Quick! Name an artist that had eight releases in 1996. No, not Pere Ubu, not Mannheim Steamroller, not the Grateful Dead. Try some little guy from England.
Amid a flurry of multiple-label activity in reissues, live albums and compilations on both sides of the pond, Graham Parker released a new studio album in the fall, Acid Bubblegum (Razor & Tie) which does indeed rock. With a tight band behind him, Parker kicks into some venomous and sharply critical songs - including "Turn It Into Hate," "Impenetrable," and the corporate protest song "Beancounter."
One song in his recent acoustic "grown-up" vein is the ballad "The Girl at the End of the Pier," whose subject jumps off as the mellow arrangement comes to a close.
More typical of this new pink Parker is this line in "Sharpening Axes": "I don't appeal to the masses, and they don't appeal to me," sung in a wizened, almost tired voice. Parker even knocks a soul icon in "Obsessed With Aretha:" "You might even say the girl's still got soul - but not that much." GP plays all guitars; the band includes Rumour bassist Andrew Bodnar and Blondie's Jimmy Destri on keyboards.
In his own label bio (also posted on the Razor and Tie website), Parker describes his more diligent fans thus: "Goldmine-reading, vinyl-browsing, obscure-B-side-hunting, proud (and extremely boring) Pink Parker-owning (get a life, why don't you)."
He wants fans to skip everything else and buy Acid Bubblegum. Fat chance. He knows us too well to expect that.
Those fans will welcome the newly remastered landmark 1979 album Squeezing Out Sparks (Arista) CD, which includes the onetime promo-only collector's item Live Sparks, a sequential live version of the album, with "Mercury Poisoning" and "I Want You Back Alive" added. The live performances are rather flat compared to the album versions, but this remains a godsend for those who never found a copy of the original promo LP - and vindicates Parker's topping the Village Voice critics' poll for 1979.
The liner notes by Ira Robbins provide an informative historical context, and Parker's essay - on the quagmire of creative dead-ends and musicians' egos in the making of the album - are almost as entertaining and informative as the aural document they describe.
Still, Parker can't recommend it, for pragmatic reasons: "On my last royalty statement from Arista, I owed them eight hundred thousand dollars - so you won't even be doing me a favor!"
On the independent "tribute" CD Piss & Vinegar: The Songs of Graham Parker (Buy or Die) some artists have varying success with GP's songs as they rub shoulders with such Parker friends and fans as The Figgs (who incited epic pub-rock frenzy when they both opened for and backed Parker on his recent tour); the Smithereens' Pat Dinizio (with Frank Black on "Local Girls"); 22 Brides ("You Can't Be Too Strong"), the Health and Happiness Show ("Stupefaction") and Neal Casal ("Black Honey"). Tribute maven Jon Tiven does a laconic version of "Fool's Gold."
On the whole the album is an interesting mix of styles and reworkings of familiar material, and it's a good way for non-fans to discover the artistry behind all the songs - but you're left with this nagging certainty: Nobody sings 'em better than Parker.
To that end, you can check out some of these other '96 releases: a 3-CD box set of career highlights on Demon Records (U.K.), as well as The Best of Graham Parker and the Rumour (Polygram U.K.), Graham Parker and the Episodes Live in New York, NY from 1995 (Rock the House/Classic Records/Razor & Tie), BBC Live in Concert (Windsong) and a Penguin audiobook of Parker reading Jack Kerouac's Visions of Cody. That's enough to keep any Graham cracker busy throughout '97.
