British rock veteran Graham Parker has been writing great songs for more than 30 years. The London native started off like many eventual chart-toppers: working a string of dead-end jobs while singing at local gigs. But when his demos fell into the right hands in 1975, Parker connected with the pub-rock band The Rumour and the two parties went on to make incredible music together.
Graham Parker and The Rumour released a total of seven albums, all highly acclaimed. Parker's influences (Motown, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison) played a role in his new-wave style, but there was no question: His style was one-of-a-kind. Many of his records from this period made year-end best-of lists, but 1979's Squeezing Out Sparks stood out in starker relief and signaled a clear shift from Parker's early R&B days. Rolling Stone recently called it one of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Parker dropped The Rumour in 1980 and went on to release more than a dozen solo recordings, including five in the last decade. His latest, Imaginary Television, is a concept album vaguely written around TV storylines. But it's still got great hooks throughout -- one of Parker's specialties.
Click the link above to hear Parker perform four songs live in concert from WXPN and World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on June 5 as part of the 10th annual NON-COMMvention.
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