Eric Woolfson, 1945-2009. R.I.P.

Eric Woolfson, the co-founder of The Alan Parsons Project, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 64.

Although the group bore Alan Parsons name, the project was as much Woolfson's as it was Parson's. The two record producers met at Abbey Road Studios in 1974 and decided they wanted to create music of their own. While scores of musicians played on their albums it was Parsons and Woolfson who engineered the robot and made it dance. They collaborated on some of the most innovative music of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

While the group had a revolving door of singers, Woolfson was the lead vocalist on several of their seminal songs - "Time", "Eye In The Sky" and "Don't Answer Me." The video for "Don't Answer Me" remains one of the most innovative in the medium a quarter century after the fact.

For the past two decades, Woolfson had concentrated his efforts on musical theatre. His works were staged in Europe and were particularly successful in Germany. Woolfson's musicals were also well received in Japan and South Korea. At the time of his death, Woolfson had been at work on a musical based on the life of Edgar Allan Poe. It was a project that he had commenced before meeting Parsons. Even in the richest of lives some dreams can never fully be realized.