{"history":[],"article":{"id":"f0e76791-06f1-4b67-a0f8-5634c5babc8b","title":"Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Alan Parsons Project album)","slug":"tales-of-mystery-and-imagination-alan-parsons-project-album","content":":::summary\n![Tales of Mystery and Imagination](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/TAPP-TalesOfImagination.jpg)\n**Name:** Tales of Mystery and Imagination \n**Type:** studio \n**Artist:** [The Alan Parsons Project](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-alan-parsons-project) \n**Released:** 25 June 1976 \n**Recorded:** July 1975 – January 1976 \n**Studio:** Abbey Road, London · Mama Jo's, Hollywood · Kingsway Hall, London \n**Genre:** Progressive rock · art rock · symphonic rock \n**Length:** 40:34 (1976)/42:38 (1987) \n**Label:** Charisma · 20th Century \n**Producer:** [Alan Parsons](https://bliptext.com/articles/alan-parsons) \n**Next Title:** [I Robot](https://bliptext.com/articles/i-robot-album) \n**Next Year:** 1977 \n:::\n\n# \n**Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe)** is the debut [studio album](https://bliptext.com/articles/studio-album) by British [rock](https://bliptext.com/articles/rock-music) band [the Alan Parsons Project](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-alan-parsons-project).\nIt was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom and Ireland by [Charisma Records](https://bliptext.com/articles/charisma-records) and [20th Century Records](https://bliptext.com/articles/20th-century-fox-records) in the rest of the world.\nThe lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of [horror](https://bliptext.com/articles/horror-fiction) stories and poetry by [Edgar Allan Poe](https://bliptext.com/articles/edgar-allan-poe), attracted a cult audience.\nThe title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories [of the same name](https://bliptext.com/articles/tales-of-mystery-imagination).\nMusicians featured on the album include vocalists [Arthur Brown](https://bliptext.com/articles/arthur-brown-musician) of The Crazy World of [Arthur Brown](https://bliptext.com/articles/arthur-brown-musician) on \"The Tell Tale Heart\", [John Miles](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-miles-musician) on \"The Cask of Amontillado\" and \"(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether\", and [Terry Sylvester](https://bliptext.com/articles/terry-sylvester) of [The Hollies](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-hollies) on \"To One in Paradise\".\nThe complete line-up of bands [Ambrosia](https://bliptext.com/articles/ambrosia-band) and [Pilot](https://bliptext.com/articles/pilot-scottish-band) play on the record, along with keyboardist [Francis Monkman](https://bliptext.com/articles/francis-monkman) of [Curved Air](https://bliptext.com/articles/curved-air) and [Sky](https://bliptext.com/articles/sky-english-australian-band).\nTales of Mystery and Imagination peaked at #38 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.\nThe song \"(The System Of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether\" peaked at No. 37 on the Pop Singles chart, and No. 62 in Canada.\n\n# Composition\n\"[The Raven](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-raven-song)\" features actor [Leonard Whiting](https://bliptext.com/articles/leonard-whiting) on lead vocals, with [Alan Parsons](https://bliptext.com/articles/alan-parsons) performing vocals through an [EMI](https://bliptext.com/articles/emi) [vocoder](https://bliptext.com/articles/vocoder).\nAccording to the album's liner notes, \"The Raven\" was the first rock song to feature a digital vocoder.\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/la-chute-de-la-maison-usher-opera)\" by [Claude Debussy](https://bliptext.com/articles/claude-debussy) which was composed between 1908 and 1917.\n\"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.\n\n# Artwork\nThe album's cover art was made by [Hipgnosis](https://bliptext.com/articles/hipgnosis).\n[Storm Thorgerson](https://bliptext.com/articles/storm-thorgerson) said that [Eric Woolfson](https://bliptext.com/articles/eric-woolfson) and Parsons wanted a \"classy\" design, including a book of lyrics, lengthy credits, and a chronology of Poe's life.\nHe described the recurring image of the \"taped\" man:\nPoe was preoccupied with entombment.\nMany of his characters have been incarcerated in some form or other – in coffins, brick walls, or under floorboards.\nWe came up with the 'taped' man – a mummy-like figure who is wrapped, not in bandages, but in 2\" recording tape. This motif is partially horror-like, as well as being 'entombed', and the 2\" tape appropriately suggests that the album is done by a producer in a studio, as opposed to a band recording material they will play on stage.\nAlthough the clients were intrigued by this idea they did not desire a pictorial cover but preferred instead a precise graphic representation.