The Vinyl Project - Howlin' Wind by Graham Parker & The Rumour (1976)
A Trip Thru Your Grooves - Episode 10
Release Date: 20-July-1976
Genre: Rock/Singer-Songwriter
Producer: Nick Lowe
Label: Vertigo/Mercury
Time: 42m 02s
Review Date: 22-November-2018
Format: LP
Side One
Release Date: 20-July-1976
Genre: Rock/Singer-Songwriter
Producer: Nick Lowe
Label: Vertigo/Mercury
Time: 42m 02s
Review Date: 22-November-2018
Format: LP
Side One
- White Honey
- Nothin's Gonna Pull Us Apart
- Silly Thing
- Gypsy Blood
- Between You and Me
- Back to Schooldays
Side Two
- Soul Shoes
- Lady Doctor
- You've Got to Be Kidding
- Howlin' Wind
- Not if it Pleases Me
- Don't Ask Me Questions
Review: It's almost sad that the music industry has gone back to the singles-driven model that prevailed at the start of rock and roll. It's easy to blame the MP3, but music has been shooting itself in the foot since it allowed the release of greatest hits LPs. It's a sad testament to the industry that its leaders have allowed the fragmentation of its product because it shortens the careers of some of its better artists. The Beatles changed the paradigm that radio, and its need for three-minute singles, could be the only driver for mass sales of music. And now those days are gone.
Back in the day, there were some albums that, when they were released, the anticipation was so overwhelming that you'd stand in line for hours to get a first-run copy on their release dates. I've done that a few times, most notably for the Bruce Springsteen live box set, The Joshua Tree by U2, and The Wall by Pink Floyd.
I did not discover this wonderful gem by Graham Parker & The Rumour until November 2005, on Thanksgiving Eve in fact, and I did not listen to Howlin' Wind in vinyl format until a few days ago when I found it at the local record store and wore it out with repeat listen after repeat listen. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest debut LPs of the '70s, and Parker's best release. There isn't a throwaway song on this entire record and it is wonderfully sequenced.
Wait, what? Did I really wait thirteen years to listen to an album that is truly beloved to me? Yes, but not purposefully. My house burned down on Thanksgiving Eve in 2005, and having bought this LP on the very same day, it perished in the fire with the rest of my belongings. And that's pretty much the reason why I have decided to rebuild my record collection.
The bigger question is why did it take me thirty years to discover this album?
I remember the moment exactly.
I heard the song White Honey on Chicago radio station 93-WXRT and thought it was Elvis Costello channeling Van Morrison. Research led me to Graham Parker, I sampled the songs online, and then ran out that fateful day in 2005 to get Howlin' Wind at a record store in Naperville. WXRT was a great way for me to discover music, and I have been a fan since the station launched as a nighttime-only station in 1972. I had gotten my first FM-radio that year, and started the dial at the lowest setting, moving forward until I heard a song I liked. Voila, 93.1 FM Radio 'XRT became my go-to station.
Okay Mike, tell us more about the damn album already: Well, Parker was an angry young man back in those days, which is funny if you have seen him playing himself in a supporting role in the film This is 40, where he is quite the opposite, coming off like a super cool, rocking grandpa. Back in '76, critics likened Parker's spirit to British punk rock, then in its early stage, and retrospectively to that of singer-songwriters Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, who would release their debut records within a few years of Howlin' Wind.
And there's the rub. Costello and Jackson received underground, if not widespread success, across FM radio, where as most listeners didn't discover Parker & The Rumour until MTV aired the video for the uninspiring Temporary Beauty in 1982. That release was a far cry from Parker's rebellious beginnings. It probably didn't help that his name closely resembled Gram Parsons, either. As great as Graham Parker is, selling a lot of records has never been his forte. As he says in This is 40, "To succeed in this business you've got to have a small nut."
Howlin' Wind was produced by Nick Lowe and his sympathetic fingerprints are all over this long player. The music is a blend of rock and roll, reggae and R&B pub rockers, wonderfully arranged behind Parker's searingly literate lyrics. Parker debuts here with a record jammed so deep in the pub that it's probably better described as out the back door and smoking in the alley.
But instead of blindly sticking to formulaic traditions, Graham invigorates his songs with righteous anger, defiant belligerence, and stinging cynicism. Despite critical acclaim and a growing reputation as a powerful live act, Parker found very little success in the United States. Most observers, including Parker himself, blamed his U.S. label, Mercury Records for failing to promote his music properly.
Parker wouldn't find even a hint of mainstream success until 1979 when he changed labels and released the single Local Girls from the album Squeezing Out Sparks.
Howlin' Wind is nothing short of fantastic and I encourage you to find it and give it a spin or two. Parker's skills as a songwriter were never sharper, his backing band never better, and the artist's fury never more appropriate. It's almost criminal that I didn't discover this album for three decades. Then again, that seems to be about right considering Parker's back story.
Best Songs: White Honey, Gypsy Blood, Back to Schooldays, Soul Shoes, Silly Thing
A Deep Cut You'll Love: Don't Ask Me Questions
Hold on, Graham Parker had a supporting role in a Judd Apatow movie? Indeed he did. Parker got the gig when Apatow visited the singer-songwriter's website.
