Discovering Graham Parker

By 1979 the angry, hurried punk-rock spewed out by such "Class of '77" grads as the Sex Pistols, the Damned, and others had begun to give way to the more considered, diverse, and admittedly softer-edged "new wave" sounds that would dominate the early 1980s. Also by this point Graham Parker, as angry a young bloke as any of his punkier musical brethren, had found near universal critical acclaim with his first three studio albums – Howlin' Wind and Heat Treatment in 1976, Stick To Me in 1977 – that would be unaccompanied by any semblance of real commercial success.

Plagued by lack of promotion and label mismanagement for his albums – Parker would write the song "Mercury Poisoning" around this time about his label – and overshadowed by the commercial emergence of the similarly angry young artist Elvis Costello, Parker swung for the fences with his 1979 album, Squeezing Out Sparks.

Working for the first time with producer Jack Nitzsche after making three albums with musician Nick Lowe, Costello channeled all of his piss-n-vinegar energy, emotion, and frustrations into songs like "Discovering Japan," "Local Girls," "Passion Is No Ordinary Word," and "You Can't Be Too Strong." Squeezing Out Sparks would become Parker's best-known, and most successful album, topping 200,000 copies sold and inching itself into the Billboard magazine Top Forty.

As Parker remembers in the liner notes for Live In San Francisco 1979, management put him and his band the Rumour on tour shortly before the March 1979 release of Squeezing Out Sparks and kept them out on the road, on two continents, for almost ten months. One of the early stops along the way was a two-night gig at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco in April, the second night of which was recorded by local radio station KSAN-FM for on-air broadcast.

This is the show that would later be used by Parker's label for a promotional album titled Live Sparks that culled San Francisco performances of the ten songs from Squeezing Out Sparks, tacked on a couple of songs from a live broadcast on WXRT-FM in Chicago, and would be quickly sent out to radio stations to help provide momentum for Parker's tour and album sales. The limited-edition, promo-only vinyl quickly became a coveted collector's item, but would later become redundant in the CD age when included as a second disc on the 1996 reissue of Squeezing Out Sparks.

Live Sparks only told part of the story, however, while Live From San Francisco 1979, released by archive specialists Renaissance Records with its online partners It's About Music, recreates a longer tale. Featuring a twenty-song performance by Graham Parker & the Rumour as recorded by the radio station, Live From San Francisco 1979 provides a valuable document of the band's reckless live energy and Parker's frenetic vocal pace. Whereas the sound on Live Sparks was always suspect – thin and full of echo – it has been markedly improved here, albeit at slightly less than studio quality. While portions of this performance have circulated among fans as bootlegs for years, none to my knowledge have ever included it in its entirety.

Parker performs his Squeezing Out Sparks album almost in its entirety Live From San Francisco 1979, supplementing those performances with a healthy dose of material from his previous three studio discs. Kicking off with a crash-bang reading of "Discovering Japan" and slipping into a fast-paced version of "Local Girls," Live From San Francisco 1979 jumps into an urgent performance of "Thunder and Rain" that includes some stellar fretwork from guitarists Brinsley Schwartz and Martin Belmont, Graham's strident vocal gymnastics, bombastic drumbeats from Steven Goulding and, just beneath the surface, some great keyboards and special effects courtesy of Bob Andrews.

After ramping up the audience with three subsequent barn-burners, Parker & the Rumour deliver a swaggering look at "Don't Get Excited" that befits the song's syncopated electricity before launching into the pub-rock-flavored romp "Back To School Days." A piano-led, tongue-in-cheek boozy roll in nostalgia, the band cranks it out here like Friday night at the local watering hole and their life depends on winning over the crowd. The aforementioned "Mercury Poisoning," spit out here with all of the venomous intent of the original studio version, is one of the best songs written about the music biz. Directly targeting his former record label and its feeble attempts at promoting his music, Parker's nimble wordplay is matched by an infectious chorus and kicked out with a punkish fervor of clashing instruments and angry vocals.

