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Graham Parker — Don't Ask Me Questions
Album: Graham Parker Ultimate Collection
Avg rating:
6.8

Your rating:
Total ratings: 1997









Released: 1976
Length: 5:29
Plays (last 30 days): 0
Crimson autograph is what we leave behind
Everywhere man set foot.
War mongers laughing loud behind a painted face
Throwing titbits to the crowd then blowing up the place.

Hey Lord don't ask me questions, Hey Lord don't ask me questions
Hey Lord don't ask me questions please!
Hey Lord don't ask me questions, Hey Lord don't ask me questions
Hey Lord ain't no answer in me. (Solo)

Well I stand up for liberty but can't liberate
Pent up agony I see you take first place.
Well who does this treachery I shout with bleeding hand
Is it you or is it me well I never will understand.

Hey Lord don't ask me questions, Hey Lord don't ask me questions
Hey Lord don't ask me questions please!
Hey Lord don't ask me questions, Hey Lord don't ask me questions
Hey Lord ain't no answer in me. (Solo)

Well I see the thousands screaming rushing for the cliffs
Just like lemmings into the sea, Well well well
Who waves his mighty hand and breaks the precious rules?
Well the same one must understand who wasted all these fools.

Hey Lord don't ask me questions, Hey Lord don't ask me questions
Hey Lord don't ask me questions please!
Hey Lord don't ask me questions, Hey Lord don't ask me questions
Hey Lord ain't no answer in me. (Solo)

Ain't no answer in me no, Ain't no answer in me
Fade on Uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh
Comments (175)add comment
 gaffer57 wrote:

Back in the late 70s, my friend Pete and I would call into our local AOR station WMMR 93.3 FM Philadelphia, during their "all request weekends" and request Graham Parker. Of course, our requests were routinely ignored. We kept up and the DJ's told us to stop bothering them - no way were they playing GP. The all request scam was just another way to squeeze the same lame AOR shit from a different tube. Graham Parker was a supreme talent routinely (criminally) ignored by American FM radio.



We had the legendary Rock of Boston, WBCN, 104.1, for 40+ years so I remember most of the music from that span when it's played on RP. Sadly, after being sustained financially by Howard Stern for its last few years the station went away in 2009 shortly after Howard left for satellite. I imagine there are still rock stations out there but in its heyday 'BCN was the most popular show in town.
Back in the late 70s, my friend Pete and I would call into our local AOR station WMMR 93.3 FM Philadelphia, during their "all request weekends" and request Graham Parker. Of course, our requests were routinely ignored. We kept up and the DJ's told us to stop bothering them - no way were they playing GP. The all request scam was just another way to squeeze the same lame AOR shit from a different tube. Graham Parker was a supreme talent routinely (criminally) ignored by American FM radio.
 vaiodon wrote:

Claim to infamy: I knocked over half of the (flight cased) Yamaha electric baby grand piano during the load out from a Parker & the Rumour gig, circa 1979,  Boy, did I get chewed out by the nearest member of their road crew.

Great gig, though. Really enjoy hearing GP & the Rumour.




LOL!  It probably took them FOREVER  to re-tune a CP-80 that had been dropped!   ...shit happens! ...it's not like you did it on purpose!
Claim to infamy: I knocked over half of the (flight cased) Yamaha electric baby grand piano during the load out from a Parker & the Rumour gig, circa 1979,  Boy, did I get chewed out by the nearest member of their road crew.

Great gig, though. Really enjoy hearing GP & the Rumour.
 EffjayUK wrote:
Jeez I just adore Graham Parker! Still to be seen from time to time in my part of West London. 


Whereabouts West London? Maida Vale? Around 1985 I visited a Maida Vale friend who shared a flat with former Rumour guitarist Martin Belmont. Graham stopped by one day for a visit. When he wasn't on the phone looking for a gig, Martin snorted coke all night, & watched old VHS concert tapes of himself, re-living the glory days. 
 linurbug wrote:

This version of the song is WAY better than the live version. Several on this thread like the live Parkerilla version better so I checked it out - hate it! The time meter on the live version is too fast, sounds like they're rushing through it. You miss the musical nuances that make this song great. On this slower tempo studio recording, the lazy, light reggae beat juxtaposes perfectly with the urgent guitar & vocal. Brinsley Schwarz's fantastic guitar work and trade off with the piano shine. Those piercing notes have space to breathe and sustain. Love it, keep this in the rotation!



Hear, hear!!! 
 Pedro1874 wrote:


I worked on ships during the 60's to the 90's and my own vast album collection is pristine due to having a reel to reel machine and taking that to sea with me. ๐Ÿ™‚๐Ÿ‘ Great to hear Graham again.



Cool story. Thank You for sharing it.
 dandueck07 wrote:
One of the many things I love about Radio Paradise, and there are many, is that I am often re-introduced to artists and songs that were once part of my extensive vinyl collection.  Unfortunately, I was a music lover who played his LPs at parties, and very few of my albums went unscathed by the actions of others (never by me, of course).  I sometimes wish I had done what a friend of mine did, play them only once when he was taping them on his reel-to-reel recorder.

