# The Strange Magic of: Graham Parker and the Rumour



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The American actor William Hurt, when asked about his decision where to study theater, replied that he chose America over England "because I preferred the passion that seeks the form rather than the form that seeks the passion." I have long thought that this distinction nicely summarizes the differences of approach to Rock that typify both cultures, and that provide the great enduring power of the music. For it is the binding together of these two impulses that accounts for the much of the breadth of appeal of the best Rock--there is literally something for everybody. One might muse on the differences between, say, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin, to get a flavor of this train of thought. Anyway, with that in the backs of our minds, let's see and hear Graham Parker and the Rumour as they sing _Don't Ask Me Questions_. I really like GP here; whether backed up by The Rumour or later on, the music is infectious and the lyrics thought-provoking, and he is committed to the song. He surfaced just before the Punk explosion, and showed the way for others like Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, and kept right on going. Lots of good songs, like Stick to Me; Start Something, Start a Fire; Break Them Down, combining great lyrics with great music (IMHO).......


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Great band - five studio albums from 76-80 and all good. They got branded as pub-rock (especially as some members of the Rumour used to be in proto-pub rock bands Brinsley Schwarz and Ducks Deluxe) but their soul-based R & B shot through with new wave energy transcended that. _The Parkerilla_ was a great live album, and something of a curiosity because the fourth side wasn't live but contained just the studio version of the current single 'Hey Lord, Don't Ask Me Questions'.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

eg, I am enamored of my Yin/Yang duality metaphor a la William Hurt as it applies to Rock, with the two approaches to the music likened to two strong cords wrapped tightly around one another to form a final entity stronger than the sum of its parts. I noted also the same phenomenon in cante flamenco wherein the cante gitano or Gypsy passion/emotional extreme _palos_ are similarly matched to the cante andaluz/more "formal"/less emotional _palos_. In Rock, we are so lucky both in the North American and in the British Isles manifestations of the music, to have the benefit of the other's approach to enrich the final experience.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I once owned Squeezing Out Sparks and The Mona Lisa's Sister on LP and they are both strong albums (you can tell his age difference between the two). 

And who doesn't remember the video for "Temporary Beauty" back in the early MTV days?


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

no 'strange' magic with GP and the Rumour.......one of the great bands of the mid to late 70's who managed to combine great lyrics with superb rhythms....Howlin' Wind and Heat Treatment will always have a place in my heart as will the encore I saw them perform at Newcastle City Hall 78/79-a version of the Jackson 5''s 'I want you back' that tore the place to bits....donkey jackets, martens/desert boots and the 'social sciences'....those were the days!

saw them in Leeds a couple of years back when they reformed.....surrounded by like minded souls who knew the value of Soul shoes, White honey etc.....


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Saw them many years ago touring as the support act to Thin Lizzy.
Some good music, but they never had the success they might have had.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Haydn man, many thanks for giving a bump to these several posts. But I sense that you are a Man of Sorrows, as well as one of Haydn, and perhaps are not the audience for much of this music: DGNED.


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Another band who featured on the John Peel show around 1976 - 9, but strangely under-rated elsewhere. Much favoured in discussions around the back bench in S3 & 4 (Year 10/11) biology lessons, as I recall!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

TV, you have piqued my curiosity. Please elaborate on the biology classroom back-bench discussions, keeping well within the bounds of propriety, of course!


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

Strange Magic said:


> TV, you have piqued my curiosity. Please elaborate on the biology classrooack-bench discussions, keeping well within the bounds of propriety, of course!


Sorry, there's not that much to elaborate on. There were 6 seats around the bench, and 3 at least of the lads were regular listeners to the iconic John Peel show on BBC radio 1. There was also a heavy metal fan, a devotee of a rival show. It made for lively and good natured discussion.

Your posting of Graham Parker and the Rumour, and their enthusiastic advocacy by one person in particular, just bought back that memory to me very vividly.

