''Pyramid'' (stylized as ''Pyr△mid'') is the third album by

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock music, rock duo formed in London in 1975. Its core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons, and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They shared w ...

, released in May 1978. It is a concept album centred on the

pyramids of Giza The Giza pyramid complex (also called the Giza necropolis) in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. All were built during th ...

. At the time the album was conceived, interest in pyramid power and

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...

was widespread in the US and the UK. ''Pyramid'' was nominated for the 1978

Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical The Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical has been awarded since 1959. The award had several minor name changes: * In 1959, the award was known as Best Engineered Record – Non-Classical * In 1960, it was awarded as Best Engineeri ...

. The book visible in the cover design is G. Patrick Flanagan – Pyramid Power: The Millennium Science (1973).The Alan Parsons Project – Pyramid. CD Remaster liner notes (2008)

Track listing

All songs written and composed by

Alan Parsons Alan Parsons (born 20 December 1948) is an English audio engineer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Parsons was the sound engineer on albums including the Beatles' ''Abbey Road'' (1969) and '' Let It Be'' (1970), Pink Floyd's ''The ...

and

Eric Woolfson Eric Norman Woolfson (18 March 1945 – 2 December 2009) was a Scottish songwriter, lyricist, vocalist, executive producer, pianist, and co-creator of the band the Alan Parsons Project, who sold over 50 million albums worldwide. Woolfson also p ...

Bonus tracks

''Pyramid'' was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:

"Voyager/What Goes Up/The Eagle Will Rise Again" (instrumental) – 8:55
"What Goes Up/Little Voice" (early version demo) – 4:07
"Can't Take It with You" (early version demo) – 1:45
"Hyper-Gamma-Spaces" (demo) – 2:21
"The Eagle Will Rise Again" (alternate version – backing track) – 3:20
"In the Lap of the Gods" (Part I – demo) – 3:14
"In the Lap of the Gods" (Part II – backing track rough mix) – 1:56

Bonus tracks details

*What Goes Up/Little Voice – Another song called, at the time, Little Voice was included in this demo but was not used in the final album. *Can't Take It With You (early version demo) – Alan Parsons (unusually) played all the instruments. *Hyper-Gamma Spaces – The name came from Eric Woolfson's brother Richard, whose Mathematics Doctoral Thesis carried the title Hyper-Gamma Spaces. *The Eagle Will Rise Again (alternative version-backing track) – Intended as a Reprise Rock Band version demo attempt. This was abandoned as there was already enough material for the album.

Personnel

David Paton David Paton (; born 29 October 1949) is a Scottish bassist, guitarist and singer. He first achieved success in the mid-1970s as lead vocalist and bassist of Pilot, who scored hits with " Magic", "January", "Just a Smile" and "Call Me Round" b ...

– bass (all tracks), acoustic guitar (tracks 2, 4–6, 9) vocals (tracks 2–3, 5) * Stuart Elliott – drums (all tracks), percussion (tracks 1–2, 4–9) *

Ian Bairnson John "Ian" Bairnson (3 August 1953 – 7 April 2023) was a Scottish musician and member of Pilot and the Alan Parsons Project. He was a multi-instrumentalist, who played saxophone and keyboards, but mainly performed as a guitarist, which he pl ...

– electric and acoustic guitars (tracks 1–7, 9) *

– Projectron (track 1),

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

(track 2),

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance music, Renaissance, Baroque music, Baroque and Classical period (music), Classical eras. Historically, it was most ...

and

virginals The virginals is a keyboard instrument of the harpsichord family. It was popular in Europe during the Renaissance music, late Renaissance and early Baroque music, Baroque periods. Description A virginals is a smaller and simpler, rectangular o ...

(track 3), piano (tracks 5–7, 9), organ (track 6), backing vocals (3, 5) * Duncan Mackay – synthesizers (track 1, 4–5, 7–8) *

– Fender Rhodes (track 1), acoustic guitar (track 5),

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

(track 8), Projectron (tracks 8–9), backing vocals (track 3) *John Leach –

kantele A kantele () or kannel () is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the southeast Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with the Estonian kannel, the Latvian kokles, t ...

(track 1),

cimbalom The cimbalom, cimbal (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by József Schunda, V. ...

(track 6) *

Andrew Powell Andrew Powell (born 18 April 1949) is a British musical composer, arranger and performer, born of Welsh parents. He moved to Wales in 2003. Early life Powell was born in Surrey, England. He began piano lessons at the age of four and later atte ...

–

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of t ...

(track 3) *

Phil Kenzie Phil Kenzie is an English multi-saxophone player and rock and roll musician. He has been voted by fans as "one of the greatest rock 'n' roll sax players of all time." Born in Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdo ...

– saxophone solos (track 4) *

Dean Ford Dean Ford (born Thomas McAleese; 5 September 1945 – 31 December 2018) was a Scottish people, Scottish singer and songwriter best known for his tenure as lead vocalist and frontman of the beat pop group Marmalade (band), Marmalade from 1966 to ...

Colin Blunstone Colin Edward Michael Blunstone (born 24 June 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. In a career spanning more than 60 years, Blunstone came to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Rock music, rock band the Zombies, which rel ...

Lenny Zakatek Lenny Zakatek (born Lenny du Platel, 29 July 1947) is a British singer and musician. Born in Karachi just prior to it becoming a part of Pakistan, he has lived in London since the age of thirteen. Zakatek is best known for his work with the Bri ...

, John Miles, Jack Harris – vocals *Choir: The English Chorale, Choirmaster: Bob Howes *Produced and engineered by Alan Parsons *Executive production:

*Arrangements:

*Album cover design:

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group, based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black S ...

*Photography Aubrey Powell
Rob Brimson
*Mastering: Chris Blair

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

!scope="row", Worldwide , , 2,000,000+ , -

References

*''Pyramid'', Alan Parsons Project. Arista Records AB 4180, 1978 (Vinyl LP) {{Authority control The Alan Parsons Project albums 1970s concept albums 1978 albums Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis Arista Records albums Albums produced by Alan Parsons