The Daily Swarm

The New York Times:

Eric Woolfson, a founder and the principal songwriter and vocalist of the Alan Parsons Project, a British group that existed only in the studio and that took its ambitious, sophisticated progressive rock to the pop charts, died on Wednesday in London. He was 64.

The cause was cancer, said his daughter Sally Seddon.

Mr. Woolfson, a songwriter and keyboardist, met Alan Parsons in the summer of 1974 while working as a session musician at Abbey Road Studios in London. He had recently branched out into management, and Mr. Parsons, an engineer and producer who had just completed work on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” asked to be taken on as a client.

NME:

The Glasgow-born musician was largely a self-taught pianist and had been on the fringes of the music business for some years before finding fame with The Alan Parsons Project.

As a songwriter Woolfson was signed up by The Rolling Stones’ producer Andrew Loog Oldham. He went on to pen songs for Marianne FaithfAs a songwriter Woolfson was signed up by The Rolling Stones’ producer Andrew Loog Oldham. He went on to pen songs for Marianne Faithfull, Chris Farlowe and Frank Ifield. He later turned to management and looked after Alan Parsons before the duo decided to make music together. They released ten albums together before splitting in 1990.

BBC:

His friend Deborah Owen said: “Eric was very much a self-made man. He couldn’t read music but if you asked him to play anything he could do it straight away.”

“He had an extraordinary gift,” she added.

Woolfson – who is survived by his wife Hazel, with whom he has two daughters – largely taught himself to play piano and spent the early part of his career working as a songwriter in London.

Vintage Rock’s interview:

Though I think your voice is very distinctive, I’m sure you see yourself as much more then a vocalist considering all you do and have done. If you had to use one word to describe yourself professionally would it be composer, producer, or does it all fall under the umbrella of musician?

That’s easy. First and foremost, I am a songwriter. I also play some piano and sing some vocals.

Is there any one APP album you’re most especially proud of?

Picking a favorite is almost like being asked ‘who is your favorite child?’ Of course, I’m enormously proud of them all but there was something special about our first album,Tales Of Mystery And Imagination and I think that on Eye In The Sky, we were firing on all cylinders and things really came together on that album in a special way.