The Eye In The Sky Is Still Looking For You
Alan Parsons is a legend — but why? Was he a man? A group? Was he a musical movement? Was he some kind of wonderful? How was it that Alan Parsons saw into the future and saw what would happen when satellites were deployed into orbit? Was Alan Parsons some kind of proponent of GPS tracking systems? Was he a psychic? Or was it just a moment of passing paranoid fancy?
Though Alan Parsons is first and foremost, a man — he has become a living legend. He is a handsome man — a fierce man. Secondly, he is an Englishman. He got his start working as a producer — albeit is a minor capacity — on the Beatles album, Abbey Road. That led to more extensive work on Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. The perpetual success of Dark Side set up work with Al Stewart and The Hollies. So magical were his talents that rumor has it he was asked to join Pink Floyd, but declined to pursue his so-called Project.
It was only when he partnered with the Scottish singer, Eric Woolfson, in 1975, that he decided to move forward with his idea of a Project band. For the next ten years, from 1975 to 1987, the group would become a seminal pillar of progressive rock. They would contribute such classics as The Raven, Time, and Eye In the Sky. It was this last song, Eye In The Sky that would become the band’s signature song.
Released in 1982, the song was meant as a kind of ode to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, with the eye representing the ever-presence of Big Brother. Parsons explained that “I hated the song when we first started recording it — I was quite ready to drop it altogether. Then we hit upon the hypnotic guitar chugs and it all came together.” To the delight of millions, the song was release on the seminal, eponymous 1979 album.
The lyrics are straightforward and evocative. They suggest an egomaniacal sense of delusional power. What is striking is how the titular “eye” dovetails nicely with the hundreds of global satellites capable of tracking us. Indeed, they have to track us. We’ve asked them to track us, thanks to our GPS enabled phones, laptops and netbooks. They are the eyes in the sky, looking at us, though they cannot read our minds — yet.
If you’re fond of GPS tracking systems, you’re sure to be fond of Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson, and The Project. Keep your ears in tune, your mind open, and your eyes fixed on the sky.
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