A Conversation with GRAHAM PARKER about
Last Chance To Learn The Twist
The new album out September 8 from Big Stir Records
BIG STIR RECORDS: Hello, Graham! Let us frst say that while you know we're really honored to be working with you, what's even better is that we've loved this record, Last Chance To Learn The Twist, since we first heard it, back when it was called Deep Blue Streak and had a slightly different track order. It struck a deep chord with us right away and it's a real joy to work on it. Congratulations on a terrifc album, and thank you!
GRAHAM PARKER: Aha, you remembered one of the original titles, of which there were a few. I decided to lean on the lighter side with the title in the end. Listeners will soon find the variety in the record when they hear it. Thank you for taking this in and for the hugely encouraging appreciation!
BSR: Let's talk about how the record came together. Obviously the timeframe of the writing and recording would have been impacted by the pandemic, but from the sound of the band, you'd never know it. The lyrics might tell a different story in places. Talk to us about the circumstances behind the writing and recording of LCTLTT.
GP: I was pretty sure after I’d written “Shorthand” and “It Mattered To Me” that I’d be making my previous album Cloud Symbols Part Two because both tunes could have slotted in with that record perfectly, and I wouldn’t have to look for different musicians with different approaches. As things went along and “We Did Nothing” and “Pablo’s Hippos” popped out I began to have my doubts, and by the time I’d got “Grand Scheme Of Things” and “Sun Valley” cooking and most notably “Music Of The Devil” I realized I had a whole different animal on my hands.
BSR: You've talked about the songs being a little different in terms of your approach this time around. In a lot of ways the songs are restrained and short, in the pop tradition, but they've got unusual structures – you mention “Grand Scheme Of Things” and particularly “Sun Valley,” being less about “parts,” as in a typical pop song, but more about “movements.” But they still feel really organic. How much of that is a conscious choice, and how much of it is a case of following what the song wants to be?
GP: Yes, those two songs you mention are radical arrangements, not just by my standards either I’d say. The odd thing is, I had both those tunes partially written at least ten years ago but was afraid they might end up dragging me down due to the tempos and style which I recognized as being a familiar part of my arsenal, but when I had another go at them they exploded into these odd arrangements and became essential. Some songs need years to grow, it’s happened to me before. The songs do indeed sometimes have a mind of their own and can take their own time about how they want to be. I’m just their instrument, I’m just doing their bidding and trying to keep up.
BSR: The arrangements really stand out – the slightly reconfigured Goldtops really groove, and the Easy Access Horns are such an essential part of the feel. And you've got The Lady Bugs doing some very diverse backing vocals across the tracks. The sound is really warm and a little loose, and the overall vibe is soulfully timeless. What inspired this approach – was it just the setting that the songs seemed to suggest, were you chasing a certain sound for the album?
GP: I was still using Tuck Nelson who engineered Cloud Symbols so there is a constancy despite some different types of songs being part of it and I knew the Goldtops guys could handle all of it with consummate ease. I did however have to scramble for a different drummer at the very last minute. Roy Dodds, who played on Cloud Symbols, was set to play on this one as well but he had been hit with Covid in September and was hospitalized about four times and was still not fit enough as the November 1st start date approached. Martin suggested Jim Russell who amazingly happened to be free to do the RAK studios sessions where we cut the tracks live. Jim has a lot more oomph to his playing it turned out so it worked like a charm. Roy Dodds has completely recovered now I’m pleased to say. Whew!
BSR: A lot of the songs have a relaxed soulful feel, deriving their intensity from the lyrics and the vocal delivery. But there are some curveballs, too, including the frst two singles, “Them Bugs” and “We Did Nothing”... different from the rest of the album and very different from each other! What's the story behind those two, and let's add in “Pablo's Hippos” which you've described as belong to “a genre that doesn't exist”?
GP: My son Jimmy, who designed the album cover, and I were having our July 4th fireworks session a few years before Covid struck and the mosquitoes were out in force, which is often the case around that time. After we’d finished I grabbed my guitar and started instantly writing the song which was pretty near done in an hour. Jimmy joined in on another guitar and we had a lot of laughs. I never would have thought I’d really finish the tune and record it one day! I guess you could say “It kept bugging me.” “We Did Nothing” goes from the personal to the global and back again. It’s wracked with pain, frankly, and my modern day more relaxed vocals are pumped up. It demanded a fierce intensity to do it justice.
“Pablo’s Hippos” on the other hand came after I watched a short documentary on YouTube about how Pablo Escobar’s hippos from his private zoo were the only exotic animals that escaped and are now breeding and living in the waterways of Columbia where they don’t belong but are doing very well, causing environmental havoc whilst enjoying a place where they don’t have droughts to worry about, unlike Africa. I took the view of two imaginary workers at Hacienda Napoles where Escobar and his zoo were based. They are cheering America’s “unwinable” war, the war on people thinly disguised as a war on drugs, in other words, because it’s giving them a good living and some of those cartel bosses treat the locals well and give to the local community. They’ll slit anyone else’s throat in a second, though, so there’s that. The construction of the song is as weird as the subject matter. I still can’t fathom what you’d call it. Eccentric, perhaps? That’ll have to do!
