Project X Last Song
Rozella Dibley
Transactions of the American Philological Association 132.1-2 (2002) 21-27 // -->
[Access article in PDF] Helen and the Last Song for Hector Maria C. Pantelia
University of California, Irvine SUMMARY: This article examines the order of the three laments in Iliad 24 and especially the significance of Helen's prominent position as the last mourner of Hector. The article suggests that Helen's position in the trio of mourning women is dictated not by ritual form or by her relation to Hector but by virtue of her particular understanding of the importance of heroic kleos and poetry as the means for conferring it.
AT THE END OF THE Iliad the Trojans gather at the house of Priam for Hector's funeral. The lamentation begins with the thrnos (24.720-21) performed by professional singers, followed by the gooi, the dirges of Hector's kinswomen. 1 Andromache, Hecabe, and Helen perform individual laments mourning Hector's death and the devastating consequences of his loss for the city and its people. Their songs are answered antiphonally by a refrain of wails and cries from a chorus of Trojan women. The overall description of the scene is consistent with the principles of funerary ceremonies and formal lamentation well-known to us and extensively documented in ancient iconography and literature from Homer until the early twentieth century. 2
Within the last few decades, the genre of lament has attracted the attention of cultural anthropologists and literary critics. 3 From the literary perspective, Margaret Alexiou's 1974 study of Greek ritual lament remains the most extensive diachronic treatment of the genre, while Gail Holst's more [End Page 21] recent study focuses on mourning as an expression of the female voice and its potential impact on social order. Richard Martin 4 and Greg Nagy 5 have discussed extensively the language and performance aspects of ritual laments and their role in epic narrative. The war context of the Iliad offers several significant instances of lamentation, such as Achilles' and Briseis' laments for Patroclus (19.287-302 and 315-37), 6 Thetis' lament for Achilles' imminent death (18.51-64), and, most importantly, the description of Hector's funeral rites.
Studies on the style and occasion of these scenes have greatly enhanced our understanding of ancient mourning rituals. In the case of Hector's funeral, however, one additional topic must be considered, namely, the order of the laments performed by Andromache, Hecabe, and Helen. 7 Considering that mourning of the dead has traditionally been the duty of women, especially the duty of the closest female relatives, 8 it is no surprise that Andromache and Hecabe, Hector's wife and mother respectively, are shown leading the lamentation. Helen's presence and prominent position as the last speaker in this trio of mourners, however, is problematic. Homer's audience may wonder why Helen, the ostensible cause of Hector's death, is even included in the funeral ritual. Her participation, it could be argued, is hardly appropriate in the presence of Hector's mother and wife, and is puzzling in light of the animosity that, according to Helen's own words (24.768-70), the Trojan women have displayed toward her. Furthermore, her position as the last speaker is inconsistent with what appears to be an epic convention of ranking affinities as shown by J. Kakridis in his 1949 study entitled Homeric Researches. 9
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The Alan Parsons Project were a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990,[1] whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They shared writing credits on almost all of the Project's songs, with Parsons producing or co-producing all of the band's recordings, while being accompanied by varying session musicians and some relatively consistent session players.
Alan Parsons met Eric Woolfson in the canteen of Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1974. Parsons was Assistant Engineer on the Beatles' albums Abbey Road (1969) and Let It Be (1970), engineered Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), and produced several acts for EMI Records.[2] Woolfson, a songwriter and composer, was working as a session pianist while composing material for a concept album based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe.[3]
Recalling his earlier Edgar Allan Poe material, Woolfson saw a way to combine his and Parsons's talents. Parsons produced and engineered songs written and composed by the two, and the first Alan Parsons Project was begun. The Project's first album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976), released by 20th Century Fox Records and including major contributions by all members of Pilot and Ambrosia, was a success, reaching the Top 40 in the US Billboard 200 chart.[2] The song "The Raven" featured lead vocals by the actor Leonard Whiting. According to the 2007 re-mastered album liner notes, this was the first rock song to use a vocoder, with Alan Parsons speaking lyrics through it, although others such as Bruce Haack pioneered this field in the previous decade.
