Alan Parsons remembers Beatles producer George Martin

Years before scoring hits with The Alan Parsons Project (“Time,” “Eye in the Sky,” “Don’t Answer Me”), Alan Parsons was a recording engineer at Abbey Road Studios in London, overseeing sessions for Pink Floyd (“Atom Heart Mother,” “Dark Side of The Moon”), The Hollies (“The Air That I Breathe”), Pilot (“Magic”), Al Stewart (“Year of the Cat”), Ambrosia (“Holdin’ Onto Yesterday”), Jeff Beck (“Beck-Ola”) and dozens of others.

In 1969, on a blustery Jan. 30, Parsons – then age 19 - was one of the few permitted access to The Beatles’ surprise lunchtime live performance from the group’s Apple building rooftop, as cameras rolled in hopes of capturing a suitable ending for the film that became “Let It Be.” It was a gig that Parsons says he stayed up all night preparing for. After running cables from the roof to the basement studio where engineer Glyn Johns was recording the performance, Parsons was sent to purchase pairs of pantyhose (“we called them ‘tights,’” he laughs) to act as a windscreen for the microphones.

Later in 1969, Parsons received his first credit as assistant engineer for The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album, working closely with the band’s producer, George Martin, who passed away last week at age 90. During a phone interview conducted last Thursday, Parsons remembered Martin as a true gentleman whom he had modeled his own career after.