I love the new technology that allows me to reunite with this music, and I love RP for acting as that memory agent. Graham Parker is now, once again, part of my music collection.


I worked on ships during the 60's to the 90's and my own vast album collection is pristine due to having a reel to reel machine and taking that to sea with me. ๐Ÿ™‚๐Ÿ‘ Great to hear Graham again.


Hey Lord, Don't Ask Me Questions - YouTube

Opinions vary
there's a lot in 'liking it the way you first heard it' and i wouldn't argue with that
Jeez I just adore Graham Parker! Still to be seen from time to time in my part of West London. 
This version of the song is WAY better than the live version. Several on this thread like the live Parkerilla version better so I checked it out - hate it! The time meter on the live version is too fast, sounds like they're rushing through it. You miss the musical nuances that make this song great. On this slower tempo studio recording, the lazy, light reggae beat juxtaposes perfectly with the urgent guitar & vocal. Brinsley Schwarz's fantastic guitar work and trade off with the piano shine. Those piercing notes have space to breathe and sustain. Love it, keep this in the rotation!
 iloveradio wrote:



Hello Germany. Lived there 1973-1978, student, miss it greatly


Hello iloveradio.  I moved here (to Germany) 30 years ago, and didnยดt want that to happen to me, so I stayed. 
 nomnol wrote:


I wonder if you are still listening spring. Let us know.  


Hi, thanks for asking! After a long period of having to download the cashe over night to play on my phone at work (and absolutely hammer it's battery!) , i am now back listening on a PC, so i can make the occasional comment, (but not very often, it depends who's about!). 
All the best, and thanks again!!
Oh lordy... a few hours with the house to myself (bit of a rarity in these days of covid).. and this comes on.   sweeeeeet.
 springof63 wrote:

Hi folks this probably aint the right place to put this but i don't know where is.
Today is my last day in this job (Woo Hoo). Working here was where i discovered RP and where RP has kept me (almost) sane for the past 6 years.
I don't know if i'll be able to hear RP at my new job or not (i really hope i can), and i hope this doesn't turn out to be my last comment but just in case - i'd like to thank you all for keeping me going here for all this time, especially Bill & Rebecca obviously, but also all you fellow commenters and contributors it takes all of you to make this oasis what it is, and i thank you all. Goodnight
Springof63 (DaveO)



I wonder if you are still listening spring. Let us know.  
 iloveradio wrote:



Hello Germany. Lived there 1973-1978, student, miss it greatly


You wouldn't miss it anymore if you'd know what it has become  
For years I thought this was Elvis Costello, der!! Iconic song - 7
Great to hear Graham Parker again. 
 Beatlesfan wrote:
Great song - very nice :-)
Greatings from Germany 



Hello Germany. Lived there 1973-1978, student, miss it greatly
 Pjesnik wrote:
A true poet expressing himself through rock music. My favourite: Squeezing out the sparks.
 
Yup, need to put that one on the turntable soon, been too long. Top album, considered by many the best. Oh, BTW, it's Squeezing Out Sparks (no "the").
I didn't know Graham Parker. I thought this was Elvis Costello. I like it
good segway
One of the many things I love about Radio Paradise, and there are many, is that I am often re-introduced to artists and songs that were once part of my extensive vinyl collection.  Unfortunately, I was a music lover who played his LPs at parties, and very few of my albums went unscathed by the actions of others (never by me, of course).  I sometimes wish I had done what a friend of mine did, play them only once when he was taping them on his reel-to-reel recorder.

I love the new technology that allows me to reunite with this music, and I love RP for acting as that memory agent. Graham Parker is now, once again, part of my music collection.
More GP, please
 springof63 wrote:
The problem here IMHO is you're playing entirely the wrong version, hence the poor ratings from people who actually do like the song.
Please throw this laid back (out) version away, and play the live version from the Parkerilla album. It is the definitive version of this song (again - in my humble opinion).
cheers
 
Ain't no answer in Bill. At least not on this issue
 JayHay-Char wrote:
Great song - but the live version on The Parkerilla is way, way better.  Not really surprising, because they were one of the best live bands I've ever seen :-)
 
I just bumped this -1 to Acceptable.  So I'll second the call for this live version cause maybe I'll actually like it.  
more GP
A true poet expressing himself through rock music. My favourite: Squeezing out the sparks.
 Jrsf6 wrote:
you need to play more GP, he is awesome. Mona Lisa's Sister is a great LP (i think that the lp name)
 
RP used to play something from that album quite a bit. I'm more of a Discovering Japan fan.
This song needs to stop at about the 2 minute mark. He just repeats the same, drab chorus over and over again.
Pretty cool how often music takes you back to earlier times in your life. ๐Ÿ˜‰
Great song - but the live version on The Parkerilla is way, way better.  Not really surprising, because they were one of the best live bands I've ever seen :-)
Great song - very nice :-)
Greatings from Germany 
And you'll be told no lies ๐Ÿ˜€
Head banging bad
 Jrsf6 wrote:
you need to play more GP, he is awesome. Mona Lisa's Sister is a great LP (i think that the lp name)
 
