“We’d had two other albums under our belts. By Eve [1979], it became clear to us that we were not prepared to pay 93 percent income tax to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK. So we decided to go to Monaco, a tax-free zone, and we continued to be residents of Monaco for The Turn Of A Friendly Card.

“Finances aside, we recorded the album in Paris in a lovely studio in the Saint-Germain area. It was wonderful: We’d get up, have a big breakfast, then we’d walk to the studio and start recording at about noon. Then we’d stop at eight or so and go out for a fantastic French bistro dinner. Depending on how much wine we’d had, we’d either give it up for the night or go back to the studio for a feeble attempt at doing something.

“The title song is quite long, a 16-minute opus, but it’s broken up into segments. Interestingly, we’ve been playing it live in its entirety, and it’s been going down an absolute storm. The applause has been astronomical.

“The hits, Games People Play and Time, are not part of the Turn Of A Friendly Card suite. To this day, I don’t know what Time has to do with the concept of gambling. Certainly Games People Play relates. But there's two big hits on one album, arguably two of our biggest. That set things up very well for the next record.”