Elvis Fu Wrote:
Bump for Uncle Monger.
Shit man, I missed this. Davey's got it nailed. Parker's first two albums
Howling Wind and
Heat Treatment came out in '76, and they're both messy, punky updates on the R&B/country/soul/rock'n'roll melting pot that Van Morrison, Springsteen, and the Band were dipping into - except that Parker added some reggae in there as well. Parker's band was the Rumour, which was made up of a bunch of pub rock all-stars like Brinsley Schwartz (the namesake of Nick Lowe's old band - and Lowe produced the GP debut) and Martin Belmont of Ducks Deluxe. They were a hard-assed unit that could play anything, and all of Parker's best stuff was done with them pushing from behind. In the liner notes of the reissue/remaster of
Heat Treatment Parker, ever the curmudgeon, totally dumps all over it, blaming Mutt Lange for over-producing it and blaming himself for writing shitty songs - but he's 90% wrong. There's a couple weaker tracks on it (whereas the debut was solid from beginning to end), but overall it's a great second effort.
The 3rd album (
Stick To Me) was an attempt to streamline the expansive old-school sound of the Rumour into something more akin to Elvis Costello's
My Aim Is True. It got savaged at the time of its release - with most of the blame landing on producer Nick Lowe's shoulders - but I think a lot of that was a knee-jerk reaction to the narrowing of scope. GP and the Rumour didn't want to be Bob Dylan and the Band - which is what the critics had hoped for - they just wanted to kick some ass.
Squeezing Out Sparks is where that new direction really came into focus. There's one weak track ("Waiting For The UFOs") but the rest is the best material Parker ever put to wax. With this album, Parker was poised for success, getting mentioned in the same breath as the other "angry young men" of the time Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, but instead of charging ahead and grabbing the brass ring, Parker and the Rumour fell into disarray.
The Up Escalator was the final album with the Rumour. It was supposed to be the commercial breakthrough, and had a guest spot by Bruce Springsteen just to hit that point home. There's some good-to-okay stuff on it, but compared to everything that came before it's tame and lifeless. That was the end of GP and the Rumour. From the same era there's one great ep (
The Pink Parker) and one extremely limp live album (
The Parkerilla).
Parker has had some highs in his subsequent solo career (
The Real Macaw, for instance, reteamed him with Brinsley Schwartz, and
Deepcut To Nowhere was a great collection of songs), but it's all a little (for want of a better term) workmanlike. It's good - and I continue to buy it - but it's kinda like listening to Iggy without the Stooges: it'll never quite match those early heights.
And as for Mink Deville's
Cabretta - fuck yes. I had that on my listmania. One of THE lost classics of the '70s New York punk scene (although Mink Deville were more bound by tradition than the likes of Television and Patti Smith and the Ramones, but they had the talent to make that tradition live). I've never found that album on CD, but I've got 70% of it on a best-of comp. But I'm sure it'll get rediscovered one of these years - and we'll see the likes of Pitchfork raving about it like they've always known about it.