The Mona Lisa's Sister, at least to me, his best collection of tunes - besides Get Started, Start a Fire, his cover of Sam Cooke's Cupid is outstanding.  That being said, Heat Treatment and Howlin' Wind are great too.  Saw him with & without the Rumor (one of my fave live shows was with the Rumor) and he never fails to put on a good show.
Let's get out of here!

springof63 wrote:
Hi folks this probably aint the right place to put this but i don't know where is.
Today is my last day in this job (Woo Hoo). Working here was where i discovered RP and where RP has kept me (almost) sane for the past 6 years.
I don't know if i'll be able to hear RP at my new job or not (i really hope i can), and i hope this doesn't turn out to be my last comment but just in case - i'd like to thank you all for keeping me going here for all this time, especially Bill & Rebecca obviously, but also all you fellow commenters and contributors it takes all of you to make this oasis what it is, and i thank you all. Goodnight
Springof63 (DaveO)

 

N O .
This is a fine tune.  Not heard of it or the artist before.  Nice find.
you need to play more GP, he is awesome. Mona Lisa's Sister is a great LP (i think that the lp name)
it is you!
{#Bananajam}
I'd rather hear the more uptempo version of this song. As so many others seem to do.

But there ain't no answer from Bill
 fortheloveofpete wrote:
An under appreciated master, IMHO
 
Can't tell from other work because this is the only GP song I know, but this certainly is great.
An under appreciated master, IMHO
This is great on a Fri. morning!  GP could play some reggae in a pinch.
Lordy save me from tin ear guitarists.
Repetitive stress with the chorus.
Hi folks this probably aint the right place to put this but i don't know where is.
Today is my last day in this job (Woo Hoo). Working here was where i discovered RP and where RP has kept me (almost) sane for the past 6 years.
I don't know if i'll be able to hear RP at my new job or not (i really hope i can), and i hope this doesn't turn out to be my last comment but just in case - i'd like to thank you all for keeping me going here for all this time, especially Bill & Rebecca obviously, but also all you fellow commenters and contributors it takes all of you to make this oasis what it is, and i thank you all. Goodnight
Springof63 (DaveO)
Sorry, me again - just to say a playlist precedent has been set by The Kinks - 'All Of The Day And All Of The Night' where both the studio AND live versions are in the RP playlist. So it can be done . . .
i've said my bit (twice). Now i'll shut up. Except to say - i'll be playing the live version of 'Don't Ask Me Questions' from the Parkerilla album, in my iTunes, while this version is playing on RP, now and every time. I win {#Laughing}
PS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7NlS-f29xM
 springof63 wrote:
The problem here IMHO is you're playing entirely the wrong version, hence the poor ratings from people who actually do like the song.
Please throw this laid back (out) version away, and play the live version from the Parkerilla album. It is the definitive version of this song (again - in my humble opinion).
cheers

 
Could not agree more. This version lacks the fire of the live version.
play the good one next time
Thank you springof63! I youtube'd that album and it was excellent  : )
still playing the wrong version of this song then i see (hear)
The problem here IMHO is you're playing entirely the wrong version, hence the poor ratings from people who actually do like the song.
Please throw this laid back (out) version away, and play the live version from the Parkerilla album. It is the definitive version of this song (again - in my humble opinion).
cheers

ps - Don't Ask Me Questions
 Stingray wrote:

Finally Graham Parker? GREAT!

No better life-band on the planet (aside from Stranglers and Iggy).



 
2nd on the Stranglers reference...but would love some more Graham Parker & the Rumour!
8 > 9 - Practically defines the era...
This song would have been great at only 52 seconds long.

Master of pop songcraft, this guy


 coolpeople_rule wrote:


Excuse me...could you pleasse repeat that...music?

 
he said it was repetitive. 

what did he say? 
Brinsley Schwartz's awesome here man! Fuckin great sounds
Would have been much better if it were 2-3 minutes shorter
 fitzworld wrote:
This song gives new meaning to the word, REPETITIVE!!

Please stop!!!!! It's driving me insane!!!!! 

 

Excuse me...could you pleasse repeat that...music?
This song gives new meaning to the word, REPETITIVE!!

Please stop!!!!! It's driving me insane!!!!! 
{#Dancingbanana}
Incisive, sharp, clear, intense, biting, crisp.

I got to see Graham Parker in concert several times, all in Boston, if I remember correctly.

I own this on vinyl, along with about 5 other records.  I gotta get 'em on MP3!

Finally Graham Parker? GREAT!

No better life-band on the planet (aside from Stranglers and Iggy).


Parker and his band were seriously over hyped by  Rolling Stone type rags in the late 70's as they scrambled to promote a new wave of music.
I saw him at MapleLeaf Gardens and he was disappointing as little more than a good bar band.
The disappointment was then magnified when the next act seriously blew him away.  It was a good rock/pop band but still sad to see after the hype and accolades.
Eh..eh..eh..eh..eh..still feckin' banging on. And PSD for a second time...
just got a hankerin for fishbone
brilliant, masterful, compelling guitar, especially in the opening.

one of my favorite GP tunes 
Brinsley Schwarz  played the most guitar solo-parts but this song was always for Martin Belmont {#Guitarist}
Like Animal of the Muppets but than on guitar!!
 treatment_bound wrote:
G.P. IS BACK!

