Chairman --
Do you answer these questions on your very own computer?
If so, what else do you use it for, if anything?

Also, any thoughts or reminiscences on any of the following people that you could share?

Eric Clapton
Johnny Rotten
Alice Cooper
Lisa Loeb

Finally, just want to say that The Up Escalator is my fave GP record ... don't know why, it just IS!

Thanks!

I play pinball on it.

Clapton has made one great album in about the last 20 years: "Unplugged."
He should record my song "Howlin' Wind" and redeem himself further.

I spent a wildly drunken night with John once. He is not a normal man, you'll be pleased to know.

Liked his early singles.

Not familiar with her.

Hey GP,

The last time I caught your act was in Jersey at Vintage Vinyl in October,1998 which was okay. After seeing your shows over a dozen times it was quite intimate. Too bad the whiskey was little tough going down. I was hoping that one of the songs performed there "Socks & Sandals" was going to be part of the Loose Monkeys release. Too bad, it has certain "catch" to it. If it is on another release, could you let me know as well as any shows scheduled for the NYC metro area in the near future.

Thanks
Tommy Salinardo

Watch the tour schedule page.
"Socks and Sandals" is so far unrecorded.

Why is "Stick to Me" out of print? I have an old vinyl copy and would like to get it on cd. i think it's your best record.

Probably because nobody (indie label) so far has tried to license it from Mercury/phonogram, where it would have been out of print for many years. Are you sure CDNOW or one of those services isn't selling it? You probably know better than me.

Hi Graham. I'm from Spain and I'm 18 years old. I stayed in your concert in Madrid the last year and I enjoy a lot. I really like your music and I think you are one of the best of all times. One question:

Why you sung the Oasis song She's electric? Do you like Oasis music? I'm interesting in this to know if you are going to includes this in an album because I love that song. A lot of best whishes from Spain

ERES COJONUDO hasta luego!

Love Oasis. I was doing "She's Electric" for awhile there, and on that particular tour, recorded a show which probably includes that song. I have no plans to release it, though. I dig their recording of that tune because they finally turned those damned echo machines off.

Graham,

I've been a fan for over 20 years and I greatly appreciate this forum. SPARKS is a rather obvious favorite but everything else is a close second. Very impressed with MONKEYS. I have three questions;

1.STEADY NERVES- terrific songs, bizarre production. Who thought the idea of GP + William Whitman was a good idea and what are your thoughts on the albums mix?

2.What are your feelings on Rap?

3.I know I'm really in the minority on this one, but I think the 90's Rolling Stones are actually underrated. I need an honest to God soul man's opinion. What do you think?

Who the hell is Elvis Costello?

Russell Tucker

I had just signed with Electra records -- a very nice little financial arrangement, as it happens -- and then hit them with the idea of Jack ("Squeezing Out Sparks") Nitzsche producing my first effort for the label. It being the 80's, the most horrific era in rock n' roll production-wise (songwriting-wise as well, perhaps?), the Electra honcho I'd done the deal with was aghast at this idea and kept on and on about people like Arif Mardin, etc. (every record exec that operated in the 70's and 80's always brought that bloke's name up continually, so I knew he had to be a seriously wrong choice), so I, being a contrary sod, decided I should have more input and get an engineer who had just come off a hit (the "hit" bit was collateral for me to get Arif Mardin out of my fucking hair, natch) and co-produce with him.
Somehow, said label head went along with this (I tire them out, wear them down, and then they agree, just to get shot of me for awhile) after I mentioned that Whitman, who had somehow or other come across my transom, had just engineered C. Lauper's rather brill "She's So Unusual" LP.
Well, truth be told, Bill W. is quite a forceful little fella and I really had no input in the production at all and just gave up and let him get on with it. He obviously knew what he was doing, and that, to me, is the problem with the record.
My weakness and laziness let it happen. I was really hoping for a much more unusual sounding collection but didn't have the brains and moxie to accomplish such a feat -- not until "The Mona Lisa's Sister" that is. I got my shit together on that one. Finally, thank goodness.
Bill, like many a producer, had his way of doing things and was, by God, going to strike out and continue to do them that way.
This is not a slight on his talent, which he has bucket-loads of, but more a sturdy kick at my own head for not identifying my feelings about where I was going and getting the heck on with it and doing it my way.
I just thought he was going to pick up (perhaps by telepathy?) that I wanted something different, damn it, and not anything like the finished product which he seemed to have planned, reverb by reverb, compression by compression, every last step of the way.
No, I can't say that my memory of what it sounds like is a happy one. There again, did I have the material to do something pure and fresh? I don't think so, actually. Not till the mighty "Sister."
"Wake Up" is one track on "Nerves" suitable for the production, I think. The rest was like a wall of sludge. Maybe we should have just done a single.

