A Punched Card Controls The Kremlin

With two of the Alan Parsons Project's best songs, the lovely ballad "Time" and the wavy-sounding "Games People Play," The Turn of a Friendly Card remains one of this group's most enjoyable albums. Parsons' idea, the subject of the album's six tracks, centers around the age-old temptation of gambling and its stranglehold on the human psyche…

With two of the Alan Parsons Project's best songs, the lovely ballad "Time" and the wavy-sounding "Games People Play," The Turn of a Friendly Card remains one of this group's most enjoyable albums. Parsons' idea, the subject of the album's six tracks, centers around the age-old temptation of gambling and its stranglehold on the human psyche. On "Games People Play," vocalist Lenny Zakatek sounds compelling and focused, giving the song a seriousness that aids in realization of the album's concept. With "Time," it is Eric Woolfson who carries this luxurious-sounding ode to life's passing to a place above and beyond any of this band's other slower material.

'The Phantom of the Card Table' is a manuscript published in 1931 by Eddie McGuire on the card skills and techniques of Walter Irving Scott aka 'The Phantom'.
For several years Eddie McGuire, an amateur magician had been in correspondence with some of the top names, notably Cardini in New York City. He spoke often of his association with an amazing card cheat, Walter Scott, and his unbelievable skills at the card table. In New York, on 14 June 1930, …