>>>When Judd Apatow discovered Graham Parker and the Rumour as a young teenager, he liked the music—stripped-down, stylish rock tinged with soul, blues and reggae, slightly snarling yet full of melodic hooks. But what he liked best was that Mr. Parker was funny. "I kept buying everything he put out," says Mr. Apatow, the producer-writer-director of numerous movie and TV comedies.

<image> 

Last year, Mr. Apatow decided he wanted to meet him, and they had lunch in New York. For his new movie, "This Is 40," a sequel to "Knocked Up," Mr. Apatow was looking for a aging, low-profile rock star whom the main character, played by Paul Rudd, would sign to a record contract. Mr. Parker, who had disbanded the Rumour in 1981, let drop that he was putting the band back together. "I thought, that's the perfect hook. It was this bizarre parallel reality," the director says.

Not long after, Mr. Parker was on a Hollywood movie set with his former bandmates. "They brought their kids, who'd never seen them playing together before," says Mr. Apatow. "It was a very emotional day." They made an album last year, but Mr. Parker decided to wait to release the album, "Three Chords Good," until Monday to capitalize on the movie, which opens Dec. 21.

"I'm happy that a guy who wasn't getting much is getting attention for playing somebody who doesn't get any attention," says Mr. Apatow.

Mr. Parker, who turns 62 Sunday, has been living in New York's Hudson Valley, raising a family, playing soccer and skiing, writing fiction (including a short-story collection called "Carp Fishing on Valium") and making music. He self-produced records every couple of years while also performing at smaller venues, usually solo.

Mr. Parker talked at Dreamland Recording Studios, a converted 19th-century church near Woodstock, N.Y. Edited from an interview.

How, after 31 years, did you put the Rumour back together?

I'd talked with Brinsleyfive or six years ago and the idea came up and he was like, we were so good, why come back and be bad? He's a professional luthier now—he fixes guitars. Andrewis a librarian in Yorkshire. I was quite happy doing solo gigs, and if I'd thought about it I probably wouldn't have gotten in touch with them—too much trouble. But everybody was very positive about it, and when we started playing I knew it was the right thing.

What were your early musical influences?

When I was a kid in the mid-'60s, I was what's known as a moddie boy, a prototype skinhead. You all had your hair like a crewcut, cropped, with suits or levis with red suspenders, sometimes Doc Martens. It was a thriving soul music, Motown and ska scene, we used to dance to Prince Buster and the Skatalites. It was an underground scene—what made the charts was maybe Johnny Nash, a sweeter version. The first thing I learned on the guitar was "007 (Shanty Town)," Desmond Dekker. After that it was English blues bands: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Blodwyn Pig, Savoy Brown. I grew my hair long. John Mayall and Ten Years I left school when I was 16, and a couple of years later I went to Guernsey to pick tomatoes. I got into psychedelic music big-time, Santana, Pink Floyd, David Peel, "Abbey Road," anything that had drug references and was trippy. I went to Morocco, joined a band called Pegasus, ran out of money, went to Gibraltar and worked on the docks, writing songs about the sun and the morning and the birds.

Then I moved back home. My dad was a stoker in a hospital for many years, he'd do night shifts, rolling tobacco with a huge cup of tea and open all these massive furnaces. When he got a bit older they gave him a job driving nurses, they gave him a cushy job. When I'd made it in my career, I retired him, got him out of there. It was one of the best things I ever did. He was a soccer player and the war came along and ruined everything for everyone.

The new record sounds a lot like "Howling Wind." Your music has been remarkably consistent.

To have a certain blueprint, it's like the gift that keeps giving. I don't feel any desperation to go Brazilian on your ass After I went back to England, I started playing music that was totally counter to what was going on around me. Suburban England was still into that progressive music. You'd have long hair and a denim suit, the audience would be sitting cross-legged on the floor waiting for the drum solo, Rick Wakeman dressed in a wizard hat. Then it changed. Before David Bowie figured out he wanted to be a rock and roll star, he wore a dress and played 12-strings at festivals. T. Rex didn't want to be Tyrannosaurus Rex anymore with a guy playing bongos—Marc Bolan was not going to be singing songs about gallons of flowers and hair and unicorns. I saw these guys coming out with this stuff, and I thought, this is what's coming down the line. It's gonna be 3½-minute songs. I started to work up in my old bedroom, playing, writing songs, and it somehow came to me that I could introduce soul music. Nobody seemed to be doing that.

You were described as an "angry young man."

Back then, irreverence wasn't in the music. I didn't come out of a punk rock environment. The Sex Pistols hadn't happened yet. That changed when "Never Mind the Bollocks" came out and all these kids, they knew they didn't like ELP. They had their own music. I couldn't copy it, I had my own style. People say to me, you've really mellowed out a lot, but that's not true. "Howling Wind" had ballads, some of it I even think is maudlin now. It wasn't, "I'm going to tear your liver out and nail it to the door."