Getting to your second question, I just saw Public Enemy the other day at the Yahoo! awards ("Monkeys" was up for best internet-only album) and found them to be a highly entertaining comedy vaudeville act. That's what they're supposed to be, right?
As for rap in general, "come back when you can write a fucking tune, pal" is my typical reaction.

As for question 3, I find the production of the recent Stones' work a little too seamless for my taste these days. It's overproduced, really. They should let the guts hang out a whole lot more. They should get an engineer who doesn't know what the heck he's doing! And I can't say "My Love Is Strong" is any great shakes as a song. "Has Anybody Seen My Baby" was a good tune but we all know where that came from. "Mixed Emotions" had a great groove, but again, the slick production stopped it from getting all the way there. I dunno.....I don't rate their modern stuff that highly, to be honest.

Hi there! Just caught your show in Winooski VT 5/9/99 & want to say how good it is to hear, year after year, the old tunes mixed in with such a broad-based spectrum of new material. Since '76 I continue to be a fan of your voice, writing style and creative integrity. I was a "new wave" + rockabilly keyboard player in NYC circa 79-82 before locating to Toronto where I did the family thang, eventually setting down here in Burlington, where I continue to write and sing stuff about twisted heartaches, raising kids, strange environmental anamolies, etc. to any one who will listen. I don't know too many people "out here" who write with passion about growing up and family life, rocking on and not selling out. I continue to be impressed - please don't stop! P.S. I've got a '68 blonde maple tele that looks like yours' twin. What year is yours and why do we struggle so hard with intonation on these old buggers? Peace and good travels!

When someone stole the '59 Tele that I purchased from Nick Lowe, my management at the time (1982/83) got hold of Seymour Duncan, the guitar and pick-up man, and asked him if he had anything similar. The Tele that you speak of promptly appeared (supposedly Seymour's favourite) and has been my guitar of choice ever since. I think it may have a reissue body (were they making them in those years?) and some old bits on it. It certainly sounds ancient to me. It needs some serious work on the neck, though.

Hi Graham, still reeling from the Winooski Vt. show on May 9, it was great to meet you and spend some time yakking. Was that an enjoyable show for you, because I felt the audience was not aware or familiar with Loose Monkey's and were not responding like people with a pulse would? No particular question tonight, just a thank you from a very appriciative fan, cheers, mike

That's got to be your son on the cover of Loose Monkey's, isn't it?

Winooski is perhaps not the apex of the giging experience on Mothering Sunday.
Yes, son on cover.

My heart hasn't stopped singing since your show last night at the Ram's Head in Annapolis. Your voice, richer than ever, evokes sweet memories of my youth. Being lifted onstage to give you flowers at your sold-out show at the Tower Theater in Philly... you held my hand and sang Love Gets You Twisted. If I had been able to see your eyes, I might have seen a twinkle there. I even finagled my way back-stage after the show, talked to you and Brinsley about your big interview in Rolling Stone (no it wasn't your pet boa constrictor, which made me distrust all journalists ever after.)

I was shaking with excitement at meeting the greatest songwriter in the world...You and the Rumour were so kind and such gentlemen. Thanks for that wonderful memory.