BSR: Listening to Last Chance To Learn The Twist, it feels in many ways like a fresh start. While certain things, like the backing from The Goldtops and the horn arrangements, carry over from your last record (2018's Cloud Symbols), there's since been not only the pandemic but a feeling that some recent projects – like The Middlesex Demos, collecting your very first recordings, and the acoustic reading of Squeezing Out Sparks – have been about putting a bow on some of your career achievements to date and clearing the deck. Is that something you considered yourself as Last Chance developed, or was it more of a case of the songs starting to arrive and it was just time to get to work?
GP: I believe I wrote “Shorthand” in the lockdown periods and it’s exactly the type of musical approach that could have easily slotted in with Cloud Symbols. The subject matter is of course different due to the circumstances and I played around with some of the concepts that people were experimenting with then like “mindfulness” and all that. Luckily, I didn’t touch on baking sourdough bread which was also very popular during lockdowns!
I can’t say I ever think I’m doing anything more with each song or each album other than throwing another pebble into the stream where it swirls around for a bit until it eventually gets picked up by the current and flows off downstream. Bye bye, thanks for helping pass the time.
BSR: In recent years, you've branched out into some other fields – literature (the novel The Thylacine’s Lair) and acting, often in collaboration with Judd Apatow (This Is Forty). You're known for your intelligent lyrics and commanding stage presence, so neither of those are a complete departure, but they're very different processes. Have you found that those interdisciplinary forays have affected or informed your songwriting, or do they remain completely separate?
GP: I never write songs to order, but with This Is Forty I broke that little rule when Judd threw some ideas at me and asked me to have a go at it. A few of those songs were favoured by Judd and one of them, “What Do You Like,” made the cut and was included in the background scene at Pete’s (Paul Rudd) birthday party. It won me an ASCAP award for “best new song in a box office hit.” That exercise in writing based on an existing subject was good discipline and took me out of myself and my own concerns lyrically. Very enjoyable. As for fiction, I had a blast writing both the short stories in Carp Fishing On Valium and the novel The Thylacine’s Lair and for a while there I actually felt like writing fiction was my future. However, I seemed to get it out of my system to a large degree and after I’d finished my writing jag I slipped back into my day job seamlessly. I do think they all compliment each other. It’s rewarding to explore other areas of the creativity I have, one thing can set off another.
BSR: We've talked with you about your general antipathy with retreading the past in interviews – it's something we relate to as a label, trying to get listeners into new records instead of reissues. So let's flip that around: why do you think the rock and roll audience today is so often stuck in the past? It's true that some music (not to name names!) is basically risk-free wallpaper for its era, but if you're a fan of Graham Parker, or someone like Dylan, Neil Young, the best of the punk bands, or artists like Prince or Bowie, it seems like part of the fun is that each new record brings surprises and risks. This is after all, as your new song has it, “The Music Of The Devil” – why do you think nostalgia has become so prevalent among fans of a fundamentally transgressive and norm- breaking artform?
GP: Primarily it’s because when people in their teens or 20’s hear something that really appeals to them, maybe even in a profound way, that feeling will never return with the future music of the artist they liked when they were young. The letters and communications in general I’ve had over the years about certain records of mine from the 70’s show the way my work was perceived by people who were young at the time - “It changed my life,” “you saved me in college,” “everyone I knew was listening to REO Speedwagon but when I heard 'Heat Treatment' on the radio that was it for me.” That’s how much it meant to them. I feel the same about music and artists from my youth and frankly, I’m rarely interested in their new work! Guilty as charged! The people who still think my new work is always worth seeking out and is still loved by them deserve medals as far as I’m concerned! May they live as long as I do.
BSR: Following on from that, we've all seen lots of artists, many of whom got their starts well after you, seemingly easing into hitting the road with “greatest hits” tours trading entirely on nostalgia, or relying on their vintage tracks getting used in film soundtracks or ads. That's something you've never done – even the Rumour reunion yielded two acclaimed albums of new material, and certainly Last Chance To Learn The Twist continues to chart new territory for you. In a field that's increasingly backward-looking, what is it that compels you to keep challenging yourself and pushing forward with your music?
GP: I keep writing songs and they’re very good. Simple as that. I don’t indulge much in the backward-looking but still have the greatest respect for my past achievements. Also, my voice is vastly improved from my early mid-range yelling, which, though very effective and a necessary statement against the complacency of the established acts (and audience) at the time was almost completely devoid of nuance and balance. I really ruined my ballads, slaughtered them, took songs of beauty, love and loss, and shredded them with a voice that sounded like a victim of advanced throat cancer. I can still turn on the intensity and add grit when needed, but now I’m a real singer. Still nowhere near as good as the greats, but come on - I’m just beginning, gimme time!
BSR: Thanks again for taking the time to answer these questions, and for the new music. We look forward to getting it out there!
For more on GRAHAM PARKER and Last Chance To Learn The Twist: https://bigstirrecords.com/graham-parker
Please contact us at bigstirrecords@gmail.com with any requests related to the new record!
Thank you,
Christina & Rex
Big Stir Records www.bigstirrecords.com
BIG STIR RECORDS
2140 N. Hollywood Way #6607, Burbank CA 91505 bigstrrecords@gmail.com – rexbroome@gmail.com www.bigstrrecords.com