The older material easily fits in between the newer songs here, the band's innate chemistry allowing it to change gears quickly from the swinging R&B rave-up "Heat Treatment" to the rockabilly-tinged "Clear Head" and the hard-rocking "Saturday Nite Is Dead." The band's cover of the Jackson 5 gem "I Want You Back" has always been one of my personal favorites, Parker's reverent vocals doing a great job at expressing the romantic longing and loss of the original song. This live version is pretty cool, a little faster-paced than some performances, but Parker's vox are still top-notch and the accompanying guitars bring just enough Steve Cropper/Stax Records flavor to mimic the Motown sound. Live From San Francisco 1979 closes with the anarchistic "New York Shuffle," the song's pub-rock vibe complimented by a little rockabilly guitar, honky-tonk-styled piano, and more than a little punkish intensity.

Live From San Francisco 1979 documents a road-weary Graham Parker & the Rumour that climb the Old Waldorf stage and kick out the jams with reckless aplomb anyway. The collection is a hell of a lot of fun, mixing Squeezing Out Sparks with the earlier material, and both Parker and the band sound absolutely energized by the loud-n-rowdy audience. More than anything, the album showcases an artist that never quite received the commercial pay-off that his passionate, intense, and entertaining music should have gotten. Luckily we have recordings like Live From San Francisco 1979 to remind us of just how damn good Graham Parker & the Rumour were back in the day. (Renaissance Records / It's About Music)

Related Content:
Graham Parker - Don't Tell Columbus CD review
Graham Parker - The Real Macaw CD review

(Click on the CD cover to buy Live In San Francisco 1979 from Amazon.com)

Graham Parker's The Real Macaw

In the early-80s, Graham Parker was clearly a man in search of a voice. Unfairly branded with the “rock’s angry young man” albatross at the beginning of his career, a lot of the furor over Parker’s amazing first two albums – 1976’s Howlin’ Wind and Heat Treatment – slipped away when his label failed to capitalize on the media buzz; subsequently a slightly less angry (and therefore more palatable) musical alternative in the form of Elvis Costello came along to steal Graham’s thunder.

Parker reached, perhaps, the commercial and critical peak of his career with 1979’s Squeezing Out Sparks, which rose to number 40 on the Billboard album charts. He followed that album’s success with 1980’s The Up Escalator, a solid effort but one that failed to meet the expectations created by its predecessor. Parker tried to shake things up by splitting with his long-time backing band the Rumour for 1982’s Another Grey Area, recording instead with a group of session musicians. The album’s overly-slick and tiring production (courtesy of Jack Douglas) failed to hit a comfortable stride, however, further reinforcing Parker’s gradual slide down the charts.

For 1983’s The Real Macaw, Parker brought in a couple of familiar faces – former pub-rock mate Brinsley Schwarz on guitar and Squeeze’s Gilson Lavis on drums – to help augment the studio band’s sound. It was a smart move, as Schwarz’s easy-going but deceptively complex fretwork proved a perfect match for Parker’s increasingly sunny lyrics, while Lavis’s subtle drum fills and steady rhythms supported Parker’s upbeat vocals. Parker had gotten married previous to the recording of The Real Macaw and obviously had romance and relationships in mind while crafting the album’s fine selection of songs. Coupled with sympathetic production by David Kershenbaum (Joe Jackson, Tracy Chapman), these songs really have a chance to take flight.

Beneath his perpetually angry façade, The Real Macaw proved Parker to be a real pussycat, a hopeless romantic helpless in the face of love. His budding relationship proved to be an invaluable muse, resulting in several strong songwriting efforts. The syncopated, energetic Sounds Like Chains features one of Schwarz’s most impressive performances, the guitarist delivering fluid leads and dynamic riffs behind Parker’s gruff vocals. Last Couple On The Dance Floor offers slightly rockabilly-tinged fretwork resting comfortably alongside the typical driving ‘70s-era Parker arrangement, the song’s celebratory lyrics reveling in the glow of new love behind a rockin’ R&B sound.

The album’s minor hit single, Life Gets Better, is, in my mind, one of Parker’s best songs from across his lengthy and impressive career as a wordsmith. The song’s arrangement is firmly new wavish as only the early-80s could muster, but the underlying framework is pure ‘60s soul, from Parker’s up-tempo vocal phrasing to the horns punching through the mix, with the singer unabashedly exploring the benefits of a romantic relationship with a Motown zeal. Miracle A Minute follows a similar tact, with an infectious ‘60s pop vibe punctuated by Mel Collins’ blazing sax.

