GRAHAM PARKER
''HOWLIN' WIND''
JULY 1976
42:02
1 /White Honey/3:33
2 /Nothin's Gonna Pull Us Apart/3:21
3 /Silly Thing/2:51
4 /Gypsy Blood/4:37
5 /Between You and Me/2:25
6 /Back to Schooldays/2:54
7 /Soul Shoes/3:13
8 /Lady Doctor/2:50
9 /You've Got to Be Kidding/3:30
10 /Howlin' Wind/3:58
11 /Not If It Pleases Me/3:12
12 /Don't Ask Me Questions/5:38
All Tracks By Graham Parker
Bob Andrews /Keyboards, Organ, Organ (Hammond), Piano, Vocals (Background)
Martin Belmont /Guitar, Vocals (Background)
Andrew Bodnar /Bass, Drums, Fretless Bass, Guitar (Bass)
Noel Brown /Dobro, Guitar, Slide Guitar
Dave Conners /Sax (Tenor), Saxophone
Stephen Coulding /Drums, Vocals (Background)
Ed Dean /Guitar, Slide Guitar
John Earle /Sax (Baritone), Saxophone
Dave Edmunds /Guitar
Dan Ellis /Trombone
Danny Ellis /Trombone
Steve Goulding /Drums, Percussion, Vocals (Background)
Herschel Holder /Trumpet
Nick Lowe /Producer
Stewart Lynas /Arranger, Brass Arrangement, Sax (Alto), Saxophone
Graham Parker /Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Rhythm), Vocals
Brinsley Schwarz /Guitar, Organ (Hammond), Sax (Tenor), Vocals (Background)
REVIEW
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
For most intents and purposes,
Graham Parker emerged fully formed on his debut album,
Howlin' Wind. Sounding like the bastard offspring of
Mick Jagger and
Van Morrison,
Parker sneers his way through a set of stunningly literate pub rockers. Instead of blindly sticking to the traditions of rock & roll,
Parker invigorates them with cynicism and anger, turning his songs into distinctively original works. "Back to Schooldays" may be reconstituted rockabilly, "White Honey" may recall
Morrison's white R&B bounce, and "Howlin' Wind" is a cross of
Van's more mystical moments and
the Band, but the songs themselves are original and terrific. Similarly, producer
Nick Lowe gives the album a tough, spare feeling, which makes
Parker and
the Rumour sound like one of the best bar bands you've ever heard.
Howlin' Wind remains a thoroughly invigorating fusion of rock tradition, singer/songwriter skill, and punk spirit, making it one of the classic debuts of all time.
BIOGRAPHY
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stereotyped early in his career as the quintessential angry young man,
Graham Parker was one of the most successful singer/songwriters to emerge from England's pub rock scene of the early '70s. Drawing heavily from
Van Morrison and
the Rolling Stones,
Parker developed a sinewy fusion of driving rock & roll and confessional folk-rock, highlighted by his indignant passion, biting sarcasm, and bristling anger. At the outset of his career, his albums crackled with pub rock energy, snide witticisms, and gentle insights, earning him a devoted following of fans and critics, who lavished praise on his debut,
Howlin' Wind. Despite all of the positive word of mouth,
Parker never managed to become a star, and he was soon overshadowed by the emergence of
Elvis Costello, a singer/songwriter who shared similar roots. After delivering
Squeezing Out Sparks in 1979,
Parker attempted to make a few crossover albums before settling into a cult following in the late '80s, continuing to garner critical acclaim.
After spending much of his early adulthood working odd jobs, ranging from breeding mice and guinea pigs to working at a gas station,
Parker began seriously pursuing a musical career in 1975. Until that time, he had played in a number of obscure pub rock groups, including a cover band that had spent time playing in Morocco and Gibraltar. But it wasn't until 1975 that he began shopping his demos. That year,
Dave Robinson, one of the co-founders of the new independent label Stiff, heard one of
Parker's demo tapes and encouraged the songwriter, helping him assemble a backing band called
the Rumour.
Robinson rounded up several stars of the pub rock scene -- guitarist
Brinsley Schwarz and keyboardist
Bob Andrews, both formerly of the leading pub rockers
Brinsley Schwarz, former
Ducks Deluxe guitarist
Martin Belmont, former
Bontemps Roulez drummer
Steve Goulding, and bassist
Andrew Bodnar -- to form
the Rumour, and the band was soon supporting
Parker on the dying pub rock scene. With the assistance of DJ
Charlie Gillett, the group landed a record contract with Mercury by the end of 1975.
Graham Parker & the Rumour headed into the studio to cut their debut album with producer
Nick Lowe, who gave the resulting record,
Howlin' Wind, an appealingly ragged edge.
