Joe Harvard Interviews Graham Parker

THE GRAHAM PARKER INTERVIEW

After mixing Graham's solo show at the Saint, in Asbury Park, N.J., I asked him if he'd be interested in doing an e-Nterview: a list of a few dozen emailed questions, from which he could choose a number to answer. Ever the gentleman and never one to do things half-way, Graham answered every one of the questions I sent. These were hammered into an article, and published in the June issue of Upstage. The following is the original and complete Q & A. In seeking to approximate an actual conversation, some questions contained several parts, or were preceded by a brief statement; for clarity a few of the longer Q & A's have been separated into multiple parts.

JH: Vanity Press does for publishing what "Mercury Poisoning" did for record companies. Is this a reflection of your experiences shopping your book, "Carp Fishing on Valium"?

GP: No, nothing to do with my fiction work. I got lucky with both the short stories and novel and found takers pretty easily.
I've had the song title for awhile but not until the plethora of "Video News Releases" that have been pushed to the media since Bush became president did the song find itself. All those phony propaganda segments about the war in Iraq or the "No Child Left Behind" program etc., and indeed the general softness of the media on this administration, made me feel that the entire media in America is like one great big Vanity Press: It's all pay for play, basically.

JH: As a Rennaissance Man, can we expect a GP art show next, with a
subsequent release titled "Gallery Girls", skewering the art show world?? Seriously, is it possible to in your opinion to work in any creative medium without facing the inevitable disappointment of being an artist/crafstman being packaged and sold by bean counters? Do you see the internet as a way out of this dilemma?
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GP: Hey, I did do the cover of a live King Biscuit Flower Hour CD of mine not too long ago! Knocked it up with some weird oily crayons.

Packaging? I'm so below the radar no one's gonna package anything.
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JH: There's a clarity and unity of direction on this new record that harkens back to Howlin' Wind and Squeezing Out Sparks, in my opinion. Has playing with a younger band put a spring in your step?

GP: Well, I just did what I always do: wrote a bunch of songs, chose some musicians who I thought would be suitable, and hoped for the best.
But I've played live with the Figgs on a few tours now and I think the combination of these tunes and this band was certainly not going to allow me to snooze.
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JH: The new record Songs of No Consequence seems more reflective, less overtly pissed-off than your previous work … more like the ruminations of a guy who has worked things out, and accepted that he can he needs only his talent, "cigarettes and bad chardonnay" and a great part-time band to survive.

Do you agree, and if so, is this part of maturing as a human/songwriter or have you simply worked out an acceptable formula for existing that acknowledges the hopelessness of expecting record companies to work on your behalf?

GP: Songwriting is still, for the most part, a mystery to me. I believe the quality of my work has been consistently high throughout my career but have no idea why or how. I should be producing utter rubbish by now. I don't get it. I don't know how I can produce stuff that does have this "maturity" when I still feel exactly the same as most people deep down inside: like I'm walking through this world with less senses operating than an amoeba.
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JH: So, what I'm perceiving as being more reflective, less overtly pissed-off than your previous work … is it just a different flavor of anger? Or do I have my head totally up my ass? Does the knowledge that you may have to play these songs alone change the way you write in any way?

GP: The songs on this new album seemed, on the face of it, less than ideal for solo work. My last album, "Your Country," was much more suitable. But having done "Evil" "Vanity Press" "She Swallows It" and other tracks solo I'm suprised at how well they work stripped down.

But now that you mention it, I think it is in the back of my mind these days when I write songs that I should definately consider the fact that I play solo more than I play with a band. And the truth is, I much prefer mellower stuff anyway to all that ranting and raving.
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JH: Playing solo is a tough row to hoe for many, especially for those who are used to a band; for some, like Jonathan Richman, it was a liberation and a joy right from the get-go.

Having been backed by one of the greatest rock outfits ever to tear up a stage, how is it for you these days [on non-Figgs shows] walking onstage with just your guitar and your tonsils?

GP: I'm very pleased with how my solo act has developed. When I first began playing solo, at least in my professional life, I was very stiff and did the songs almost as if I still had a band behind me, but now they stretch and bend and change all the time. Plus, I've learned to talk to the audience and throw in a few jokes. It took me years to loosen up. I enjoy it now.
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JH: You seemed to make a conscious push towards the singer-songwriter
direction, commencing w/ 88's Mona Lisa's Sister thru 92's Burning
Questions . and since then have integrated that component into your overall performing stance - izzat true, or has it always made sense to you to do both band and solo stuff?