Arista Records then signed the Alan Parsons Project for further albums. Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Project's popularity continued to grow. However, the Project was always more popular in North America, Ibero-America, and Continental Europe than in Parsons' home country, never achieving a UK Top 40 single or Top 20 album.[5] The singles "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You", "Games People Play", "Damned If I Do", "Time" (the first single to feature Woolfson's lead vocal) and "Eye in the Sky" had a notable impact on the Billboard Hot 100. "Don't Answer Me" became the Project's last successful single in the United States; it reached the top 15 on the American charts in 1984.
Even though the studio version of Freudiana was produced by Parsons (and featured the regular Project session musicians, making it an 'unofficial' Project album), it was primarily Woolfson's idea to turn it into a musical. While Parsons pursued his own solo career and took many session players of the Project on the road for the first time in a successful worldwide tour, Woolfson went on to produce musical plays influenced by the Project's music. Freudiana, Gaudi, and Gambler were three musicals that included some Project songs like "Eye in the Sky", "Time", "Inside Looking Out", and "Limelight". The live music from Gambler was only distributed at the performance site in Mnchengladbach, Germany.
In 1979, Parsons, Woolfson, and their record label Arista, had been stalled in contract renegotiations when the two submitted an all-instrumental album tentatively titled The Sicilian Defence, named after an aggressive opening move in chess, arguably to get out of their recording contract. Arista's refusal to release the album had two known effects: the negotiations led to a renewed contract, and the album was not released at that time.
The Sicilian Defence was our attempt at quickly fulfilling our contractual obligation after I Robot, Pyramid, and Eve had been delivered. The album was rejected by Arista, not surprisingly, and we then renegotiated our deal for the future and the next album, The Turn of a Friendly Card. The Sicilian Defence album was never released and never will be, if I have anything to do with it. I have not heard it since it was finished. I hope the tapes no longer exist.
In interviews he gave before his death in 2009,[7] Woolfson said he planned to release one track from the "Sicilian" album, which in 2008 appeared as a bonus track on a CD re-issue of the Eve album. Sometime later, after he had relocated the original tapes, Parsons reluctantly agreed to release the album and announced that it would finally be released on an upcoming Project box set called The Complete Albums Collection in 2014 for the first time as a bonus disc.[8]
Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976) was re-mixed in 1987 for release on CD, and included narration by Orson Welles recorded in 1975, but delivered too late to be included on the original album. For the 2007 deluxe edition release, parts of this tape were used for the 1976 Griffith Park Planetarium launch of the original album, the 1987 remix, and various radio spots. All were included as bonus material.
The band's sound is described as progressive rock,[9][10] art rock,[10][11] progressive pop,[9] and soft rock.[12] "Sirius" is their best-known and most-frequently heard of all Parsons/Woolfson songs. It was used as entrance music by various American sports teams, notably by the Chicago Bulls during their 1990s NBA dynasty. It was also used as the entrance theme for Ricky Steamboat in pro wrestling of the mid-1980s. In addition, "Sirius" is played in a variety of TV shows and movies including the BBC series Record Breakers, the episode "Vanishing Act" of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and the 2009 film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Vocal duties were shared by guests to complement each song. In later years, Woolfson sang lead on many of the group's hits, including "Time", "Eye in the Sky", and "Don't Answer Me". The record company pressured Parsons to use Woolfson more, but Parsons preferred to use polished proficient singers; Woolfson admitted he was not in that category. In addition to Woolfson, vocalists Chris Rainbow, Lenny Zakatek, John Miles, David Paton, and Colin Blunstone are regulars.[2] Other singers, such as Arthur Brown, Steve Harley, Gary Brooker, Dave Terry a.k.a. Elmer Gantry, Vitamin Z's Geoff Barradale, and Marmalade's Dean Ford, recorded only once or twice with the Project. Parsons sang lead on one song ("The Raven") through a vocoder and backing on a few others, including "To One in Paradise". Both of those songs appeared on Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1976). Parsons also sings a prominent counter melody on "Time".
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