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Graham Parker - BBC Live in Concert, 1977-1991 Audio CD

Band: Graham Parker Title: BBC Live in Concert, 1977-1991 Rating: Release Date: 2000-07-18 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Hold Back the Night 2: Soul Shoes 3: Howlin' Wind 4: Discovering Japan 5: Local Girls 6: Don't Get Excited 7: Back to Schooldays 8: Passion Is No Ordinary Word 9: Mercury Poisoning 10: Dark Side of the Bright Lights 11: Nobody Hurts You 12: No More Excuses 13: Hit the Spot 14: Endless Night 15: My Love's Strong - Graham Parker & the Rumour 16: They Murdered the Clown - Graham Parker & the Rumour 17: Chain of Fools - Graham Parker & the Rumour

That about summarizes my opinion of this album - an album as full of bombast as the excerpt above. Allow me to quote from the liner notes:

"Despite constant jockeying for the domineering musical position by each member of the band, resulting as it did, in mass overplaying of the most heinous, self centered manner, and not withstanding the excoriating cancerous vocal style I employed (reviewers note: THAT'S WHAT HE SOUNDS LIKE-LIKE HE HAS A CHOICE) devoid of subtlety, nuance and all the other qualities of finesse I deem more important today, GP and the Rumour still manage somehow to coalesce into a full blooded whole some nights of the year that defied gravity, overshadowing shortcomings, and at times made us sound like the most vital rock 'n roll band on the planet.

It is a loud rock album if you just sort of let it play, but if you listen closely it is something you warm up to, as if, as stated in the quote above, the band sometimes really gels. On this album they seem really in a groove.

Sounding a little like a drunk Elvis Costello, GP and friends really rip through a bunch of songs that all sort of sound the same, and they all sort of sound great.

Oh, and this CD contains, like, the 52nd different version of "Mercury Poisoning. " Not a bad thing, really.

Live Is Just Fine!
Listening to it, you could be convinced it was from a single tour, no small compliment. This album is uniformly excellent, a surprisingly consistent effort, especially since it was cobbled together from live appearances spanning 14 years. All the songs sound great, especially the two tracks from his later, more tepid albums. As a fan, it's a treat to get some great live albums since GPs studio efforts have been relatively disappointing since THE MONA LISA'S SISTER, indeed, he may be the only artist who makes live albums that are better than his studio efforts. The fact that his later songs sound better live implies that GPs problem of late has been his devotion to studio perfection. Parker is a basic rock n roller, the kind of straight ahead artist whose sound can be easily be over produced, and this would seem to be what has been going on. Maybe he should hire Nick Lowe to `bash out' his next album.

You can see a complete list of all Graham Parker discography, or go back to the Graham Parker tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.