GP: It only made sense to me to work solo after the heavy- handed record productions of the '80's became an anvil around my neck. Actually, the production ethic of the '80's became an anvil for rock 'n' roll across the board. It was time to shed the pounds.
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JH: Many of your contemporaries and those you've worked with were part of the British pub-rock scene [Brinsley, Bob Andrews, Martin Belmont, Nick Lowe et al], whose meat-and-potatoes gigs required a knowlewdge of soul, r&B, country and rock covers [as well as their own material]... How helpful was that experience to your career, and do you feel that musicians coming up today suffer from a lack of that sort of work ethic and balanced musicality?

Also, do you feel that musicians coming up today suffer from a lack of that sort of work ethic and balanced musicality?

GP: Well, you've always got to take into account the sheer luck and timing of things. I was never part of the London pub rock scene. I came from the suburbs and knew next to nothing about the people who would become the Rumour. I appeared out of nowhere with virtually no experience of the stage. I met a few people who knew a few people and suddenly this guy Dave Robinson is recording me in his eight-track studio and has put this band around me who seemed to understand what I was looking for.

It came naturally to me to work hard at it because I was driven by those songs, and the guys who would become the Rumour also knew a thing or two about working very hard to make things really good. Without their chops it could have been a much lamer thing. And maybe I would have had a few hits!

As for today's young musicians, the ones I meet seem to be working pretty hard. And most don't get the chances I had. Some of them don't get the luxury of even working hard because their careers are cut short because of the nature of the business now. If your first record fails, you're heaved off the label and marked for life.

Sometimes, you see an act have quite a success with a first album, but if the second one doesn't fare so well, they still find themselves in limbo. I was lucky enough to come along in the time period where you were more or less gauranteed to get a four album deal and you got to make all those four albums, regardless of sales. And I had three major record labels in a row to start my career. That's 12 albums before I went down to the indies. And when I say "went down," I mean went down!
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JH: With certain great songwriters who also happen to have great bands [Elvis Costello w/Attractions, Lou Reed w/Velvets, Neil Young w/Crazy Horse, Jagger/Richards w/Stones] you sense that the band is intimately involved in arranging the songs and creating parts, much to the benefit of the material as it's finally presented. With other schools of songcraft [lionel ritchie, lou reed sans velvets, nearly all 'new country' et al] the band is almost incidental.

Since you were, and remain, a great writer backed by a superb band, how much of a role did/does your band have in shaping GP songs?

GP: These days, much less than the Rumour used to. As I said, in the beginning I was totally inexperienced as far as playing live, recording, arranging, and everything else to do with being a musical artist. My songs were much more skeletal in the early days. Now, I have bass lines, keyboard parts, and lead guitar parts so specific that I usually play lead myself because it would be pointless to hire a guitarist and tell him to play what I play on the demo.

With the Figgs, however, I loosen up and let 'em go. On the new album I still came up with keybaord motifs, a few bass lines and a few lead riffs, but a lot of it I just left to the band to come up with, usually as the tape rolled.
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JH: You predated Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, among other commercially succesful punk-era writers.Do you feel you've gotten your due, commercially and in terms of respect?

GP: Uh...no. But I deal with reality ? get with the program and get on with it!
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JH: Do you feel any less disdain for major label record companies than your past work reflects??

GP: I'd give my right nostril to be on a major label. Are you kidding?! They gave me so much money it's not funny.
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[MANDATORY NEW JERSEY PUBLICATION NJ/'BOSS' QUESTIONS]

JH: You toured w/ Southside Johnny extensively back in '76 - did this result in the development of a GP-NJ connection?

GP: Most of the stunts in the early days like touring with Southside and then Thin Lizzy were Dave Robinson's ideas.

Certainly, I thought having two bands with full horn sections on tour together in the days when prog rock still ruled was brilliantly outrageuous! Robinson had a touch of genius about him, it has to be said.

And perhaps because of my history with Southside and those tours, New Jersey audiences have been consistently appreciative and savvy of my work throughout the years. I'm very thankfull for that.
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JH: Is that how E Street organist Danny Federici ended up on The Up Escalator in 1980?

GP: Jimmy Iovine who produced that album probably suggested him, as he suggested having Bruce do some backing vocals.
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JH: Did Springsteen have any role in "Endless Night" beyond b/u vocals?

GP: Like the true pro he is, The Boss just turned up and sang.
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JH: Is it tricky working with bonafied stars when they must take a sideman role [I'm thinking here of Nona Hendrix, Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, and other major league-ers who've played on your records]?