If you didn't grow up in the UK, Peel was famed for his musical eclecticism, and although punk, new wave and reggae were the mainstays of his show in those days, he was perfectly capable of playing something completely different. The beauty of the show was that it genuinely had appeal for people with quite a wide range of (rock) musical interests.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

K


TurnaboutVox said:


> If you didn't grow up in the UK, Peel was famed for his musical eclecticism, and although punk, new wave and reggae were the mainstays of his show in those days, he was perfectly capable of playing something completely different. The beauty of the show was that it genuinely had appeal for people with quite a wide range of (rock) musical interests.


Thanks for the quick reply. John Peel sounds like someone after my own heart--I share his eclecticism.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Strange Magic said:


> Haydn man, many thanks for giving a bump to these several posts. But I sense that you are a Man of Sorrows, as well as one of Haydn, and perhaps are not the audience for much of this music: DGNED.


I am afraid to say you have lost me here


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Haydn man said:


> I am afraid to say you have lost me here


Please don't be afraid. Referring to you as a Man of Sorrows was a mere whim on my part, after the quick succession of "Sorrys" from you--sorry about The (English) Beat; sorry about Tavares. Other than loud, you didn't say what you thought of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Actually, you could help me understand something: unless a thread is specifically about what what we don't like--boring, worst, etc.--I never (to the best of my memory) post to say I don't like this or that; I prefer to remain silent. I just don't know why posters feel moved to tell others, out of the blue, more or less, that they don't like this or that--I'm not saying it's wrong or evil; I just don't get it, though Morimur's dislike is usually a strong signal that I'll love something. Maybe you can enlighten me here--I would appreciate it! I can always use some enlightening.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I am with it now.
Yes, I have commented on 4 of your non classical music threads and just gave my thoughts/recollections as they came into my head. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Graham Parker I have enjoyed both on album and live. However, I see nothing wrong in a little lighthearted comment of a critical nature about any subject. Surely some comment is better than none otherwise a thread about Tavares or The Beat is going to be mighty short.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Haydn man said:


> I am with it now.
> Yes, I have commented on 4 of your non classical music threads and just gave my thoughts/recollections as they came into my head. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Graham Parker I have enjoyed both on album and live. However, I see nothing wrong in a little lighthearted comment of a critical nature about any subject. Surely some comment is better than none otherwise a thread about Tavares or The Beat is going to be mighty short.


Again, I thank you for your reply, and am somewhat enlightened. I am pleased to see replies to my "Strange Magic of" posts, of course, but they are icing on the cake: the mere knowledge that the posts are out there and being seen satisfies me, in that perhaps someone may turn to YouTube and look further into some particular artist's work, triggered by my posted example. But I do see that you regard a "Sorry About That" reply as better than none at all, and maybe you're right--it's triggered this long reply from me. But another question: Let's say there is a discussion going on, about favorite/greatest performances of the Glazunov violin concerto, and some people say X and others say Y and Z. Do you then come along and post "Sorry, but I never liked the Glazunov concerto--second-rate effort by a second-rate composer."? That's the part I still can't understand.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I suppose you can if you want to
We each have our own subjective opinions about the merits of Glazunov or any other work. This being a forum dedicated to comments on music if you want to rubbish something then feel free say I
Contemporary artists tend to attract more negative comment on TC, the recent thread re David Bowie being a good example. Even the title suggests he was no great loss.
As long as things are civil and comments made in the right spirit then let's agree to disagree


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Haydn man said:


> This being a forum dedicated to comments on music if you want to rubbish something then feel free say I.
> As long as things are civil and comments made in the right spirit then let's agree to disagree


I have zero problem with the above. I am merely curious as to what motivates someone to sort of drop in through the skylight and say "I don't like what you like." What is the gain; what is the rush; what is the trigger? Politics, science, social policy, even religion--important stuff--I can see having one's voice heard; hopefully one is accomplishing something; getting people to reconsider. But on matters strictly of personal taste, it baffles me that someone thinks it is that important to have one's antipathy to someone else's source of pleasure--joy, even--made gratuitously clear to all. Help me understand; perhaps I can learn to do that too.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I have no idea what motivates someone to have antipathy to someone else's source of pleasure.
If ever I find out I will endeavour to let you know


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Perhaps this will help us both:

From Wikipedia.....

