but chart-topping popular. Movie themes (especially in the '60s), takeoffs on movie themes (a disco version of Star Wars, anyone?), TV shows ("Theme from SWAT", for example), or just instrumentals for their own sake. It was a golden age for musicians without vocals.
Rock music had its own instrumental age. Remember "Funeral For a Friend" by Elton John? I saw him live once and he actually BEGAN the concert with that piece. ELO made its mark with a song called "Fire On High" that was used by CBS for its sports programming for 3 years. Ah yes--the Jurassic Period.
Today's trip in the Time Machine is from a master of instrumentals, Alan Parsons. Back in the '70s and early '80s, each Alan Parsons Project album had not one but TWO instrumentals, one on each side of the vinyl/cassette. Typically, one was at the beginning of the record, the other just before the end. They were often short--under 3 minutes--but a couple were quite long ("I Robot was just over seven minutes).
Most of them are known only to Parsonsphiles (I just made that up), but one is known by almost every sports fan. It's a piece called "Sirius", and it opens the album Eye in the Sky. The Chicago Bulls appropriated the tune for their starting lineup introductions in the '90s. I'm sure Alan enjoyed the royalties.
I always considered the Parsons instrumentals to be more like movements in a symphonic work, as the tone and instruments used set the table for the rest of the record. And no work expressed that better than "Lucifer", the lead track from Eve. Moody, with a high-energy orchestration those drums!) prepared us for the album's take on beauty and the pursuit of it. It's instantly recognizable as a Parsons song and has always been one of my favorites. Enjoy...
See you tomorrow...
Pete
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