Spitball Army

My first exposure to Graham Parker was the result of a reaction to my enthusiastic cheerleading for Elvis Costello.  While visiting the room of a friend in college, somehow the topic of conversation made its way to music and EC worked his way into my contribution.  One of my friend’s suitemates – a “townie” who I previously had very little occasion to interact with – gave the following RIYL comment: If you like Elvis’ lyrics that much, you really ought to check out this record…I think everything Elvis Costello does with wordplay he learned from Graham Parker.  And he pulled a vinyl copy of Squeezing Out Sparks from the shelf, put it on the turntable, and cued up “You Can’t Be Too Strong.”  I was dumbstruck by the song (only discovering much later that its beauty belied the fact that one of its topics was abortion).  Prior to this exchange, the only musical idea he had shared was his admiration for Big Country’s The Crossing.  Now, however, I viewed him as a person of substance.

As a result, I have kept a keen interest in Parker’s prolific recording career, and try to acquire every album he makes.  My favorites among them have been Another Grey Area, Human Soul, The Mona Lisa’s Sister and Burning Questions.  But he seems to remain mostly unnoticed and only quietly heralded as an artist.  Unlike Elvis Costello, who can sell out a few thousand seats in Birmingham today, the last time I saw Parker appear here – at the annual outdoor music festival – he drew a couple hundred people, at best, and he cut his segment to 30 minutes so that the headliners could keep their sets to their scheduled start times.  Shameful.  But, backstage, he was cordial, talkative and seemingly accustomed by habit to the ongoing public neglect.  And despite the illusive commercial success, Parker keeps on touring and recording, always keeping the bar of quality high.

It was a pleasant jolt when my Random Song Machine began to play “Platinum Blonde” yesterday.  I hadn’t listened to Burning Questions in a long time, so I cued it up and enjoyed the album from start to finish.  “Platinum Blonde” is a good representation of what the record has to offer.  Not too many songs combine literate insights into disgust, disillusionment and artificiality in one place.  And you most definitely won’t hear content like this on the radio today.

So, here’s to you, Graham Parker!  Please keep doing your own thing.  Some of us out here are still listening.

[audio:Graham_Parker___Platinum_Blonde.mp3]
from the album Burning Questions (1992)

Stuff comes down from the golden triangle
On ferries from Denmark to Helsingborg
The band strikes up but they’re out of time
On synthesiser and washboard
Wooden tulips grow by the roadside
Made in a factory in Jonjoping
Fake glass baubles hang in the station
Just like the passenger’s imitation
It’s then it hits you she was just the dregs
All you wanna do now is break her legs
Kick that brunette into a pond
Replace her with a…

Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde

There’s a secret world that you cannot enter
It’s in the center of the darkest night
She’s waiting there with a set of works
And a Swedish passport and something white
She walks past but you can’t form a whistle
Even her lips look artificial
You wanna follow her but you can’t swallow her act
It seems so superficial
Now you’ve shed the old one like a worn out shoe
It was all your fault but you blame her too
You know it’s phony but at least it’s new
And it comes from a bottle like…

Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde

And in your heart there’s a new addiction
Another friction that you can’t resolve
She seemed alive but she is just a cipher
An imaginary postcard that just dissolved
Endless sunsets glow in the distance
Painted by Picasso’s assistants
Perfect people travel in Volvos
Into the sunsets into the distance
You’re just a passenger she’s not a ticket
A foreign stamp you’ve got to lick it
Put it in the mail box
Put it in the fail box
You never seem to learn from the school of hard knocks
Then she walks past and laughs at the pond
You can’t break a heart that doesn’t respond, like…

Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde
Platinum blonde