At last, someone has asked the question. Alan Parsons isn’t answering. But, still, it was gratifying to hear it asked, anyway.
Before we get to the question, think about the Alan Parsons Project’s No. 3 1982 hit “Eye in the Sky.” That dreamscape riff, the ruminative vocals from late songwriter Eric Woolfson, that gently hypnotic keyboard counterpoint. Now, think about Lady Antebellum’s 2010 wall-to-wall crossover hit “Need You Now,” that multi-Grammy winning paean to the drunken booty call.
The country group claims a co-writing credit with Josh Kear, but surely the Alan Parsons Project should have gotten a piece of that action. After all, it’s the same song. Don’t believe us? Check out the canny little mashup we’ve attached at top.
Enter Bill Zwecker of The Chicago Sun-Times, who has asked Parsons point blank if he thinks the Lady Antebellum song is “a rip off.”
Parsons, it seems, has taken the lyrics of “Eye in the Sky” to heart: Don’t say words you’re gonna regret. At first, he answers: “I’ve heard people say that,” but then Parsons demurs. “No comment on that from me.”
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