Questions: What is Brinsley doing? How does it feel being all alone up there in the bright lights? Do you have a sense of coming full circle? Have you published any poetry?

You are simply the greatest songwriter of our generation! Thanks for expressing so much, so well.

Your first paragraph has reduced me to a slushlike, gooey amoebae. Thank you, I'll try to calm down enough to answer your questions.

Brinsley is currently working in the North Pole. He has been attempting to introduce penguins to the area, apparently. Some years ago he became incensed with the idea that these lovable little flightless charmers only live in the south and so began developing a comprehensive penguin redispersement program which I believe has been at least partially successful. Let's face it, penguins like the cold, so it should be a cakewalk. However, some of my scientist friends, many of whom are Arctic specialists, contend that he is unleashing an environmental catastrophe, the equivalent of which has not been seen since the Exxon Valdes oil spill. Brinsley has been informed of this assessment but is so far ignoring these dire warnings. You know Brins: once he gets a bee in his bonnet there's simply no stopping him! What shape this ecological tragedy will assume the experts are not prepared to divulge at present. Please check my upcoming science page on this site for further developments.

Being alone in the bright lights is like standing in a bucket of molecular acid.

No, I am an A to B man, not a circular one.

Poetry goes right under my head.

Thank you once again for your gracious comments on the recent live show you attended.

Absolultely a treat to hear you again live--!! Saw you at Friend of a Farm Animal with my sheep. Just forgot my Wellington boots though. Seriously though you sounded truly fantastic, amazing, and awesome to say the least. I do hope the "SHARPIE" you stole from me lasted you through most of the tour !!! I quess i can know claim fame for being part of your road crew ! Next time bring your own!!

But really Graham-your music means a lot and we can't get enough of it. Thank You !!!

STEVE

That Sharpie disappeared about two weeks later. Ta.

Ok, this may seem like a stupid question, but here goes. I mean, it's not like you have to answer, right? Anyways, I have noticed that a lot of people on the mailing list have commented about the lack of merchandise, ie, t-shirts, caps, etc, available at your shows. Would you consider making such items available for purchase through the web site? My guess is that most folks on the list, the true believers, would really go for such a thing.

As I'm sitting here in front of my computer, most likely exposing myself to some sort of cancer inducing rays from the darn thing, I find myself listening to Live Alone! Discovering Japan, and I'm wondering What ever made you decide to cover a Billy Idol tune? It really works and all, but it just seems like an unlikely selection.

Later,
Sandra

PS You are, indeed, The Man!

Hey there. Hope you enjoyed the rest of the City Stages festival. I thought Leon was a blast.
As for me selling merch via the site, it is a good idea, but I'm just too damn lazy to get anything together! It's things like this that one needs a manager for (please don't offer, anyone! I'm not interested).

As for my cover of a Billy tune, I just like pretty much everything I've heard of his (missed that last CD....."Cyberpunk"? -- anyone hear it?) and that tune is particularly poignant.

Graham,

I'm a huge fan.

Questions:

1. What's the most heroic thing you've ever done?

2. What's the most regretable thing you've ever done (and are willing to share)?

3. Are you happy?

4. What do you like most about America? Least?

Take care and keep putting out the great tunes. Your music really grabs me!

1) I continued playing in my last soccer match after I'd sustained a knee injury cos my team were 1 nil down.

2) Continuing to play in that match which we lost anyway (I'm suffering for it now).

3) Happiness is a transient feeling. Right now, I'm tapping a keyboard, so no, I'm not happy, I'm merely both mentally stimulated and slightly frustrated by my typing shortcomings.

4) I like bialys. I don't like dry roasted peanuts.

