There are lots of scary things out there these days.
Please feel free to insert the political joke of your choice at this point, but this is not really about that. No, it soon will be Halloween, which isn’t my bag.
If Halloween is your bag, please go visit the lovingly crafted posts by my friends Dane over at All Eyes and Ears and Andrew over at Armagideon Time. They really dig it, and they do a nice job with it. Each will have a full month’s worth of Halloween posts for your trick-or-treat pleasure.
In the unlikely event I want to get into the Halloween frame of mind, I’ll dig out “Tales of Mystery and Imagination,” the 1976 debut LP by the Alan Parsons Project. I’ve long loved its musical interpretations of Edgar Allan Poe stories. Perfect mood music for the moment.
“The Raven” is the song everyone remembers from this record, and rightly so. Great song. But did you know “(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether” actually was the single?
To get you in the mood for Halloween, here’s another cut off that record.
“The Fall of the House of Usher,” the Alan Parsons Project, from “Tales of Mystery and Imagination,” 1976.
This is a 15-minute instrumental epic, complete with five movements titled “Prelude,” “Arrival,” “Intermezzo,” “Pavane” and “Fall.” It’s the only cut on the record on which arranger and conductor Andrew Powell shares a writing credit with Parsons and executive producer Eric Woolfson.
By the time he teamed up with Parsons for this record, Powell already had worked with Donovan, Leo Sayer, the Hollies, Al Stewart, Humble Pie and John Miles. Powell and Parsons worked together on all the Alan Parsons Project records that followed.
While you’re surfing: You also may wish to wander over to The Midnight Tracker, our other, more lightly traveled blog, for a little bit of click or treat.
Bonus video: Suggested by my friend Larry in the comments. Enjoy “The Raven” by Glass Prism, recorded in 1968 and released in 1969.
AM, Then FM 
When I saw the link I thought you were writing about these guys http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=xl9AIBVU69g
Thanks for the very kind words! Your post about why Halloween isn’t your thing … well, I can understand why.
The Alan Parsons Project has always been one of the most under-rated bands of them all. I remember playing “The Raven” and “Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather” on college radio. The album “I Robot” has always been a favorite and I always made sure I played “I Robot” and “I Wouldn’t Want to be Like You” together as one track. Want to get your mind lost in a great Alan Parson Project song? Listen to “Psychobabble” off the “Eye in the Sky” album.