\nThe narrow strip of illustration from [George [Hardie](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-hardie-artist)] shows a long shadow of the taped man.\nThe booklet (attached to the inside of the cover) is composed of photos related to the songs, and line drawings that explore the taped man as he thrashes about in his restricted world and strives to unravel himself.\nThe illustrated capital letters continue the idea.\nThe layout and drawings are by Colin Elgie.\nThe sleeve is one of our better attempts at combining photographs and illustration.\n\n# Reception\nCritical reaction to the album was mixed: [Rolling Stone](https://bliptext.com/articles/rolling-stone)'s Billy Altman concluded it did not completely accurately reproduce Poe's tension and macabre fear, ending by saying \"devotees of Gothic literature will have to wait for someone with more of the macabre in their blood for a truer musical reading of Poe's often terrifying works.\"\nNonetheless, the album has still garnered somewhat of a cult status amongst Alan Parsons Project fans.\nIn July 2010, the album was named as one of [Classic Rock magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/classic-rock-magazine) \"50 Albums That Built Prog Rock\".\n\n# Reissues\nOriginally simply called The Alan Parsons Project, the album was successful enough to achieve gold status.\nThe identity of The Alan Parsons Project as a group was cemented on the second album, [I Robot](https://bliptext.com/articles/i-robot-album), in 1977.\nIn 1987, Parsons completely remixed the album, including additional keyboard and guitar passages and narration (by [Orson Welles](https://bliptext.com/articles/orson-welles)), as well as updating the production style to include heavy [reverb](https://bliptext.com/articles/reverberation) and the gated [reverb](https://bliptext.com/articles/reverberation) snare drum sound, which was popular in the 1980s.\nParsons 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.\nThe 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.\nThe 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.\nIn 1994, [Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab](https://bliptext.com/articles/mobile-fidelity-sound-lab) (MFSL) released the original 1976 version on CD (UDCD-606), making the original available digitally for the first time.\nIn 2007, a Deluxe Edition released by [Universal Music](https://bliptext.com/articles/universal-music) included both the 1976 and the 1987 versions remastered by Alan Parsons during 2006 with eight additional bonus tracks.\nIn 2016, a 40th Anniversary Edition 3CD/1BD/2LP box set was released, featuring a book, both 2007 Deluxe Edition CDs, a third disc with demos, outtakes, and other tracks, a 45 RPM 2LP set of the original album with bonus tracks, and a Blu-ray featuring a 5.1 surround sound version of the album remixed by Alan Parsons in 2016.\n\n# Covers\nA variant of the song \"The Raven\" appears on the [Eric Woolfson](https://bliptext.com/articles/eric-woolfson) album Edgar Allan Poe (2009), which contains the complete music from Woolfson's 2003 stage musical of the same name.\nThe variant track does not appear on Woolfson's 2003 CD [Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination](https://bliptext.com/articles/poe-more-tales-of-mystery-and-imagination), which was a highly abridged version of the stage musical.\nOn the variant, the bass line and keyboard chords of the original Tales of Mystery and Imagination track are heard, but they are quieter, do not feature a vocoder, and instead of an abridged version of the Poe poem being sung, the Woolfson version features a fuller spoken dramatic reading of the poem.\nThe Alan Parsons album [A Valid Path](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-valid-path) includes \"A Recurring Dream Within a Dream\", a composite of \"A Dream Within a Dream\" and \"The Raven\" incorporating [electronic music](https://bliptext.com/articles/electronic-music) influences.\n[Slough Feg](https://bliptext.com/articles/slough-feg) covered \"The Tell-Tale Heart\" for their 2010 album [The Animal Spirits](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-animal-spirits).\n\n# Track listing\n[Orson Welles](https://bliptext.com/articles/orson-welles)' narration does not appear on the original 1976 mix of the album.\nIt does, however, on the 1987 remix: specifically on \"A Dream Within a Dream\", and on the extended Prelude of \"The Fall of the House of Usher\".\n\n## 2007 deluxe edition\n**Disc 1**: Tracks 1–11, original album in original 1976 mix\n

\"The Raven\" (original demo)
\"Edgar\" (demo of an unreleased track)
\"Orson Welles Radio Spot\"
\"Interview with Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson\" (1976)

\n**Disc 2**: Tracks 1–11, original album in 1987 remix\n

\"Eric's Guide Vocal Medley\"
\"Orson Welles Dialogue\"
\"Sea Lions in the Departure Lounge\" (sound effects and experiments)\n
\"GBH Mix\" (unreleased experiments)

