The Turn of a Friendly Card is the fifth studio album by the British progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project, released in 1980 by Arista Records. The title piece, which appears on side 2 of the LP, is a 16-minute suite broken up into five tracks. The Turn of a Friendly Card spawned the hits "Games People Play" and "Time", the latter of which was Eric Woolfson's first lead vocal appearance. An edited version of the title piece combining the opening and ending parts of the suite was also released as a single along with an official video.
As with the band's previous albums, The Turn of a Friendly Card is a concept album with its theme focused on the gambling industry and the fate of gamblers, with more than one reference to Las Vegas (e.g. "there's a sign in the desert that lies to west" from the title piece). Musically, the album is more melodic and accessible than the band's previous work.
Up to this album, all Alan Parsons Project albums had been packaged in gatefold sleeves. Increasing budgetary constraints of record companies made The Turn of a Friendly Card the beginning of all subsequently released Alan Parsons Project albums to be single-sleeve packaged.[5]
The album was recorded in a record short time of two weeks in Paris. Usually the Alan Parsons Project would take many months to record an album.[6]
Chris Rainbow (i, ii, v), Eric Woolfson (iv), none (iii)
16:24
Though numbered as a single work, "The Turn of a Friendly Card" is split into five tracks on most compact disc and all digital and streaming releases.
Bonus tracks (2008 remaster)
The Turn of a Friendly Card was remastered and reissued in 2008 with the following bonus tracks:
"May Be a Price to Pay" (Intro/demo) 1:32
"Nothing Left to Lose" (Basic backing track) 4:36
"Nothing Left to Lose" (Chris Rainbow overdub compilation) 2:02
"Nothing Left to Lose" (Early studio version with Woolfson's guide vocal) 3:11
On this version, Woolfson plays the accordion solo (later played on an actual accordion) on a keyboard with a cheap-sounding accordion preset. His melody is vaguely similar to Alan Civil's horn solo in The Beatles's "For No One".
"Time" (Early studio attempt) 4:42
"Games People Play" (Rough mix) 4:33
"The Gold Bug" (Demo) 2:50
"The Gold Bug" (Demo) was named after an Edgar Allan Poe short story. The main keyboard sound is a Hohner Clavinet with damped strings and a repeat echo. This was also used for the final album version. The short duration of the notes made it difficult to get in tune.[7][8]
Deluxe Edition (2015)
In 2015, a "deluxe anniversary edition" was released on double CD. This featured a new remaster of the album, the bonus tracks of the 2008 edition on disc 1 and an additional disc including excerpts from Eric Woolfson's songwriting demos, rough mixes and the three single edits. On this new remaster, Parsons corrected a persisting speed mistake which was present in all earlier CD editions, from the very first (1987) up to the 2008 remaster, caused by the original master tape running slow during the CD mastering process and thus altering the pitch of the entire recording.[9]
"Eric's Songwriting Demos"
"May Be a Price to Pay" 3:26
"Games People Play" 3:06
"Time" 4:06
"I Don't Wanna Go Home" 2:12
"The Turn of a Friendly Card" 3:19
"Snake Eyes" 3:13
"Nothing Left to Lose" 2:46
"TOFC / Snake Eyes / I Don't Wanna Go Home" 4:32
"Extra Bonus Tracks"
"May Be a Price to Pay (Early version – Eric Guide Vocal & Unused Guitar Solo)" 5:03
"Games People Play (Early Version – Eric Guide vocal)" 4:32
"Time (Orchestra & Chris Rainbow Backing vocals)" 4:19
"The Gold Bug (Early Reference Version)" 5:08
"The Turn of a Friendly Card Part One (Early Backing Track)" 2:18
"Snake Eyes (Early Version – Eric Guide Vocal)" 3:20
"The Ace of Swords (Early Version With Synth "Orchestration")" 3:03
"The Ace of Swords (Early Version With Piano on Melody)" 2:40
"The Turn of a Friendly Card Part Two (Eric Guide Vocal And Extended Guitar Solo)" 3:32
"Single Edits"
"Games People Play" 3:35
"The Turn of a Friendly Card" 3:44
"Snake Eyes" 2:26
Box Set (2023)
In 2023, a four-disc box set was released featuring the material from the 2-CD plus five additional songwriting diaries of unused songs ("La La La Lah", "Next Year", "Someone Else", "Taking It All Away" and "To Those Of You Out There"), two more studio bonus tracks ("The Gold Bug - Chris Rainbow Backing Vocals" and "The Gold Bug - Clavinet With No Delay") and a Blu-Ray disc including a new 5.1 surround mix of the album plus four promo videos.[10][11] The Blu-Ray was also made available separately.[12]
Alan Parsons – Projectron on "Games People Play", whistling and finger snaps on "The Gold Bug", clavinet on "The Gold Bug" and "The Ace of Swords", harpsichord on "The Ace of Swords", additional vocals on "Time"
"The Gold Bug", which references the same-titled short story by Edgar Allan Poe, includes a whistling part by Parsons (in the style of Ennio Morricone's early themes for Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western films, such as A Fistful of Dollars) and wordless vocals by Rainbow, while the main theme is played on an alto saxophone. The saxophone player, originally credited as Mel Collins, is instead credited on the liner notes for the remastered edition as "A session player in Paris whose name escapes us"; this refers to the fact that the saxophone part is a composite of several separate takes.[dubious – discuss][13] Similarly, the accordion part on "Nothing Left to Lose" is credited in the liner notes to "An unidentified Parisian session player". Also on "The Gold Bug", the newer liner notes credit a "Harmonized Rotating Triangle" to drummer Stuart Elliott. This refers to the phasing sound effects heard throughout the rhythm-free introduction to the piece.