I never wanted to sing in an arch English accent. America is rock 'n' roll, the root is from Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. It's all extrapolated from that, from ska, from soul music, I don't know how I still manage to write songs. It's the same deal now as then. I've got a guitar and I don't know what I'm doing. I never learned music. I'm quite uneducated, and usually I sat in front of the TV, with soap operas on, in England. It was very inspiring for me, I'd done all this traveling around, I came back living with my parents, everyone around me was like they're living in a soap opera. Every Sunday everyone came outside and would washed their cars. It was like "The Stepford Wives." It gave me inspiration, like, I've got to tell these people where it's at. I thought, this will get me out of the suburbs. I wanted to make something of myself, Often, musicians are shy. I didn't want to be one of those—I wanted to grab people."

You came to America twice in 1976.

Our manager said. we've got to get to America, and we did, in a station wagon. And believe me, if you thought England was behind the times, in terms of music appreciation...People really didn't know what we were doing. They though of it as some kind of light pop music. A couple of years later, Arista said the usual thing, we've got to break you in the Midwest, so go open for Lynard Skynard and Journey and Blue Oyster Cult. We'd open for these bands, 10,000 people who hate you. But there are always people who come up now and say, I saw you with Lynard Skynard and it blew me away. I say, "Wow, you're a very odd man." We got big in a hurry in New York and the West Coast. The Midwest was still a mystery apart from Chicago. We didn't really take off.

You get tired of Elvis Costello comparisons.

In every interview or review I have to see his name and Joe Jackson's, as if we hung out at the pub and it all happened at the same time.is one of the best songwriters ever. But what I always think is that seeing as I pre-dated these guys a little, with all due respect, does my name ever appear in their interviews? People forget that for a year and a half, Graham Parker and the Rumour were top dog in this kind of music.

I met Elvis back in the day before he had a deal, he came to our gigs. He had a band called Flip City, I went to see them, thought it was pretty weak. It wasn't til Stiffthat all of a sudden he goes balls to the wall, a whole different thing. He basically reinvented himself with this extraordinary album, produced by Nick Lowe, and now Nick's career is off and running again. It's that time of my life when you do analyze history a bit, you can't help it.

What are you listening to these days?

There's not much, I drive around and listen to alternative radio, band after band with abrasive voices, abrasive guitars, all sort of whining about how nobody understands them , their girlfriends or something. I think, "You aren't alternative, why aren't you dealing with what's really going on? You're just whining about yourself." I hear this alternative music, and and critics are drumming it up to be much more than it worth, perhaps because they have jobs to keep, with all due respect. They can't wait to get the new weirdest band in town and really make a deal out of them. Yeah there doing some weird thing, using those instrument, whoop-de-do, where are the songs? I read a lot. Watch the news a lot. I could be on a desert island and if I had amn Internet connection I'd still be following American politics. It's hilarious.

You write fiction and post it on your website. What are you reading right now?

I'm reading "Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms," about creatures that came from the time of the dinosaurs and escaped extinction. A book on shrimp, two on eels. I just read "Chasing Venus," all about the Transit of Venus and Halley of Halley's Comet, all these astronomers who went around the world in the 1761 and 1769 to figure out the solar system. Incredible stories.



 
Thanks for that - very interesting!
G.P. IS BACK!

>>>When Judd Apatow discovered Graham Parker and the Rumour as a young teenager, he liked the music—stripped-down, stylish rock tinged with soul, blues and reggae, slightly snarling yet full of melodic hooks. But what he liked best was that Mr. Parker was funny. "I kept buying everything he put out," says Mr. Apatow, the producer-writer-director of numerous movie and TV comedies.

<image> 

Last year, Mr. Apatow decided he wanted to meet him, and they had lunch in New York. For his new movie, "This Is 40," a sequel to "Knocked Up," Mr. Apatow was looking for a aging, low-profile rock star whom the main character, played by Paul Rudd, would sign to a record contract. Mr. Parker, who had disbanded the Rumour in 1981, let drop that he was putting the band back together. "I thought, that's the perfect hook. It was this bizarre parallel reality," the director says.

Not long after, Mr. Parker was on a Hollywood movie set with his former bandmates. "They brought their kids, who'd never seen them playing together before," says Mr. Apatow. "It was a very emotional day." They made an album last year, but Mr. Parker decided to wait to release the album, "Three Chords Good," until Monday to capitalize on the movie, which opens Dec. 21.

"I'm happy that a guy who wasn't getting much is getting attention for playing somebody who doesn't get any attention," says Mr. Apatow.

Mr. Parker, who turns 62 Sunday, has been living in New York's Hudson Valley, raising a family, playing soccer and skiing, writing fiction (including a short-story collection called "Carp Fishing on Valium") and making music. He self-produced records every couple of years while also performing at smaller venues, usually solo.

Mr. Parker talked at Dreamland Recording Studios, a converted 19th-century church near Woodstock, N.Y. Edited from an interview.

