Squeezing Out Sparks poll

I reviewed "Protection" on a TV 'pop panel', and it got "single of the week" that week.

It was a pretty dull week for singles, though.

Voted "Japan"

I don't know how many Parker fans there are on ILM. But what the hell, let's try this. If there's any action at all, I'd figure it would come down to "Discovering Japan" and "You Can't Be Too Strong". But "Waiting for the UFOs" has a terrific lyric and a great beat (the drums in the opening bit would make a great sample); he tells of a love going wrong through the motif of a couple caught up in conspiracy theories.

"Discovering Japan" narrowly over "You Can't Be Too Strong."

I'll probably vote for "Discovering Japan" too. I love the way he sings "I shouted sayonara, it didn't mean goodbye". I'm not sure what it means, but it sounds desperate and unknowing.

But "Passion Is No Ordinary Word" is zinger after zinger, ultimately at his own expense, and the final breakdown is gorgeous.

Passion Is No Ordinary Word

Local Girls!

I don't know if I have the wrong impression of Graham Parker or not, having only ever heard the late '80s RCA albums. Oh, and the album he made with The Figgs. But I like all of them.

Would this be a good spot to break into Parker's earlier catalogue?

yes. yes it would.

having a lot of trouble narrowing it down. can I vote for "side A"?

Side A is a beast but don't sleep on the second side; "Saturday Nite Is Dead" is as aggressive-sounding a side-starter as "Discovering Japan", with a fabulously punchy bridge.

Going with "Local Girls." Great video, as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C2SkcC3TXc

Wow, that is a great video! I'd never seen it before. I love Parker as the accountant; he's got the look down.

such a great record! howlin' wind ~may~ be a bit stronger overall, if less urgent. who cares. voting "love gets you twisted" but it could go any of about 5 ways, mood depending

"Love Gets You Twisted" has a great solo.

Side A is a beast but don't sleep on the second side

no, no, it's all true. basically the first 9 tracks are gold, and don't get excited might be if i could remember it atm. tho discovering japan is about as good as an album opener gets.

"It's all excuses, baby, all a stall." The bridge and solo on "Don't Get Excited' are gold.

"you can't be too strong"

<i< "Local Girls." Great video... [/i]

Indeed! I was gonna link to it, but last time I checked it had been removed. Early Chuck Statler-directed vid, so some of those "local" girls were actually local to Minneapolis.

"Discovering Japan", just ahead of "Protection".

Haven't thought about Parker until I saw this poll. Looking over the songs, this was as good as I remembered it. Howlin Wind may have been stronger, but this is pretty great as well.

Oh and I voted for "Passion Is No Ordinary Word".

Great album. His first few are really good too. Anyway, I'm going with "Discovering Japan," though I could easily pick any of several other tracks.

voted "protection" because it came up randomly on my ipod a few years ago, at the height of the bush terror era, and seemed right in lots of ways.

which also has a video i'd never seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3ETAZSFWWs

Another great video! He looks like Richard Manuel. "Protection" has a bridge that's about a quarter of the song, and the final chorus changes things up again (drops a key?). It's a pretty complex piece of songwriting.

Here's what Greil Marcus had to say about "You Can't Be Too Strong":

""You Can't Be Too Strong" is about an abortion. Sung with force and accompanied acoustically, it's a (perhaps too obviously) stark, personal statement. Well, when it comes to right-to-life rock, I prefer the "FUCKING BLOODY MESS!" of the Sex Pistols' "Bodies". Graham Parker's response to the same sexual and political fact is to sentimentalize his one-man-against-the-world stance, almost to prettify it. The thing is, see, this girl he got pregnant just wasn't strong enough to have the baby; the doctor wasn't strong enough to refuse to perform the operation. And so, out of weakness, they surrender to murder, or anyway a cheapening of life--and cheapening of life is indeed what Parker fights against. But the received, moralistic qualities of the performance--Parker's choice of folkish tone and music no less than his words--call the strength of his vision into question. The woman in the song is less the bearer of a child than the bearer of an issue; she's merely weak, not someone given enough life to be a real challenge to Parker's vision, and thus give it life. And that's cheap."