Dear Graham,

First a few comments then maybe a question or two. I first came across you when you opened for Cheap Trick at the Spectrum in Philly way back in 78 or 79. Actually, a band named TKO played for 15 minutes, then you came out. (They really sucked. Are they still in show business? I hope not!) Anyway, since then, I have been buying and playing your albums. SOS is in heavy rotation. While I was in Tokyo back in 85, I saw you playing on Solid Gold (ouch!) But it was great seeing you none the less. The night I met my future wife, you were playing on The King Biscuit Flower Hour, so I took it as divine intervention that we were meant to be together. I, along with my wife a few friends caught you at The Coachhouse in San Juan Capistrano for the 12 Haunted Episodes tour, which was a great show.

Now a few questions. I know that you are playing smaller venues now, is there any chance that you will be playing Asia in the near future? Specifically, Japan and Okinawa? There are not many bands that play Okinawa, mostly washed up rap artists. It is a cultural wasteland over here, and you hold the cure. If you won't be in Japan this year, what are your tour plans for the summer of 2000? One more comment before I go. I saw you last year on a show called Spud Goodman on the Fox network. I enjoyed your performance, but I just didn't get meaning of that show. I have a warped sense of humor, and if I don't appreciate it, it must be bad. Did you have to do that show as part of a community service sentence?

Thanks,

The Beav

I have nothing in the pipeline concerning Asia.
The year 2000 is a mystery to me.
Can't remember the show you speak of.

1) I was bashing away quite regularly at the titles you mention a few years back -- just giving them a rest, is all.

2) Check out "Loose Monkeys" to enjoy the crudity of my demo process. It hasn't changed much.

3) Haven't heard S. Earle.

Graham,

I saw your show at The Point in Bryn Mahr, PA. It was great! I have been a large and longtime fan since the beginning. Consider doing South Jersey shore points this summer!! Last week, i read you comments on this page. You mentioned that you had difficulty with some of the larger venues in the area. I will, of course, see you (and have seen you) in every venue possible in the area, Would you consider doing another show with the likes of Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Dion, etc?? I saw the show with Dave, Dion and Kim Wilson years ago and it was terrific. Next album, please include Tough on Clothes and Socks & Sandels. They were great tunes. Also, Ordinary Girl still hasn't appeared on CD and my 45 is wearing out. Thanks for the great show and the photo op!

"Ordinary Girl" is included on the re-release of "Mona Lisa's Sister" out now on Buddha records.
I would consider partaking in a tour, the like of which you outline. It ain't gonna happen, though.
Thanks for digging the new songs. If I ever get around to making an album again, they may well show up.

Graham , how do you usually go about constructing chords and bass lines for your songs? Do you have a system ?

The whole thing tends to coalesce -- or perhaps congeal -- at the same time. I just keep futzing around on the guitar and humming melodic lines over the top of whatever random chord pattern begins to surface. At some mysterious juncture, a sequence -- either rhythmic, melodic, lyrical, or often all three -- begins to emerge. I could not write great lyrics without a guitar in my hand, though -- a few lines for an already established song idea, yes, but not a whole song. As I'm noodling along, bass, keyboard, guitar, percussion -- whatever -- riffs spiral out from the creation and I'll spend a lot of time tinkering with nuance, sometimes as an escape from getting the hell on with the important job of inventing great, or at least good, lyrics. Lyrics of even reasonable credibility are the hardest part and I'll often write three or four drafts before I blow my dull-ass mind out of the way and reach the subconscious, which is where the pure veins (somebody shut him up, please!) of originality lay. This back-brain golddust is then usually filtered through the emotions (or it could be the other way around, I'm not clear on that) which keeps my particular style -- Atomic Soul Music -- (steady boy, steady) on it's wellworn historic track. Are you following me? Cos I'm lost.............

Graham, I just saw your Club Bene (NJ) show the other night and really enjoyed it. (I go see you every time you're there). The best part this time was getting to you meet you (and buy your new CD) afterwards. When I got to talk to you I really wanted to tell you how much your music has meant to me, how much I've enjoyed listening to it and playing along with your records on the guitar - and how you are the artist whose music I've enjoyed more than anyone's over the years. But of course, when I met you all that came out was "Hi Graham, how ya doin'?"

