Goodbye my friends... (1945-2009)

Eric Woolfson has died and my musical world is suddenly smaller. I feel sad, shocked and surprised. I couldn't believe it when I found out about this after somebody mentioned it in comment entry of one of the sites I visit (Luis Guadalupe's Royal Trilogy). I was shocked and saddened on that winter morning.

I've written a lot about him and his work with the Alan Parsons Project all over this website. It would be very redundant to write about his work. Here are two recent entries about him. They're in Spanish:

• The Alan Parsons Project Remastered Catalog: http://www.cacaorock.com/2009/08/standing-on-higher-ground.html
  
  


• Eric Woolfson's Freudiana: http://www.cacaorock.com/2009/11/kentucky-freud-chicken-pink-freud.html 
  
  

The Alan Parsons Project was one of the first rock bands I took and made my own. It was my personal favorite, along with Police, Pink Floyd and Emerson Lake & Palmer. This back in 1989, when music was starting for me and everything seemed to change dramatically, in me and around me. It was a good year for the world because lots of things were also changing, and it seems it was for the good. It was a good year for me because I discovered the Parsons sound and at the same time I discovered who I was supposed to be in the future. To say that Woolfson and Parsons were my teachers might be an understatement. They lived with me and I learned to be who I wanted to be thanks in part because of their records.

Eric Woolfson sang about time, friends that come and go, unrequited love, requited love and passion for the arts. He loved to explore works of art of famous writers, thinkers and even architects. He was a songwriter, keyboardist and vocalist who penned, with Alan Parsons, all the tunes of the Alan Parsons Project. Their songwriter-manager/producer collaboration started with 1976's Tales Of Mystery And Imagination (a musical flash of Edgar Allan Poe) and ended with 1990's Freudiana (Eric's own Psychoanalisis mirroring Freud's work). Eric went into musical theater and earned quite success in Germany, Austria and South Korea.

I still think that "Time" is one of the best songs ever recorded in popular music history, and I'm glad to have found that "Limelight" was Eric Woolfson's personal call to become a household name in musical theatre (see Alan Parsons' statement below.) That song sounds in my head every time I'm about to try to accomplish something.

From the Alan Parsons Project official website: http://www.alanparsonsmusic.com/

Eric Woolfson, the co-founder, songwriter and manager of The Alan Parsons Project has died at his home in London. He was 64. He had been suffering with cancer for a number of years.

Alan Parsons has issued the following statement:

"I knew of Eric's illness, but bravely, he always asked that it not be made public."

"Eric was one of the most generous, musically gifted and knowledgeable people I ever met. He was also - and I mean no disrespect - the most stubborn individual to set foot on the planet - a trait which made him a great businessman."

"His songwriting talent speaks for itself. He not only wrote the majority of the songs we recorded together but after we had two or three albums under our belts he proved - contrary to my own opinions - that he had a singing voice that would be loved by millions. He never let me forget that I actually disliked Eye In The Sky when he first played it to me - arguably my most famous mistake."

"One newspaper rather cruelly, but nevertheless to Eric's amusement, referred to him as 'The Songwriting Accountant'. It was also once said that in his music business dealings he managed to achieve the sale of the Eiffel tower and then having done it, sold it again."

"It is a regret to me that after 15 years of million-selling successes, that his decision to step from the shadows and into the limelight for his first real solo moment of musical glory - Freudiana - was so plagued with personal conflicts with his business partners. Ultimately and sadly, Freudiana was the last occasion we worked together. Speaking of Limelight - my favourite song of Eric's - was according to him no reflection on his own reaction to stardom or the lack of it. But anyone who knew him will surely agree that upon hearing Limelight's lyrics that there is a message about his feelings in his chosen profession."

"The hiccup that the Freudiana debacle caused, fortunately had no long-lasting effect and he continued in musical theatre with notable success, particularly in Germany, Austria and the Far East."

"I look back upon our times together making The Alan Parsons Projects very fondly. The legacy that Eric created as half of The Alan Parsons Project lived on with a lasting power few artists have ever enjoyed - and I will always be grateful for that."

I also will always be grateful for Eric's music. For his work made me.

Eric's Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/EricWoolfson?v=wall&viewas=1806172376