Howlin' Wind was greeted with enthusiastic reviews upon its summer release, as was the similar
Heat Treatment, which followed in the fall. Despite the positive press,
Parker was growing frustrated with Mercury, believing that the company was not properly promoting and distributing his records. His third album,
Stick to Me, had to be re-recorded quickly after the original tapes were discovered to be defective prior to its scheduled release. As a result,
Stick to Me received mixed reviews upon its fall 1977 release, which derailed
Parker's momentum slightly. Furthermore,
Elvis Costello, a fellow pub rock survivor who possessed not only a more pop-oriented style of songwriting, but also a more dangerous persona, soon eclipsed
Parker in popularity. Frustrated by his career hitting a standstill,
Parker released the live-double album
The Parkerilla in the summer of 1978 in order to get out of his contract. Following a short but intense bidding war, he quickly signed to Arista Records, where he released "Mercury Poisoning" -- a blistering attack on his former record label -- as the B-side of a promotional single as his first record for the label.
Squeezing Out Sparks,
Parker's first album for Arista, put a halt to that decline. Sporting a slicker, new wave-oriented production -- it was the first of his records not to have any involvement from
Nick Lowe -- the album was greeted with terrific reviews and, on the strengths of radio hits like "Local Girls," it became his most successful album, reaching number 40 on the American charts and selling over 200,000 copies.
Parker was poised for a major breakthrough, but that didn't happen. He followed
Squeezing Out Sparks in 1980 with the
Jimmy Iovine-produced
The Up Escalator, which was considerably slicker than its predecessor.
The Up Escalator didn't sell, and
Parker decided to ditch
the Rumour, who had already begun a solo career. For 1982's
Another Grey Area, he hired producer
Jack Douglas and a team of session musicians, resulting in a radio-ready production that received mixed reviews, yet managed to peak at number 51.
The Real Macaw, which followed in 1983, suffered a similar fate. For 1985's
Steady Nerves,
Parker moved to Elektra Records and formed a backing band called
the Shot with guitarist
Brinsley Schwarz, who helped him deliver his most radio-ready collection. This time, the pop move paid off. "Wake Up (Next to You)" became his only Top 40 hit, and the album stayed on the charts for nearly as long as
Squeezing Out Sparks.
Despite his moderate commercial success with
Steady Nerves, the album wasn't widely praised, and he also ran into trouble with Elektra, leaving the label after just one record. He briefly moved to Atlantic, which dropped him without releasing a single record. Consequently,
Parker wasn't able to deliver another album until 1988, when he signed with RCA and released
The Mona Lisa's Sister in the spring. Hailed as a comeback by several critics upon its release, the album generated a college radio hit with "Get Started (Start a Fire)" and spent 19 weeks on the charts. Instead of being the beginning of a comeback, the album turned out to be a last gasp: it was the last time
Parker was able to crack the Top 100.
Live! Alone in America (1989) received positive reviews but was ignored, and 1990's mild worldbeat experiment
Human Soul received mixed reviews and peaked at number 165 on the charts.
Parker's final album for RCA -- and his last album to chart -- was the stripped-down
Struck By Lightning (1991), and while it was critically praised, it didn't find an audience outside of his cult. The following year, he switched to Capitol and released
Burning Questions, which was ignored.
Following the release of 1993's double-disc anthology
Passion Is No Ordinary Word,
Parker made the leap to independent labels -- he had spent time at all but one of the major labels (Columbia/Sony) with little success. In 1994, he released the
Christmas Cracker EP on Dakota Arts, and then he signed with Razor & Tie, where he released
12 Haunted Episodes in the spring. Like
The Mona Lisa's Sister and
Struck By Lightning before it,
12 Haunted Episodes was hailed as a comeback, and it sold in respectable numbers for an indie release.
Parker followed it with two albums in 1996,
Live from New York, NY and
Acid Bubblegum, which appeared within two months of each other late in the summer. Early in 1997, he released yet another live album, the double-disc
The Last Rock N Roll Tour, which was recorded with the power pop quartet
the Figgs.
Parker continued to issue a steady stream of archive and live releases into the mid-2000s, and moved into singer/songwriter mode for the albums
Deepcut to Nowhere and
Your Country, the latter a roots rock-influenced affair released by the Chicago-based Bloodshot Records.
the Figgs were back for 2005's
Songs of No Consequence, an album that
Parker declared "rocks like safari park chimp" in pre-release publicity. Unreleased material, rare edits, and remixes were featured on
Official Art Vandelay Tapes, Vol. 2, which appeared two weeks after
Songs of No Consequence.
Don't Tell Columbus arrived in March 2007. The clever
Imaginary Television appeared in 2010, along with the DVD
Live at the FTC.
Parker unexpectedly reunited his original backing band
the Rumour in 2011, recording a new album that became 2012's
Three Chords Good. The reunion album appeared in November 2012, around the same time Judd Apatow's This Is Forty -- a movie where
Graham Parker & the Rumour provide a plot point -- hit the theaters, thereby pushing the singer/songwriter into the mainstream spotlight for the first time in years.