How, after 31 years, did you put the Rumour back together?

I'd talked with Brinsleyfive or six years ago and the idea came up and he was like, we were so good, why come back and be bad? He's a professional luthier now—he fixes guitars. Andrewis a librarian in Yorkshire. I was quite happy doing solo gigs, and if I'd thought about it I probably wouldn't have gotten in touch with them—too much trouble. But everybody was very positive about it, and when we started playing I knew it was the right thing.

What were your early musical influences?

When I was a kid in the mid-'60s, I was what's known as a moddie boy, a prototype skinhead. You all had your hair like a crewcut, cropped, with suits or levis with red suspenders, sometimes Doc Martens. It was a thriving soul music, Motown and ska scene, we used to dance to Prince Buster and the Skatalites. It was an underground scene—what made the charts was maybe Johnny Nash, a sweeter version. The first thing I learned on the guitar was "007 (Shanty Town)," Desmond Dekker. After that it was English blues bands: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Blodwyn Pig, Savoy Brown. I grew my hair long. John Mayall and Ten Years I left school when I was 16, and a couple of years later I went to Guernsey to pick tomatoes. I got into psychedelic music big-time, Santana, Pink Floyd, David Peel, "Abbey Road," anything that had drug references and was trippy. I went to Morocco, joined a band called Pegasus, ran out of money, went to Gibraltar and worked on the docks, writing songs about the sun and the morning and the birds.

Then I moved back home. My dad was a stoker in a hospital for many years, he'd do night shifts, rolling tobacco with a huge cup of tea and open all these massive furnaces. When he got a bit older they gave him a job driving nurses, they gave him a cushy job. When I'd made it in my career, I retired him, got him out of there. It was one of the best things I ever did. He was a soccer player and the war came along and ruined everything for everyone.

The new record sounds a lot like "Howling Wind." Your music has been remarkably consistent.

To have a certain blueprint, it's like the gift that keeps giving. I don't feel any desperation to go Brazilian on your ass After I went back to England, I started playing music that was totally counter to what was going on around me. Suburban England was still into that progressive music. You'd have long hair and a denim suit, the audience would be sitting cross-legged on the floor waiting for the drum solo, Rick Wakeman dressed in a wizard hat. Then it changed. Before David Bowie figured out he wanted to be a rock and roll star, he wore a dress and played 12-strings at festivals. T. Rex didn't want to be Tyrannosaurus Rex anymore with a guy playing bongos—Marc Bolan was not going to be singing songs about gallons of flowers and hair and unicorns. I saw these guys coming out with this stuff, and I thought, this is what's coming down the line. It's gonna be 3½-minute songs. I started to work up in my old bedroom, playing, writing songs, and it somehow came to me that I could introduce soul music. Nobody seemed to be doing that.

You were described as an "angry young man."

Back then, irreverence wasn't in the music. I didn't come out of a punk rock environment. The Sex Pistols hadn't happened yet. That changed when "Never Mind the Bollocks" came out and all these kids, they knew they didn't like ELP. They had their own music. I couldn't copy it, I had my own style. People say to me, you've really mellowed out a lot, but that's not true. "Howling Wind" had ballads, some of it I even think is maudlin now. It wasn't, "I'm going to tear your liver out and nail it to the door."

I never wanted to sing in an arch English accent. America is rock 'n' roll, the root is from Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. It's all extrapolated from that, from ska, from soul music, I don't know how I still manage to write songs. It's the same deal now as then. I've got a guitar and I don't know what I'm doing. I never learned music. I'm quite uneducated, and usually I sat in front of the TV, with soap operas on, in England. It was very inspiring for me, I'd done all this traveling around, I came back living with my parents, everyone around me was like they're living in a soap opera. Every Sunday everyone came outside and would washed their cars. It was like "The Stepford Wives." It gave me inspiration, like, I've got to tell these people where it's at. I thought, this will get me out of the suburbs. I wanted to make something of myself, Often, musicians are shy. I didn't want to be one of those—I wanted to grab people."

You came to America twice in 1976.

Our manager said. we've got to get to America, and we did, in a station wagon. And believe me, if you thought England was behind the times, in terms of music appreciation...People really didn't know what we were doing. They though of it as some kind of light pop music. A couple of years later, Arista said the usual thing, we've got to break you in the Midwest, so go open for Lynard Skynard and Journey and Blue Oyster Cult. We'd open for these bands, 10,000 people who hate you. But there are always people who come up now and say, I saw you with Lynard Skynard and it blew me away. I say, "Wow, you're a very odd man." We got big in a hurry in New York and the West Coast. The Midwest was still a mystery apart from Chicago. We didn't really take off.

You get tired of Elvis Costello comparisons.

In every interview or review I have to see his name and Joe Jackson's, as if we hung out at the pub and it all happened at the same time.is one of the best songwriters ever. But what I always think is that seeing as I pre-dated these guys a little, with all due respect, does my name ever appear in their interviews? People forget that for a year and a half, Graham Parker and the Rumour were top dog in this kind of music.

