“I Robot” by Alan Parsons Project

The title piece of I Robot, the Alan Parsons Project's second album, landed on Arista in July 1977, on a record meant to be built on Isaac Asimov's Robot stories. Eric Woolfson even talked it over with Asimov, who was all for it, but the rights had already gone to a TV and film company, so the comma came out of the title and the story widened into a parable of machines rising as mankind slides.

Parsons and Woolfson share the composing credit, and Parsons produced and engineered. The cast reads like a cyborg orchestra: Duncan Mackay on synthesizer, Woolfson on clavinet, Ian Bairnson on guitar, David Paton on bass, Stuart Tosh on drums, John Leach on cimbalom and kantele, plus the English Chorale and soprano Hilary Western. Call it a studio wizard's future, all circuitry and cathedral.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.