GP: These people have all been in the trenches and there is no ego involved when it comes to this kind of thing. It's just work and they get on with it.
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JH: Is this alleviated working with a younger [tho no less rocking] band like the Figgs?

GP: I was forty when I first worked with the Figgs and they were in their twenties. I likened myself to an old vampire sucking their energy up. Now, forty seems very young all of a sudden, and twenty positively eons ago! Again, once you've got a microphone in your face or an instrument in your hand, it's just a work situation and the Figgs get down to business.
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JH: Trouser Press and a few others have cited The Up Escalor as a low point [pun intended], with TP stating you "lost [your] sense of purpose .those looking to assign blame will notice the increasing influence of the king of rock melodrama, Bruce Springsteen". Were you swinging for the bleachers and allowed yourself to be drawn towards a style that promised greater economic dividends? Or do TP have their heads up their ass on this one?

GP: It's certainly one of my least favourite albums, but not because of the material, that's always good, but the production is utterly without distinction. It has no sound. No identity. It was that period when the thinking was that the more time and money you spent the better the outcome would be. Three days to get a snare sound and all that nonsense. I was as into that as any producer. I take the blame every time.

As for Bruce being on the record, that was Iovine's idea and I just "Yeah, all right, great." I don't see these people as rock gods or anything. Bruce is a great songwriter and performer and a hard working guy. I didn't think for a moment that having him on an album would help my career in any way. Same goes for Lucinda and Nona. It's just working musicians who are damn good that might sound nice on a track. I never had a manager or producer or record company that tried to push these "star" appearances on my records to stimulate sales. If they did, they wouldn't have got very far because I don't believe in it. Iovine just thought Bruce would sound good doing background vocals on a song. Real simple stuff.

So yes, Trouser Press have their heads up their asses!
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JH: What are your fave songs on this new record? Why?

GP: I love "Bad Chardonnay." It's a damn silly song that rocks like a flea-infested ape and is what the album was supposed to be about, an album full of "Songs Of No Consequence."
I destroyed that concept, however, when I wrote "Dislocated Life." You know that if Bruce had a song like that on his new album Rolling Stone would have given him the half a star they left off of his review! It's bloody mega, that number.

I also like "Suck 'N' Blow." Will the Stones have a rocker that good on their next album? I think not!

"She Swallows It" is fun, too. Very naughty on the face of it, but very dark in reality. Man's inhumanity to women.
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JH: The all time favorite songs of those you've written -- which, and why?

GP: I've been doing "Brand New Book" from Struck By Lightning lately. That's a hell of a number. "Worthy Of Your Love" from Burning Questions is a major tune, too. Most of the Sparks songs are transcendant. "Dislocated Life" from the new one, as I mentioned, is a heavyweight.
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JH: Do you still consider 12 haunted episodes your best LP?

GP: I think I did for awhile because it was the most natural recording I'd made up to that point. It started as demos, then I added the musicians, and the fact that I actually changed my rather limited style for once by writing nearly all the songs in open G tuning made me use a whole different groove. That's why I thought it was my best: because it wasn't like me very much!

These days, I just think the latest is the best whilst at the same time fully understanding that "Sparks" and Howlin' Wind" are never going to be topped.
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JH: you called "Mercury Poisoning" . "just total crap, really awful" when you played at the Saint recently. Given the possibility of hyperbole at a live show, are there songs you've written and recorded you truly dislike?

GP: I don't think I really dislike any of my songs, but certainly, the idea that a throwaway tune like "Mercury" is a high point of my work, for some people at least, is annoying.
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JH: I find I write six or seven songs for every one 'keeper'; is it like that for you, or are you one of those guys [who I friggin hate] who are adept enough that they can 'pre-filter' their work in their head so practically nothing but good stuff gets written in the first place [Beethoven,Lennon/McCartney]?

GP: I do often begin with an idea which turns out to be nothing more than an arrow pointing to something else entirely. I waste time hammering the idea into submission before realizing that it is not good, but has merely got me to get off my ass and pick up a guitar. Whilst I'm bashing away at this sub-par piece, I'll find I've written three songs that appear to have nothing to do with the original idea but are all instant keepers. Once I get going, I tend to just write good stuff.
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JH: Some people listen intensively to songs they admire when they're in a writing or recording phase; some, like myself, try not to listen to anything at that time. How about you?

