Hindsight of forty-five years reaffirms what a bitterly ironic title was affixed to Graham Parker and the Rumour’sThe Up Escalator. A deeper, extended perspective clarifies that the deliverance accompanying his signing to Arista Records ultimately never arrived.
More’s the pity, too, since there is hardly a more potent debut in the history of contemporary rock than Graham Parker’s two 1976 albums, Howlin’ Wind and Heat Treatment. But the Mercury label’s mishandling of those records was the source of the relentlessly diatribe Parker wrote called “Mercury Poisoning” (initially issued as a promo-only item from his new company)
It didn’t take much hindsight to discern that, even with the added cachet of Jack Nitztche (Phil Spector, Neil Young) as producer of Squeezing Out Sparks, GP’s debut for ex-Columbia Records mogul Clive Davis’ label did not garner commercial sales commensurate with press accolades.
Hiring Jimmy Iovine to produce the next long player made more practical sense. In the wake of engineering on Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness On The Edge of Town of 1978, Iovine earned quite a name by overseeing studio work with Tom Petty and Patti Smith, which garnered mainstream success for both artists.
Yet Graham Parker’s support system was otherwise beginning to crumble at the time, most egregiously with the dissolution of his rambunctious but seasoned backup band, The Rumour: keyboardist Bob Andrews had departed following the preceding album.
British piano wizard Nicky Hopkins appeared to provide color and contrast in the studio (and even did some live dates with the group). But only the vestiges of camaraderie remained, appropriately enough in “No Holding Back. ” Overall, the accompanists were only slightly less anonymous than the sessions on Parker’s next album, 1982’s Another Grey Area.
Still, there’s no concealing the sharp cultural observations Graham Parker inserts within the surreal “Devil’s Sidewalk.” He grew as a songwriter circa 1980, an evolution unfortunately muddled greatly by the extraneous circumstances surrounding this work.
For “Love Without Greed,” he not only chose to delve into those personal subjects he had eschewed in the past, but in an even more discerning and insistent manner with “The Beating of Another Heart.” “Paralyzed” further ratifies the authentic emotional foundation of the more mature compositions that make up the LP.
That latter number finds a direct parallel in the additional material included on the 40th Anniversary reissue of The Up Escalator. A pillory of toxic masculinity (or feminism?) titled “Women In Charge” corresponds to a feverish rendition of the aforementioned indictment of Parker’s former record company.
And both reside comfortably alongside two concert performances from the defunct ABC-TV series ‘Fridays.’ The crackling firepower within “Empty Lives” and “Stupefaction” would seem to belie the friction between the frontman and his band that caused their split (their reunions in 2011 and 2015 were decidedly lackluster)
Through a series of releases on various labels, Graham Parker achieved some fleeting commercial recognition in the Eighties and Nineties. Still, it has only been in recent years that he has been able to assemble a truly simpatico set of accompanying musicians.
With a backing band dubbed The Gold Tops–anchored by none other than the other Rumour guitarist Martin Belmont– the transplanted Brit has released both a studio outing (2018’s Cloud Symbols) and a concert collection (2021’s Five Old Souls), that are uncannily evocative of that superb initial pair of efforts.
Four decades and a half after releasing one of his most enervating works, it’s remarkable that this resourceful artist has so authoritatively regained a sense of style without displaying one iota of self-consciousness.