The American Beat reissue of The Real Macaw features the live version of Parker’s take on the Jackson 5 classic I Want You Back. My old buddy Kent O had slapped this priceless gem on a mixtape for me 25 years ago, and I get the same feeling listening to it today that I did then…Parker’s vocal performance is solid, Grade ‘A’ soul, a magnificent adult perspective provided Michael Jackson’s tale of adolescent romance. The song is absolutely at home here when taken in context with the rest of material on The Real Macaw, a great addition to one of the more overlooked and underrated albums in the Graham Parker canon. (American Beat Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy The Real Macaw from Amazon.com)

Graham Parker's Enduring Genius

Graham Parker has been kicking around for better than three decades now, and while some critics and all but his most faithful fans gave up on him back in the mid-80s, the truth is that ol’ GP has cranked out some damn good music during the interim. Never really obsessed with following trends, Parker has managed to mature and evolve as an artist without discarding the wit, humor and energy that made his work so essential in the first place. It’s telling that Don’t Tell Columbus, his third album for indie Bloodshot Records, finds the artist advancing further into singer/songwriter territory with a terrific collection of material.

It’s the songs that take center stage on Don’t Tell Columbus, and there’s not a daft move in these grooves. “I Discovered America,” from which the album’s title is based (get it?!), is a rollicking road trip of vivid memories and shared truths, Parker finding creative and spiritual renewal in his adopted homeland. “England’s Latest Clown” is a nifty little tale of vanity delivered with no little vitriol, Parker allegedly slamming the excesses of rocker Peter Doherty; but the shoe would fit just as well on many an out-of-control celebrity, both in the U.K. and stateside. “Ambiguous” is a jaunty little tale of non-descript madness, Parker’s tongue firmly planted in cheek as he attempts to take the middle ground with his life ‘cause it don’t really matter which way you swing these days, and “the meek inherit the earth from their friends the scum.”

Parker’s long-standing reputation as one of rock’s angry young men hasn’t mellowed much with age, and as a songwriter he can still bite like a rattlesnake. Vexed by President Bush’s incompetence where it comes to the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Parker uses this as a blueprint to discuss the administration’s stupidity on a number of fronts. Letting loose with the shotgun blast of “Stick To The Plan,” Parker sings “don’t pay no attention to what the experts say, too much intelligence gets in the way,” revealing the hypocrisy and arrogance of the Bush crew not only on New Orleans, but also in their approach to the environment, education (or lack thereof) and their absolute faith in religion in the face of reality.

Most of Don’t Tell Columbus is fairly laid-back and introspective, however, Parker waxing nostalgic on “Suspension Bridge” as he ponders the afterlife in comparing the deaths of the men that built the bridge with the loss of his parents. It’s a moving song, gentle in its handling with sparse instrumentation and a fine, emotional vocal performance. “Love Or Delusion” is a relatively upbeat tune, one befitting of a full rock-n-roll band treatment, with intricate lyrics, passionate vocals and an engaging arrangement while “Bullet Of Redemption” shuffles along, offering perhaps the most poetic portrayal of love’s power (good and bad) that I’ve heard in a long time.

Parker put together a skeletal band for Don’t Tell Columbus, playing most of the stringed instruments himself with drummer Mike Gent and keyboardist Ryan Barnum adding flourishes where needed. Most of the songs are mid-tempo singer-songwriter fare with definite folk influences and a bit of country vibe. Parker’s sound has always been reasonably roots-rock based, a cross between British pub-rock twang and deep South soul, and Don’t Tell Columbus doesn’t stray far from original Graham in spirit.

The songs here are all brilliantly outlined, with clever, intelligent lyrics paired with appropriately subdued instrumentation. Three decades after he blew us away with a “Howlin’ Wind,” Graham Parker continues to surprise, entertain, and make us think with his words. While many of his contemporaries have either retired or slinked off to the sheltered world of classical music, Parker is still trying to grab the tail of eternal truth and shake some sense out of the world. Bravo! (Bloodshot Records)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Don't Tell Columbus from Amazon.com)