I also wanted to tell you that, even though I "surf the web" I didn't know about this web site until I saw it on your CD and the cards you put on the tables at the club (so thanks for putting those cards out there!). I've really enjoyed reading your writings on this web site over the past few days. The best thing is that I now know "braces" are suspenders! - I love "They Murdered the Clown" but never understood what the "bright red braces" were!

Last comment: Fly is a great song (my words are quite inadequate here). Partner for Life, 1st Day of Spring, Strong Winds, I'll stop there - there's so many - thank you for all of your hard work over the years.

So glad your eloquence failed you regarding the "how much your music has meant to me" bit. Thankyou. Also, I hope you received one of the personally corrected cards. (At the beginning of the May tour, I was handing out my little business cards not realizing that they sported a typo: they read "punkart" as opposed to "punkhart", a result, I'm afraid, of someone else's mistake and my laziness in not spotting it until it was too late. Henceforth, after the error had been pointed out to me, I spent untold minutes adding a tiny "H" to the damned things. Sorry for any inconvenience.)

Do you post all the questions received on this site? What do you screen out? Thanks for Birchmere, Alexandria, Virginia, May 13, 1999.

Our plucky webmiester John H. picks out the clams for me. Some, doubtless, are begging pleas and plain demands for money, home-grown vegetables or sperm samples. Others insist my genetic fingerprint is evident within sets of twins, etc. Still others are assurances from alleged long-lost relatives, demanding, natch, dosh. Then, I'm sure, there is hate mail, some of which may be so virulent as to upset my delicate equilibrium and put me off being involved in this nonsense forever. There's a lot of nutters out there, but you, dear Bob, are obviously not one of them.

I caught your show at the Bottom Line the other night (May 15)and really enjoyed it. I've been listening and seeing you live for a long time. Hearing the early stuff live makes me remember my old self... I wished the set were longer! That's all; just wanted to check in - compliment you without gushing, communicate without asking. Your music has touched my life. - Jen

Cheers, Jen.

My my my -

Coulda cried, man, for missing your Portland, ME show (5/8). My 40th birthday is coming up and it would have made the perfect present to meself. Alas, my first vehicle, just bought, was un-roadworthy. Now I've found your web site, so life apparently does begin at 40.

Graham, I miss you from the daze of Stiff Records. I wouldn't expect you to remember the office at 157 W. 57th, the tombstone as you would enter, your typing of the liner notes for The Up Escalator with Kirkland, Robinson, or bloody hell only knows who charging through the office. Madness in kilts. Then there was the Penthouse with Frey and Rosenberg...but we'll leave your public wondering who those folks were/are and what in gawd's name they have had to do with your life. It was right before a true love on the aforesaid album, Miss J., took up with her beloved. WHERE ARE THEY ALL NOW?

I probably packed thousands of your import singles to fly out to your still loyal fans. Seemed like the best way to Pack It In.

I've just moved to Kittery, Maine, just across from Portsmouth, NH, having crawled out on hands and knees from the Bronx after 20 years. Please come up north again to moose country. The folks here are exceptionally friendly and well-balanced; the few of us NYC escapees up here will occasionally need our triple-espressoesque doses of brutal reality.

Still luv ya, y'ol' Stiff,

Donna Englund
If it ain't Stiff, ...

Um.....right.

Why can I not buy your latest Cd ( monkey)in Holland?
Will you visit Amsterdam this year. I am looking forward this concert.

The internet, as I understand it, is international. Hit www.razorandtie.com and purchase the monkey.

Graham,
Question and Comment,

I had a copy of an import Album you did that had Japaneese type on the sleeve and contained the song "Hold Back The Night", doe it exist on c-d and how do I get it?

A brief comment: I saw your show at Buffalo State College on the Real Macaw tour, it was without question the best concert I ever experienced. In the confines of a small auditorium, you kicked ass and left us all amazed. Thanks for the contributions your body of work has meant to me and several of my friends.

Don't know this import you speak of.

Later......................GP