Despite having a legendary career that’s lasted almost 50 years, there has (until now, to the best of my knowledge) never been a book about Graham Parker. Therefore, it feels appropriate that author, publicist, and long-time fan Jay Nachman‘s effort concentrates on Parker’s 1st album, 1976’s Howlin’ Wind. A perfect example of a critically adored album that never really found a mass audience outside of Parker’s fanbase, despite being listed as one of the 100 best albums of the last 20 years in a 1987 issue of Rolling Stone and finishing 4th in the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop poll in its year of release, this is the album that introduced to the world to the singer-songwriter who predated the professional debuts of both Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson (two artists with whom, perhaps a bit unfairly, he has always been compared with) as well as foreshadowing the explosion of UK punk that shortly followed in its wake.
This is not just a 33 1/3 series style book detailing the making of the album, nor strictly an oral history, though it was done with Parker and The Rumour‘s full cooperation and input. While all of that is there, it starts much earlier, detailing the different paths that both Parker and the individuals who would later comprise The Rumour would take to get to their eventual destiny, working with each not just on Howlin’ Wind, but on 4 subsequent full-lengths, several live albums, and eventually, two reunion albums in the 2010s partially inspired by Parker’s appearance in fan Judd Apatow‘s 2012 film This is 40.
Parker’s later childhood and musical evolution from young mod to proto-punk pioneer is detailed, as are his travels to Guernsey and Morocco on the early ’70s hippie trail before winding back at his parents’ house in the Deepcut village in Surrey. As such, multiple attempts to get a group (and henceforth, his musical career) started in London are chronicled here alongside odd jobs, close calls, drunken nights, dope pads, and general suburban ennui and malaise, all of which fueled the intense lyrical content found on Howlin’ Wind and many of his subsequent records as well.
Parallel to this is the story of The Rumour, or rather the individual stories of Howlin’ Wind producer Nick Lowe, guitarists Martin Belmont and Brinsley Schwarz, and childhood friends and rhythm section bassist Andrew Bodnar and drummer Steve Goulding. As such, the history of the bands Kippington Lodge, Brinsley Schwarz (who included their namesake guitarist alongside bassist Lowe and the late Rumour keyboardist Bob Andrews), Belmont’s Ducks Deluxe, and Bodnar and Goulding’s BonTemps Roulez are also covered here in great detail, along with the role that Brinsleys manager and eventual Parker manager and Stiff Records co-founder Dave Robinson played behind the scenes in the formation of The Rumour and in getting Parker a record deal.
And while this is a lot of names to keep track of, it makes the ultimate point that no career is possible without help from a lot of different sources, contrary to individualist-style myth-making often found in these sorts of tomes. Complete with a cover done by the legendary artist Steve Keene and with a full chapter at the end dedicated to the in-depth analysis of each track on Howlin’ Wind, this book is an invaluable resource for longtime Parker fans and a great place to start for new fans or the curious.
If not just Parker’s music, but pub rock, the roots of UK punk, and great stories about ’70s rock and roll are up your alley, I highly recommend this book.
