Parsons is a brilliant producer. Woolfson was a great writer and Lenny and the other players they put together for the project were absolutely perfect for those tunes
Love, love his voice and songs. Come back, Lenny, and with your wonderful band, to the USA, Denver! My most favorite song is, “Games People Play” and “Time!”
Lenny has the best voice...I remember the first time I heard him sing I grabbed the album cover (yep; that long ago) because being a musician and singer myself I said who the f**K is that! He has one of the best tones and feel of any vocalist and I love him....plus you don't notice it at first but try and sing those songs he sang; one helluva range!
Incredibly humble in how he described how he was asked to sing 'l wouldn't want to be like you'. There would have been no one that could have sung the song so brilliantly like Lenny!. Alan Parson made the right choice.
Love Lenny and Games People Play. AAP is one of my favorite English Groups. The Beatles, Moody Blues, APP, Bee Gees. Ammonia Avenue is my favorite album. Favorite song: Don't Answer Me.
I was in 8th grade when "Games People Play" came out and it became one of my all time favorite songs right then, right there. Had no idea who Lenny Zakatek was but he NAILED that song. It still rocks today in 2018. Good stuff, thanks!
Hearing Lenny on I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You in 1977 was fantastic. I just had to go out and get the I Robot album. A few years later, Lenny did a solo album with all the APP members on Arista. A couple of great songs including a lovely ballad called Viens. Such a treat to finally hear him speak. Seek out the 1990 concert gig in Antwerp that he mentions to see the original APP live for the first time.
very rock'nroll voice for Alan Parson's Project! First song I heard he sung was "Games People Play' But I also loved "Wouldn't want to be like you!" That one about Robots replacing humans is very relative to 2020!
Hi John, Yes, I love Eric Woolfson but Lenny was my favorite. Love these videos. I think I will put on a AP album now. Thank you very much for these incredible videos. Love the way you give credit to musicians that are often in the shadows. God bless you, John One of your greatest fans, Tino
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For me, the real APP is this lineup: NOTP 1990 , I also think Lenny Zakatek is their best singer : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-165DgeZ6Jog.html
The rocky, proggy, raspy voice of APP! Love his powerful vocals on APP. It complimented so well with the ethereal, airy, and soothing voices of Eric and Colin (of their softer ballads), much like what Dewey Bunnell did to Gerry Beckley (America).
Love the Alan Parsons Project. Thanks for this one John. After playing in so many bands, I told my brother that no one knows who we are and so we are now the Warren Project. Come listen to some of our music.
Great interview! The info gleaned here is literally music history to be found nowhere else! 500 quid is not quite the appropriate payment for that iconic voice- he and Parsons are heroes from my teenage days (class of '78). I enjoy every one of your installments, John. Thanks!
APP is a group of excellent singers and excellent musicians selected by Alan Parson and especially by Eric Woolfson, the brain and the true genius of the project. They practically don't have a single bad song.
The money goes to the songwriters. Musicians get a token pay for their labors. Lenny seems like a nice guy. Glad he made out well. The original APP lineup was made up of former members of the band Pilot. They deserved a better fate.
Lenny certainly had great vocals that worked well on some of APP's songs. I also thought he had a couple of potential hits on his 1979 solo album, One is a Lonely Number and Do It Right, so it was kind of a shame that wasn't a big breakthrough for him.
Wow we think alike those are my two favorite songs from Lenny's solo album. I came to that album late (2010). I remember loving both songs on first listen.
Sounds like the reason musicians started avoiding Steely Dan. Producers used talent of great studio musicians to produce albums but the studio musicians never got much from it.
Given his contribution to the song, he should have received some small song writing credit and hence royalties. It seems to have been normal business at the time, to just do one-off payments. Clare Torry, who improvised on "The Great Gig in the Sky" (with p*ss poor instructions on what the band wanted), initially only received a standard one-off payment only as well. She got much more much later, when she sued for getting some share of the royalties.
I am a huge fan of APP. It’s really too bad that Lenny, David Paton, Ian Bairnson and others did not continue with Parsons when he finally went live , after their 1990 first concerts . Logistics? pay? Geographic challenges (Parsons of course moved to California) . I am probably wrong but it appears to me that Parsons just callously threw them all away and decided to build his own band from scratch . He was devoted to the music but not those who helped make it great. While the musicians he has in his live band are also very good, the original ones like Lenny Zakatek remain the gold standard. It seems they were treated poorly in this regard . If anyone can refute what I suggest with what did actually happen , I would appreciate knowing. Also it’s too bad Eric Woolfson did not seek the limelight to receive the recognition he richly deserved while he was alive for his brilliant songwriting , lyrics and his unmistakeable , amazing voice.
Great reaction guys.... but let's stop toying. You've sampled some of the emotion of Jeff's music and been overwhelmed by it, but you've only been tasting one course at a time. Imagine what it would be like to experience an entire meal of courses, each carefully crafted to interlink and take you deeper and deeper on an emotional journey like no other? Jeff has a few: 1) Concerto for a Rainy Day - If you think the end of Mr Blue Sky is awesome, wait till you arrive there on the back of the full concerto. 2) Eldorado.... Yes, the full album! All of it! Crazy idea perhaps, but it has been done by other reactors. I can tell from your reactions to date, that you will be permanently blown away by it's epic, cinematic brilliance and a storytelling prowess that takes you on a journey of musical magic that will give you that 'leaving the cinema after an epic' feeling. 3) Side 1 from On The Third Day - pre-big orchestra and choir but still driven by amazing strings (think electified string quartet), synths and souring melodies. 4) Time - Yep! Another whole album. But this one is perhaps Jeff's greatest 'unknown' work, having reached number 1 in the charts on release but largely forgotton by all but the keenest fans since then. It has aged very well and shows Jeff at his song writing best. Either way... keep 'em coming.
You shitting me??? The Wrecking Crew didn't get recognition??? Let me guess, You live under a fucking rock in the desert....Lenny is mediocre, the Wrecking Crew, world class. Jesus Christ....
It's sort of the way that studio musicians have always been treated. Can't say I love it, but it doesn't seem too unusual. It's unfortunate that the mindset in the music industry is "screw or be screwed".
Great story but you know what we all want to really know is that drum lick on the eye in the sky why can't you get the drummer in here to play the eye in the sky for us and show us that really cool drum lick he does.
The people making and distributing the record were the one's taking a financial risk, same as investing in most business ventures... There's no guarantee of great sales or profits for all the efforts, regardless of the quality of the product. If the record had instead actually lost money would Lenny have been responsible to pay for a portion of the debt or give back his session pay? No. Lenny agreed to the session(s) and it's terms, and gained a bit of notoriety from those sessions as well. It was his own choice to participate as it was presented to him.
It sounded to me like he got five times the amount he originally agreed to, enough to pay his mortgage for 6 months for an hours work. Fortunately, for the fans, he was also happy enough to continue working with the APP.
