Saturday, August 8, 2009

Wallowing in the '70s: Graham Parker

Graham Parker is a seriously overlooked artist who got stuck in your humble author's brain pan back in the early '90s. For about 6 months he lived on my office cd player, from Howlin' Wind to Mona Lisa's Sister. His backing band, the Rumour, are actually the remnants of Brinsley Schwartz, who seemed to function as London's house band during my time living there in the latter half of 1972. I caught them as fill ins, featured performers and as a backing band for Frankie Miller. The Brinsleys are worthy of a post of their own some day. Nick Lowe of Rockpile and solo fame was a Brinsley and produced Parker's first album, Howlin' Wind in 1976.

First up from Graham, a bit of snarling pop from 1979's Squeezing Out Sparks:



Next up, this gem from the unfortunately obscure Real McCaw (1983) with Brinsley Schwartz (the person) backing on guitar: You Can't Take Love for Granted.



And this from Howlin' Wind: Don't Ask Me Questions. If you watch to the very end you will actually get to see Graham's eyes. Yep, he does like his shades.



And let's wrap it up with another off of Squeezing Out Sparks: Protection.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just spun Squeezing Out Sparks last night before reading this fine post. That album is one that decade's best. "Waiting for the UFOs" is also a good 'un.