GP: I don't listen to too much music anyway these days, but certainly I know I'm still copping from songs that are buried in me from the past, whether it's the Supremes, the Stones, Dylan...whatever.

Before I wrote, and as I was writing my first album, "Howlin' Wind," I was still listening to a lot of Van, Dylan, the Stones, Bob Marley, and lots of old soul music, and it shows. Nowadays it's all already mixed up in the stew that's part of my makeup.
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JH: I'm paraphrasing here, but John Lennon once said something to the effect that the best songs are written in one sitting, most of 'em in 5 minutes or less. Others endlessly tinker with them. Is there a modus operandi for writing a GP song?

GP: As I'm strugging with the bad idea that often eventually leads to a song, I'm writing others that take as long to write as to sing. I don't think that that always means they are the best, though. Sometimes, the one I've been working on for years and keep putting aside turns out to to very good further down the line. It's a mystery to me how it all works, I must say.
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JH: I once described my least favorite production method as Dogballs Production [from the joke 'Q: why does a dog lick his balls? A: because he can!']. Given the danger that some producers are determined to fuck with your songs "because he can", how much leeway do you give a producer when it comes to arrangements? Do you ever accept lyrical changes from a producer?

You worked with one of my all-time fave producers, Nick Lowe, on Heat Treatment (1tr.) ,Howlin' Wind, and Stick To Me, three classic GP & the Rumor LP's. How important is a producer to what you did w/a band, versus the role of a producer within the framework of what you're doing now as a solo artist?

GP: Since "The Mona Lisa's Sister" I've been calling myself the producer and sponging off of the talents of various engineers.
There is no mystery about recording these days, therfore a producer, to me, is simply not necessary.

In the past, I've used talented people, but they've often been inflexible and had their method down before they walked into the studio. Most of the cred producers have gotten in the past is a lot of hot air.
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JH: Once it was considered totally acceptable - and a common practice among many of the legends of the industry [Beatles, Stones, everyone before Dylan went electric, etc.], to record work written by other artists, but now that seems to be universally frowned upon. Can a singer/songwriter in 2005 be true to himself and still embrace
another's composition(s)? for eg. "Tear Your Playhouse Down"?

GP: I always liked the Beatles' and the Stones' EP's, where they often covered songs, songs which came from American R&B and blues and soul music. They made them their own. It's just as easy to do that nowadays.

JH: Is the above answer different for you as a solo performer than it would've been as a member of a band?

GP: I'm a lone wolf: I just do it my way.
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JH: Where do you see yourself going in the next few years? Solo, with a
band, or doing a few shows with a b/u unit like the Figgs while primarily remaining a solo performer. Is there an ideal ratio?

Solo is great, much more open and expansive. I tour with a band to promote records only. On the club level, it's just too expensive to work with a band.
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JH: You toured extensively in '76 & '77 with Thin Lizzy. Your show at Boston 's Orpheum on Oct. 23, '77 opening for Phil and co. remains the finest double bill I've ever seen on any stage. Period. Any comments on touring w/them, the shows, Phil's very tragic demise, or being an opener vs. headliner in general esp. in cases when you are better than the headliner [the Journey shows you opened would be most apprapeaux for latter aspect].

OK, I confess this question is just an excuse to try to hear a cool story about my fave band back in my pre-punk high school daze. Can you blame a guy? Actually a good pal, John Dunton-Downer, who produced for MTV Europe for many years, wa pals with Gary Moore, so I got a few tidbits via him, but can always hear more about the Celtic lads who brought the minor seventh chord to metal.

GP: Another Dave Robison idea. The Irish mafia and all that.

Touring with Lizzy had all the usual pros and cons of being an opening act. You get to play bigger audiences than your popularity can pull at the time, but you also play to people who do not care! Rock audiences are probably the most narrow-minded lot you can imagine! It may seem a paradox, what with all the peace and love and openmindedness cache we're supposed to have, but it's the truth. You can be absolutely stunning and only 25 out of 20,000 people will recognize it. And it was much worse in 1977. Playing a reggae beat in front of an American audience just left 'em scratching their heads.
So for that reason, we had a few successes opening with Lizzy, but more failures.

I had a good rapport with Phil and the band members were great guys. I own a Martin acoustic guitar I bought from Phil. I always think of him when I play it.
Phil was fun to hang with. We were stoned the whole time and laughing our heads off.
I'd more or less lost touch with him when he died. I don't know the whole story. He did like to get high, as we all did, but I guess he was pushing his luck with the bad stuff a bit too much.