“I knew I needed somebody who would be comfortable being in a movie playing someone who was having a lot of problems selling records,” said Apatow. “I needed to find someone whose music I loved and then find someone who had a great sense of humor and also I thought could act. I was thinking, ‘How about the guys from XTC? Those guys are kinda cool. What about Joe Jackson?’"
"And then one day my [high school] friend Josh Rosenthal, who has a label, said, ‘Go look at Graham [Parker’s] website.’”
Parker’s site announced his wish to sell music to movies. “He wrote this funny blog about it, and in the middle he said, ‘Are you listening, Judd Apatow?’ Yeah! And I took it as a sign from the music gods." -- The Hollywood Reporter
Back in the day, there were some albums that, when they were released, the anticipation was so overwhelming that you'd stand in line for hours to get a first-run copy on their release dates. I've done that a few times, most notably for the Bruce Springsteen live box set, The Joshua Tree by U2, and The Wall by Pink Floyd.
I did not discover this wonderful gem by Graham Parker & The Rumour until November 2005, on Thanksgiving Eve in fact, and I did not listen to Howlin' Wind in vinyl format until a few days ago when I found it at the local record store and wore it out with repeat listen after repeat listen. In my opinion, it is one of the greatest debut LPs of the '70s, and Parker's best release. There isn't a throwaway song on this entire record and it is wonderfully sequenced.
Wait, what? Did I really wait thirteen years to listen to an album that is truly beloved to me? Yes, but not purposefully. My house burned down on Thanksgiving Eve in 2005, and having bought this LP on the very same day, it perished in the fire with the rest of my belongings. And that's pretty much the reason why I have decided to rebuild my record collection.
The bigger question is why did it take me thirty years to discover this album?
I remember the moment exactly.
I heard the song White Honey on Chicago radio station 93-WXRT and thought it was Elvis Costello channeling Van Morrison. Research led me to Graham Parker, I sampled the songs online, and then ran out that fateful day in 2005 to get Howlin' Wind at a record store in Naperville. WXRT was a great way for me to discover music, and I have been a fan since the station launched as a nighttime-only station in 1972. I had gotten my first FM-radio that year, and started the dial at the lowest setting, moving forward until I heard a song I liked. Voila, 93.1 FM Radio 'XRT became my go-to station.
Okay Mike, tell us more about the damn album already: Well, Parker was an angry young man back in those days, which is funny if you have seen him playing himself in a supporting role in the film This is 40, where he is quite the opposite, coming off like a super cool, rocking grandpa. Back in '76, critics likened Parker's spirit to British punk rock, then in its early stage, and retrospectively to that of singer-songwriters Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, who would release their debut records within a few years of Howlin' Wind.
And there's the rub. Costello and Jackson received underground, if not widespread success, across FM radio, where as most listeners didn't discover Parker & The Rumour until MTV aired the video for the uninspiring Temporary Beauty in 1982. That release was a far cry from Parker's rebellious beginnings. It probably didn't help that his name closely resembled Gram Parsons, either. As great as Graham Parker is, selling a lot of records has never been his forte. As he says in This is 40, "To succeed in this business you've got to have a small nut."
Howlin' Wind was produced by Nick Lowe and his sympathetic fingerprints are all over this long player. The music is a blend of rock and roll, reggae and R&B pub rockers, wonderfully arranged behind Parker's searingly literate lyrics. Parker debuts here with a record jammed so deep in the pub that it's probably better described as out the back door and smoking in the alley.
But instead of blindly sticking to formulaic traditions, Graham invigorates his songs with righteous anger, defiant belligerence, and stinging cynicism. Despite critical acclaim and a growing reputation as a powerful live act, Parker found very little success in the United States. Most observers, including Parker himself, blamed his U.S. label, Mercury Records for failing to promote his music properly.
Parker wouldn't find even a hint of mainstream success until 1979 when he changed labels and released the single Local Girls from the album Squeezing Out Sparks.
Howlin' Wind is nothing short of fantastic and I encourage you to find it and give it a spin or two. Parker's skills as a songwriter were never sharper, his backing band never better, and the artist's fury never more appropriate. It's almost criminal that I didn't discover this album for three decades. Then again, that seems to be about right considering Parker's back story.
Best Songs: White Honey, Gypsy Blood, Back to Schooldays, Soul Shoes, Silly Thing
A Deep Cut You'll Love: Don't Ask Me Questions
Hold on, Graham Parker had a supporting role in a Judd Apatow movie? Indeed he did. Parker got the gig when Apatow visited the singer-songwriter's website.
“I knew I needed somebody who would be comfortable being in a movie playing someone who was having a lot of problems selling records,” said Apatow. “I needed to find someone whose music I loved and then find someone who had a great sense of humor and also I thought could act. I was thinking, ‘How about the guys from XTC? Those guys are kinda cool. What about Joe Jackson?’"
"And then one day my [high school] friend Josh Rosenthal, who has a label, said, ‘Go look at Graham [Parker’s] website.’”
Parker’s site announced his wish to sell music to movies. “He wrote this funny blog about it, and in the middle he said, ‘Are you listening, Judd Apatow?’ Yeah! And I took it as a sign from the music gods." -- The Hollywood Reporter
- Previous Review: Volume 1 by The Traveling Wilburys (1988)
- Up Next: 461 Ocean Blvd. by Eric Clapton (1974)
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