#334 - Graham Parker & The Rumour - Squeezing Out Sparks (1979)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR BIO
Graham Parker was born in East London in 1950. He became a fan of soul music during his teenage years (Otis Redding) and often went to nearby towns that had clubs playing soul, Motown and ska. He got his first guitar at 16, and in his early 20s spent a year in Gibraltar with a psychedelic band called Pegasus. After returning to England in 1972, he continued to pursue a musical career. In 1974 he placed an ad in Melody Maker looking for like-minded musicians, and after making some connections, he met Dave Robinson, the manager of the defunct Brinsley Schwarz band. Robinson recorded Parker in a small studio above a pub, and soon a backing band was formed, known as The Rumour. It consisted of members from other British pub bands - Brinsley Schwarz (lead guitar), Bob Andrews (keyboards), Martin Belmont (rhythm guitar), Andrew Bodnar (bass), and Steve Goulding (drums). The band released 3 albums - Howlin' Wind (1976), Heat Treatment (1976) and Stick To Me (1977), leading us to today's album.
BACKGROUND – SQUEEZING OUT SPARKS
GP & The Rumour's 4th album was released in March 1979. Whereas Parker's previous albums were notable for their strong soul influences, with many prominent tracks and singles including a horn section, on Squeezing Out Sparks producer Jack Nitzsche favored a rawer sound. Coincidentally, popular punk band the Clash were undergoing a reverse process, trying to expand their musical arrangements. Therefore, the Rumour's rhythm and blues session players went on to record all the horn parts in the Clash's third and praised record London Calling.
Parker explained the recording process in an interview, saying: "The album took eleven days to record. It took two days to get the studio working because it had only been used by Acker Bilk (a British clarinetist) and things like that. The third day we managed to play a song, and Jack said, 'Come and listen to this.' There was just this big mess coming out. So Jack and I went up to his hotel room and I told him we wanted to get back to fundamentals but we didn't know how to. I said, 'Jack, you gotta say what you think.' He was a bit paranoid about criticizing the band. I said to him, 'Jack, we're English. We sneer, we're cynical, we're miserable. But we really don’t mean it." Summing up the album, Parker stated, "Squeezing Out Sparks didn't have as much roots or swing, and there was no horn section on it. The songs were just great.
Parker on what fueled the album - I can remember coming back from Japan having all these words flying through my head that came to make the song "Discovering Japan" for instance. I didn't write the songs particularly on the road, because I'm not good at that, but I definitely got the balance for the album from living such a crazy lifestyle, from coming from 1975 when I was living with my parents in a village in the country working in a gas station. Before that, I'd traveled as a hippie to Morocco, to France and Spain, and I was a bit of a nomad. And then I decided okay, no more traveling until I get paid for it. Now I'm going to become a professional musician."
It was ranked among the top ten albums of the year for 1979 by NME, It was also voted the best album of the year in the 1979 Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll. It peaked at #40 on the US Billboard 200 and #18 in the UK - doing it's best in Sweden peaking at #14.