I met Elvis back in the day before he had a deal, he came to our gigs. He had a band called Flip City, I went to see them, thought it was pretty weak. It wasn't til Stiffthat all of a sudden he goes balls to the wall, a whole different thing. He basically reinvented himself with this extraordinary album, produced by Nick Lowe, and now Nick's career is off and running again. It's that time of my life when you do analyze history a bit, you can't help it.

What are you listening to these days?

There's not much, I drive around and listen to alternative radio, band after band with abrasive voices, abrasive guitars, all sort of whining about how nobody understands them , their girlfriends or something. I think, "You aren't alternative, why aren't you dealing with what's really going on? You're just whining about yourself." I hear this alternative music, and and critics are drumming it up to be much more than it worth, perhaps because they have jobs to keep, with all due respect. They can't wait to get the new weirdest band in town and really make a deal out of them. Yeah there doing some weird thing, using those instrument, whoop-de-do, where are the songs? I read a lot. Watch the news a lot. I could be on a desert island and if I had amn Internet connection I'd still be following American politics. It's hilarious.

You write fiction and post it on your website. What are you reading right now?

I'm reading "Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms," about creatures that came from the time of the dinosaurs and escaped extinction. A book on shrimp, two on eels. I just read "Chasing Venus," all about the Transit of Venus and Halley of Halley's Comet, all these astronomers who went around the world in the 1761 and 1769 to figure out the solar system. Incredible stories.


 mmysak wrote:
More Graham Parker please!  One of my favorites from the seventies and eighties, Elvis Costello's under-appreciated peer.  Howlin Wind was a Great Album, especially Soul Shoes and the title track.

Always enjoy listening and have turned many friends on the RP - keep the great variety coming.

Mike 
 
And, lest we forget: 
"Got me a lady doctor
She cures the pain for free
Got me a lady doctor
And there ain't nothin' wrong with me"! 
 WonderLizard wrote:

Williams played with a later version of Dire Straits, around the "Money for Nothing" era, ca. 1983. Pick Withers was their original drummer. Steve Goulding was the drummer with The Rumour, Parker's back-up group. I can't find anything that Williams ever played with Parker. Williams did play with both Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe in Rockpile. The connection is that Lowe played with The Rumour's Martin Belmont, Brinsley Schwarz, and others in the seminal pub band, Brinsley Schwarz. Cozy little era, eh?
 
Yes, Terry Williams and those others seem to have kept busy in those days - nice era.  I think Williams played on Graham Parker's "Mona Lisa's Sister" album, and maybe some later stuff.
 Proclivities wrote:
Graham Parker & the Rumour's first album was released in 1976, Dire Straits' first was released in 1978, but Mark Knopfler is older than Graham Parker.  I think the drummer, Terry Williams, played with both of them.
 
Williams played with a later version of Dire Straits, around the "Money for Nothing" era, ca. 1983. Pick Withers was their original drummer. Steve Goulding was the drummer with The Rumour, Parker's back-up group. I can't find anything that Williams ever played with Parker. Williams did play with both Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe in Rockpile. The connection is that Lowe played with The Rumour's Martin Belmont, Brinsley Schwarz, and others in the seminal pub band, Brinsley Schwarz. Cozy little era, eh?
More Graham Parker please!  One of my favorites from the seventies and eighties, Elvis Costello's under-appreciated peer.  Howlin Wind was a Great Album, especially Soul Shoes and the title track.

Always enjoy listening and have turned many friends on the RP - keep the great variety coming.

Mike 
Love it!!!

Was lucky enough to see GP several times when he was just starting... I remember him punching his fist into the air on this song, but it was such a small club he brought half the ceiling tiles down.... ahhhh, happy days! 

 
Seems like this file has a very low bit rate.... cymbals washing out....

 
 rtkmusic wrote:
Love this!

BTW, that searing, biting guitar work is courtesy of the highly under-rated Brinsley Schwarz!!
 
Yeah, you got that right, rtkmusic! I was in art college when my friend, Ian turned me on to Brinsley Schwartz, via Graham Parker. Wore those records out! Since then, I've divested myself (painfully, I might add) of my vinyl, and all that music that got taped is now useless to me as well. Definitely got some back-tracking to do, for sure. Hope we can hear more from both of these great artists here on RP!
Thanks again, Bill and Becky! 
I always liked this from the day back when I bought the Vinyl. 1980 or so?
 sdn wrote:
It was okay until the last thirty seconds, then it became sucko-barfo.
 
{#Lol}    {#Puke}{#Lol}

Exactly my thought, only due to the part before the last thirty seconds I granted it to be HO HUM.... That 'guitar solo' reminds me of that wannabe guitar player that holds a guitar for the first time and pulling that surprised face like "Hey, listen, when I move my finger one position! COOHOOOL!"{#Idea} 

The voice ain't that bad, but I don't feel like ever listening to this song again...

Was all ready to rate this higher, then the ending came. Did he ever hear of editing? Oops...don't ask me no questions. Guess I should'a read the song title again.

