showard@udenva.UUCP (showard) (10/30/85)
Here are the results of the Alan Parsons Project survey/poll. The poll
asked respondents to list the 8 Alan Parsons Project albums (not counting
the greatest hits collection or the Ladyhawke soundtrack) in order of pre-
ference.
The rankings below were determined by giving 8 points for a first place
vote, 7 points for second, etc. In the case of ties, the albums split the
points of the tied positions. Albums which were broken up into side 1 and
side 2 were given the rating of the highest rated side. Since most people
did not list all eight albums, albums not mentioned were considered to be
tied for the next place.
1. Pyramid 64 pts, 5 first place votes
2. Turn of a Friendly Card 62 pts, 2 firsts
3. Tales of Mystery and Imagination 59.5 pts, 3 firsts
4. I, Robot 58.5 pts
5. Eye in the Sky 54 pts, 1 first
6. Eve 40 pts
7. Ammonia Avenue 36.5 pts
8. Vulture Culture 23.5 pts
And there you have it. My original thesis (that I, Robot is the band's
worst album) has not been carried out. It did however place lower than would
be suggested by the New Rolling Stone Record Guide (which gave it the highest
ranking of any APP album) and similar sources. In all fairness, I should men-
tion that I, Robot got more second-place votes than any other album.
Now that both my album polls are over, I'm open to suggestions for new ones.
It was suggested a few times that I run a poll like this for some other group.
Some ideas: Dire Straits, Talking Heads, the Velvet Underground, etc.
Some criteria for groups include: a reasonable number of albums (so the Kinks
are out for having too many while, say, the Hoodoo Gurus are out for having too
few), a fairly large following (larger than APP's, perhaps) or one which is
loyal (so people will have heard all their albums), etc.
--Mr. Blore, the DJ who would not die
--aka Steve Howard, ...udenva!showard
--"If you knew Suzie like I knew Suzie ...
You'd want to know Suzie again." --G.D. Giddens