\n\n# Personnel\nTrack numbers in parentheses.\n\n## Production staff\n\n# Charts\n\n## Weekly charts\n\n## Year-end charts\n\n# Certifications","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T18:38:38.692Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T18:38:38.692Z","search_vector":"'alan':6 'album':9 'imagin':5 'mysteri':3 'parson':7 'project':8 'tale':1","search_content":" \n \n**Name:** Tales of Mystery and Imagination \n**Type:** studio \n**Artist:** [The Alan Parsons Project](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-alan-parsons-project) \n**Released:** 25 June 1976 \n**Recorded:** July 1975 – January 1976 \n**Studio:** Abbey Road, London · Mama Jo's, Hollywood · Kingsway Hall, London \n**Genre:** Progressive rock · art rock · symphonic rock \n**Length:** 40:34 (1976)/42:38 (1987) \n**Label:** Charisma · 20th Century \n**Producer:** [Alan Parsons](https://bliptext.com/articles/alan-parsons) \n**Next Title:** [I Robot](https://bliptext.com/articles/i-robot-album) \n**Next Year:** 1977 \n \n\n# \n**Tales of Mystery and Imagination (Edgar Allan Poe)** is the debut [studio album](https://bliptext.com/articles/studio-album) by British [rock](https://bliptext.com/articles/rock-music) band [the Alan Parsons Project](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-alan-parsons-project).\nIt was released on 25 June 1976 in the United Kingdom and Ireland by [Charisma Records](https://bliptext.com/articles/charisma-records) and [20th Century Records](https://bliptext.com/articles/20th-century-fox-records) in the rest of the world.\nThe lyrical and musical themes of the album, which are retellings of [horror](https://bliptext.com/articles/horror-fiction) stories and poetry by [Edgar Allan Poe](https://bliptext.com/articles/edgar-allan-poe), attracted a cult audience.\nThe title of the album is taken from the title of a collection of Poe's macabre stories [of the same name](https://bliptext.com/articles/tales-of-mystery-imagination).\nMusicians featured on the album include vocalists [Arthur Brown](https://bliptext.com/articles/arthur-brown-musician) of The Crazy World of [Arthur Brown](https://bliptext.com/articles/arthur-brown-musician) on \"The Tell Tale Heart\", [John Miles](https://bliptext.com/articles/john-miles-musician) on \"The Cask of Amontillado\" and \"(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether\", and [Terry Sylvester](https://bliptext.com/articles/terry-sylvester) of [The Hollies](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-hollies) on \"To One in Paradise\".\nThe complete line-up of bands [Ambrosia](https://bliptext.com/articles/ambrosia-band) and [Pilot](https://bliptext.com/articles/pilot-scottish-band) play on the record, along with keyboardist [Francis Monkman](https://bliptext.com/articles/francis-monkman) of [Curved Air](https://bliptext.com/articles/curved-air) and [Sky](https://bliptext.com/articles/sky-english-australian-band).\nTales of Mystery and Imagination peaked at #38 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.\nThe song \"(The System Of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether\" peaked at No. 37 on the Pop Singles chart, and No. 62 in Canada.\n\n# Composition\n\"[The Raven](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-raven-song)\" features actor [Leonard Whiting](https://bliptext.com/articles/leonard-whiting) on lead vocals, with [Alan Parsons](https://bliptext.com/articles/alan-parsons) performing vocals through an [EMI](https://bliptext.com/articles/emi) [vocoder](https://bliptext.com/articles/vocoder).\nAccording to the album's liner notes, \"The Raven\" was the first rock song to feature a digital vocoder.\nThe 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](https://bliptext.com/articles/la-chute-de-la-maison-usher-opera)\" by [Claude Debussy](https://bliptext.com/articles/claude-debussy) which was composed between 1908 and 1917.\n\"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.\n\n# Artwork\nThe album's cover art was made by [Hipgnosis](https://bliptext.com/articles/hipgnosis).\n[Storm Thorgerson](https://bliptext.com/articles/storm-thorgerson) said that [Eric Woolfson](https://bliptext.com/articles/eric-woolfson) and Parsons wanted a \"classy\" design, including a book of lyrics, lengthy credits, and a chronology of Poe's life.\nHe described the recurring image of the \"taped\" man:\nPoe was preoccupied with entombment.\nMany of his characters have been incarcerated in some form or other – in coffins, brick walls, or under floorboards.\nWe came up with the 'taped' man – a mummy-like figure who is wrapped, not in bandages, but in 2\" recording tape. This motif is partially horror-like, as well as being 'entombed', and the 2\" tape appropriately suggests that the album is done by a producer in a studio, as opposed to a band recording material they will play on stage.\nAlthough the clients were intrigued by this idea they did not desire a pictorial cover but preferred instead a precise graphic representation.\nThe narrow strip of illustration from [George [Hardie](https://bliptext.com/articles/george-hardie-artist)] shows a long shadow of the taped man.