CLASSIC!
I love me some GP!    You should hear the live version, it's a lot more energetic.   It can be found on this LP https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-parkerilla-r414435   Check it out!


Liked the transition from Eels 'Lucky Day In Hell' to this. Quite sublime.

 sandpebble wrote:
Like asking "What came first, dryers or washing machines?

 
Washing machines were around a long time before dryers.

 jhorton wrote:
Well, I think it's excellent song writing and good singing too.

We are all born with the voice we're born with. It's what we do with it that defines us. Some get out and sing their hearts out. Most become internet music experts.

 
Those who can, DO.
Those who can't, TEACH.
Those who can't do or teach become music critics.

 Blip wrote:
Who came first, Parker or Dire Straits?
 
As if one cares . . .
 Blip wrote:
Who came first, Parker or Dire Straits?
 

Graham Parker & the Rumour's first album was released in 1976, Dire Straits' first was released in 1978, but Mark Knopfler is older than Graham Parker.  I think the drummer, Terry Williams, played with both of them.
It was okay until the last thirty seconds, then it became sucko-barfo.
 jhorton wrote:
Well, I think it's excellent song writing and good singing too.

We are all born with the voice we're born with. It's what we do with it that defines us. Some get out and sing their hearts out. Most become internet music experts.

 





 Blip wrote:
Who came first, Parker or Dire Straits?
 

Dont ask me questions. {#Naughty}

Love this!

BTW, that searing, biting guitar work is courtesy of the highly under-rated Brinsley Schwarz!!
 Blip wrote:
Who came first, Parker or Dire Straits?
 Like asking "What came first, dryers or washing machines?

 Blip wrote:
Who came first, Parker or Dire Straits?
 

Parker.

Next question?

 bobcat1963 wrote:
more GP on RP please!!!!!
love his music since about 1978, it never stopped.
one of the most underestimated musicians....
 
Agree: Discovering Japan!

Who came first, Parker or Dire Straits?
more GP on RP please!!!!!
love his music since about 1978, it never stopped.
one of the most underestimated musicians....
I prefer the live version which is really great
I must be remembering the live version, because I don't recall this opening or the slowed down reggae beat. But still great Graham Parker from the Mercury Poisoning days.
No, he didn't have mercury poisoning... it was referring to being screwed by his label, Mercury Records.
Well, I think it's excellent song writing and good singing too.

We are all born with the voice we're born with. It's what we do with it that defines us. Some get out and sing their hearts out. Most become internet music experts.

 bokey wrote:
He does a great version of "I Want You Back"
 

YES HE DOES. Love Graham Parker. Like a more straightforward, angrier, grittier Elvis Costello.
Repetitive!  Poor Singing!  Grunting!  Horrendous!  1!  {#Puke}
 rococodeco wrote:
They need to get people to write their lyrics more than two lines long and hopefully this is the last time they play this song on RP.
 
roco et al seem to have a hard time hearing the words in this song so here:

Crimson autograph is what we leave behind, everywhere man set foot.
War mongers laughing loud behind a painted face
Throwing titbits to the crowd then blowing up the place. Chorus Hey lord dont ask me questions, hey lord dont ask me questions
Hey lord dont ask me questions please!
Hey lord dont ask me questions, hey lord dont ask me questions
Hey lord aint no answer in me. (solo) Well I stand up for liberty but cant liberate
Pent up agony I see you take first place.
Well who does this treachery I shout with bleeding hand
Is it you or is it me well I never will understand. Chorus then solo Well I see the thousands screaming rushing for the cliffs
Just like lemmings into the sea, well well well
Who waves his mighty hand and breaks the precious rules?
Well the same one must understand who wasted all these fools. Chorus Aint no answer in me no, aint no answer in me
uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh..



merkabah wrote:
This is very early GP...new wave/punk days...1976 it's from a good album though... Check out his latest for some great new songs... "Don't Tell Columbus" would be nice to hear a few from it here! Cheers from Toronto

Agree... Columbus is an outstanding album.  Every single song is very good.  I'd also highly recommend Deepcut to Nowhere from a few years back... there may be a couple cuts from this one already in the RP rotation.

Ay! Ay! Unh! Unh! Ay! Ay! Unh! Unh!

Sounds like he's constipated. 
Good tune. No questions.
This is very early GP...new wave/punk days...1976 it's from a good album though... Check out his latest for some great new songs... "Don't Tell Columbus" would be nice to hear a few from it here! Cheers from Toronto
Sheesh. One of the most repetitive sets of lyrics I've ever heard.
CoYoT51 wrote:
Does this man suffer some kind of constipation? He sounds to suffer a lot at the end of his song...
It's all over but the grunting. I liked the song until the grunts began.
Doppleganger (click here)
Does this man suffer some kind of constipation? He sounds to suffer a lot at the end of his song...
Nice groove.
Yes!!! Especially love the Brinsley Schwarz seering guitar!
Nice, but Ian Drury and the Blockheads are/were nicer!
Bill, next time you play this number, please use the version from The Parkerilla! That one's so much more upbeat than the original. It sounds like it's being played at the wrong speed.