I think Marcus misreads the song, in particular the chorus/title. Marcus sees the narrator as jabbing at others for not being too strong, but I read that line differently. I think it's more a recitation of cant that he's heard in thinking through whether this abortion is right. It's like he's heard from others, "stiff upper lip, boy, you can't be too strong, tough it out" and "why are you worried about it? You decide what's wrong, what's right." This is what he hears from the boys that he says he'll tell that he "left it overseas", with a laugh. But the narrator isn't sure of that advice. And he sees what the abortion is, first-hand, watching the nervous doctor fumbling the light switch. Marcus' reading is that this song is "moralistic". Well, of course! That's the point! Abortion is a moral issue, not merely a legal or technical one. Does "moralistic" = "preachy"? I don't think so. Parker's narrator has gone along with the abortion already, and now he's trying to ask whether this was the right thing to do. I don't think he thinks he has the answer. Is being unsure of an act's rightness the same as being sure that the act is wrong? Obviously not.

I read that RS review a couple of days ago as a result of this thread, and I didn't get Marcus' objections either. Parker sings the tune so well – he's almost choked up while recounting the clinical facts – that we're put right in the waiting room with him.

Right---and he's similarly choked-up about the acts of tenderness like those in the dark in Luna Park that bring about the troubles in the first place. Making sense of the relation between the wonder of two people "squeezing out sparks" and the detached resolution of that wonder in the clinic, that's what Parker's up to, I think.

All I know of Graham Parker is this record and his first one. Is there a big drop off in between or after this, because I've never heard anyone say a peep about the subsequent 30 years of his career. Kind of like Joe Jackson, for that matter, but at least he mustered a few more hits before he dropped off the radar.

I used to own The Up Escalator, his Armed Forces – no flagging of intensity, but the songs aren't as good as what came before. Parker sounds like a classic example of diminishing returns.

The Real Macaw is one of the worst album titles I ever heard.

I've not heard any of the later albums. One of these years maybe I'll try venturing forward, but my impression from reviews was that they weren't worth the effort, and given limited resources I've skipped so far.

The Real Macaw is one of the worst album titles I ever heard.

as is The Parkerilla..I .always wished Scott Walker would have released a contract-fulfilling live LP titled the Walkerilla...

The Parkerilla has a kinda fascinating cover, though:

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h177/branimirn/Nov/parkerilla_hi.jpg

Once again, an ILM poll is making me wanna pull out a record I haven't played in years. Too bad - I've only got the tape, and no functioning cassette player. (Same deal w/Howling Wind.) I may yet (soul-)seek a replacement copy, but in the meantime I'll just follow my instinct and go with "Passion Is No Ordinary Word".

Always wondered: What's up with his two-syllable pronunciation of "UFOs"? Is that what they actually call 'em in the UK?

Always wondered: What's up with his two-syllable pronunciation of "UFOs"? Is that what they actually call 'em in the UK?

haha yeah i always wanted to know that too!

I spent my high school years listening to this one; it's great all the way through. But, like many others on this thread, the rest of his catalogue never did much for me. This is a monster though. Not a dud in the bunch. Gotta go w/Local Girls though.

btw: about a year ago Graham did a solo show at our library and pulled out several of these. In between songs he made sure to poke fun at the rich Connecticut folks in attendance. He seemed nice enough backstage though. I think his kids were working the merch. table.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

That seems a like a reasonable result.

The singing on "You Can't Be Too Strong" is so excellent; the way he sings "everybody else is squeezing out a spark, that happened in the heat, somewhere in the dark": how desperately we fuck, aimlessly even, just trying to make some brief magic, & how the doctor too has no head. Are we really wasting ourselves squeezing out those sparks? Parker's got no answers, but he makes me see that animal part of me so starkly: a breathtaking performance.