\nThe booklet (attached to the inside of the cover) is composed of photos related to the songs, and line drawings that explore the taped man as he thrashes about in his restricted world and strives to unravel himself.\nThe illustrated capital letters continue the idea.\nThe layout and drawings are by Colin Elgie.\nThe sleeve is one of our better attempts at combining photographs and illustration.\n\n# Reception\nCritical reaction to the album was mixed: [Rolling Stone](https://bliptext.com/articles/rolling-stone)'s Billy Altman concluded it did not completely accurately reproduce Poe's tension and macabre fear, ending by saying \"devotees of Gothic literature will have to wait for someone with more of the macabre in their blood for a truer musical reading of Poe's often terrifying works.\"\nNonetheless, the album has still garnered somewhat of a cult status amongst Alan Parsons Project fans.\nIn July 2010, the album was named as one of [Classic Rock magazine](https://bliptext.com/articles/classic-rock-magazine) \"50 Albums That Built Prog Rock\".\n\n# Reissues\nOriginally simply called The Alan Parsons Project, the album was successful enough to achieve gold status.\nThe identity of The Alan Parsons Project as a group was cemented on the second album, [I Robot](https://bliptext.com/articles/i-robot-album), in 1977.\nIn 1987, Parsons completely remixed the album, including additional keyboard and guitar passages and narration (by [Orson Welles](https://bliptext.com/articles/orson-welles)), as well as updating the production style to include heavy [reverb](https://bliptext.com/articles/reverberation) and the gated [reverb](https://bliptext.com/articles/reverberation) snare drum sound, which was popular in the 1980s.\nParsons 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.\nThe 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.\nThe 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.\nIn 1994, [Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab](https://bliptext.com/articles/mobile-fidelity-sound-lab) (MFSL) released the original 1976 version on CD (UDCD-606), making the original available digitally for the first time.\nIn 2007, a Deluxe Edition released by [Universal Music](https://bliptext.com/articles/universal-music) included both the 1976 and the 1987 versions remastered by Alan Parsons during 2006 with eight additional bonus tracks.\nIn 2016, a 40th Anniversary Edition 3CD/1BD/2LP box set was released, featuring a book, both 2007 Deluxe Edition CDs, a third disc with demos, outtakes, and other tracks, a 45 RPM 2LP set of the original album with bonus tracks, and a Blu-ray featuring a 5.1 surround sound version of the album remixed by Alan Parsons in 2016.\n\n# Covers\nA variant of the song \"The Raven\" appears on the [Eric Woolfson](https://bliptext.com/articles/eric-woolfson) album Edgar Allan Poe (2009), which contains the complete music from Woolfson's 2003 stage musical of the same name.\nThe variant track does not appear on Woolfson's 2003 CD [Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination](https://bliptext.com/articles/poe-more-tales-of-mystery-and-imagination), which was a highly abridged version of the stage musical.\nOn the variant, the bass line and keyboard chords of the original Tales of Mystery and Imagination track are heard, but they are quieter, do not feature a vocoder, and instead of an abridged version of the Poe poem being sung, the Woolfson version features a fuller spoken dramatic reading of the poem.\nThe Alan Parsons album [A Valid Path](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-valid-path) includes \"A Recurring Dream Within a Dream\", a composite of \"A Dream Within a Dream\" and \"The Raven\" incorporating [electronic music](https://bliptext.com/articles/electronic-music) influences.\n[Slough Feg](https://bliptext.com/articles/slough-feg) covered \"The Tell-Tale Heart\" for their 2010 album [The Animal Spirits](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-animal-spirits).\n\n# Track listing\n[Orson Welles](https://bliptext.com/articles/orson-welles)' narration does not appear on the original 1976 mix of the album.\nIt does, however, on the 1987 remix: specifically on \"A Dream Within a Dream\", and on the extended Prelude of \"The Fall of the House of Usher\".\n\n## 2007 deluxe edition\n**Disc 1**: Tracks 1–11, original album in original 1976 mix\n \n \"The Raven\" (original demo) \n \"Edgar\" (demo of an unreleased track) \n \"Orson Welles Radio Spot\" \n \"Interview with Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson\" (1976) \n \n**Disc 2**: Tracks 1–11, original album in 1987 remix\n \n \"Eric's Guide Vocal Medley\" \n \"Orson Welles Dialogue\" \n \"Sea Lions in the Departure Lounge\" (sound effects and experiments)\n \"GBH Mix\" (unreleased experiments) \n \n\n# Personnel\nTrack numbers in parentheses.\n\n## Production staff\n\n# Charts\n\n## Weekly charts\n\n## Year-end charts\n\n# Certifications","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

History