The Ancient Greek aphorism "know thyself" (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton; also ... σαυτόν … sauton with the ε contracted), is one of the Delphic maxims and was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic (travelogue) writer Pausanias (10.24.1).[1]

The maxim, or aphorism, "know thyself" has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in literature. The Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia of Greek knowledge, says: "the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are",[2] and that "know thyself" is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude.[3]

In Latin the aphorism is generally given as nosce te ipsum[4] or temet nosce.[5]


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

More Graham Parker, doing _Break Them Down_, and showing that he can handle a guitar with some dexterity for someone primarily considered a lead singer/songwriter.....


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Someone lent me the Pink Parker EP in 1981 (hadn't really listened to much, if any, of his stuff until then).

I got very excited by White Honey and Soul Shoes and decided that the amateur and amateurish band I was in should start sounding like the Rumour.

In the end we did a very bad cover of Soul Shoes.

Subsequently someone gave me The Best of Graham Parker and the Rumour for my birthday.

Replaced it on CD a few years ago with the added benefit of many extra tracks.

Happy memories.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Squeezing Out Sparks was one of my top fave LPs in the day... got a LOT of play time... saw the rumor with Garland Jeffries on a Thanksgiving night in San Diego 1984 (?)...That kind of music was kicking the pants off the old rock school at the time. Don't Bother With the Local Girls can still be advice worth remembering...


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

Just eavesdropping on the exchange, sometimes I too can be tempted to contribute a not-100%-positive-but-hopefully-observant comment about something or someone musical. A lot depends on context. Dropping into a thread that honors a musician is a delicate context. On the other hand, nobody here has really trashed My Parker here or said anything horribly offensive, so the only dispute that remains is one of personality, and that's not good... just my 2 cents..

And now I see that was a long time ago, so I'm totally late for dinner, but I'm almost reaching 100 posts...


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Re-reading this thread, I do note that Haydn man (love that avatar!) did in fact express approval of Graham & Co. My clearly inappropriate-in-the-context reply was to a previous string of posted "Sorry, I don't like...." responses to several SM selections, so somehow my urge to expand on my views about negative postings was triggered too far _ex post facto_, and I regret its timing. But my view of the matter still holds--I still don't have a clear picture in my head as to the benefits of such posts to either its author or its recipient.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

there is a short(ish) early song entitled 'Between you and me' by GP and the R, deceptively simple and yet laden with a profound sense of something missing....like 'Into the Mystic' meets 'Sitting on the dock of the bay' that still to this day brings back the whole 'thing'.......just (if you have not already)have a listen!


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

jim prideaux said:


> there is a short(ish) early song entitled 'Between you and me' by GP and the R, deceptively simple and yet laden with a profound sense of something missing....like 'Into the Mystic' meets 'Sitting on the dock of the bay' that still to this day brings back the whole 'thing'.......just (if you have not already)have a listen!


Nice one, Jim! Really channeling Van Morrison.


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

Strange Magic said:


> Nice one, Jim! Really channeling Van Morrison.


so reassuring to know that I am not the only one hearing this in a particular way.......I have always found it to be almost cinematic in its evocation of.........well, something!


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I think You Can't Be Too Strong is as fine a song as anyone has written:


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

^^^Above, with _Between You and Me_, we detected Graham & Co. channeling Van Morrison. In _You Can't Be Too Strong_, I sense a UK singer/songwriter paralleling Bruce Springsteen (or maybe it was the Zeitgeist expressing itself and they both are slipstreaming behind Dylan). In any case, great songs by Parker!


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## jim prideaux (May 30, 2013)

as one of my brothers and I walked over to the match yesterday we discussed 'Between you and me'......I had mentioned it as a classic example of 'less is more'...no one plays or sings anything more than needed....my brother then came back with mention of 'You can't be too strong' as THE great Parker song.....we then went on to discuss both Nils Lofgren and the relative merits of 'Bop till you drop' and 'Borderline'.....40 years fell away, and then we were beaten 2-0 !!!


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