A lot of people were introduced to Graham Parker via Judd Apatow’s 2012 movie This Is 40, which posited the once angry young man of the mid-’70s British pub pop scene (he was like a John the Baptist figure to Elvis Costello’s You-Know-Who) as a shambling, cheerful has-been, happy to receive the attention of Paul Rudd’s doomed boutique record label.
It stung to see one of my favorite artists - who’s consistently produced intelligent, grown-up rock (Parker sometimes sounds like Van Morrison fronting The Band) since his essential 1976 album Howlin’ Wind - presented as an inside joke, a kind of Vanilla Ice figure for the slightly older, slightly hipper set. Still, Parker’s charming performance in the film revealed another side of the artist: A formidable, good-natured, self-deprecating comedian.
Now he’s got a new album, Three Chords Good (Primary Wave) his first in 31 years with the Rumour, his original backing band, and a new documentary on his career, Don’t Ask Me Questions, directed by Michael Gramaglia (End of the Century). It features interviews with, among others, Bruce Springsteen, musician and record producer Nick Lowe and Apatow, and was released on homevideo and on demand April 8. I recently had the chance to ask Parker a few questions about his career and his recent renaissance.
Q. Who were your earliest inspirations, and who do you return to again and again? And conversely, who are you just discovering?
A. When I was a kid we had a radio, or a “wireless set,” as it was called then, and most of the music I heard was by American acts like Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby, stuff like that. Plus British variety acts and Music Hall. I can still hear some of those melodic structures creeping into my songs.
But in 1962 we finally got our own music in the shape of The Beatles and the Stones, and all those other “beat groups” that followed. They turned us on to their inspirations which were often from the U.S. in the form of soul, R&B and in the case of the Stones, blues.
So me and my friends became obsessed with all these styles, and for me, soul and Motown still drive a lot of what I do.
Listening to music isn’t exactly high on my agenda these days, and the only act I’ve heard in recent years who has really bowled me over is Amy Winehouse.There’s lot of good stuff out there, but I don’t really care about it.
Q. I was impressed by your good humor and forbearance in This Is 40. But does it not feel just a little odd being held out as a relic?
A. Ha! No, I loved the idea. I was extremely flattered to have been given such a big part in a Judd Apatow film for a start, and just loved throwing myself into it. When Judd had the idea of my character complaining about foot problems, I made it even worse and gave him gout, a sort of medieval condition! There’s extra footage on the Blu-ray where I’m also doing a bit about how I can’t work my pay-as-you-go mobile phone, and Chris O’Dowd’s character is really quite incensed that Pete, as played by Paul Rudd, has been foolish enough to pin his hopes on an artist who has to go to a podiatrist and can’t work a modern-day device. “Not like the old rotary phones, are they?” he says, with barely concealed annoyance. Great stuff!
Q. I don’t ever recall hearing about any acrimony between you and the Rumour. Why did it take so long to get the band back together?
A. To be honest, I don’t think it really occurred to me until the day I emailed them all in early 2011. The ’80swould have been wrong, the ’90s would have been wrong; it happened exactly when it should have happened. It happened when both the band and the audience was ready for it.
Besides, I was quite happy with the records I was releasing using different musicians or playing most of the stringed instruments myself. I don’t think any of them lacked anything.
Q. Can you talk about your songwriting process and whether it’s changed over the years? I remember Bob Dylan saying that it was totally different, that he could never have written the songs he wrote in the ’60s as an older person.
A. The songs are obviously different in some ways, especially lyrically, but I think the general blueprint that’s part of my musical DNA is about the same. There’s a sort of pool of styles that recur and my job is to make every new tune based on these formats come over as new and fresh. I doubt if I’m ever going to take some alien style of music - Cuban or African or something - and do an album slavishly devoted to it.
And the mechanics are pretty much the same. I sit with an acoustic guitar and mess around until some new angle of approach with those same old chords pops up, plus a few different invented voicings of those familiar chords. I collect lyric lines that are usually discarded in the end, but at least they get me started and I’m off and running.It still feels like I’m accessing songs that have been there all the time. All I’m doing is channeling them, and sometimes it feels like they write themselves, I just have to be there acting as the conduit.
Q. T Bone Burnett talks about how music changed when things went digital and when corporations figured out they could make more money selling music to people who didn’t really care for music than providing music fans with good material. How have you adapted in an era when you really might sell only a couple thousand records?
A. You have to get lucky and get an acting part and five songs in a hit Judd Apatow movie, that’s how! And have a publishing company behind you that’s really trying to get placements for your songs. The bottom has fallen out of record sales for acts who used to sell a lot more than me, so it’s not like I’m the only one in the leaky boat. But I still have more fans than you think who want that CD or vinyl in their hands, and they buy them.
Q. What’s the best news you’ve heard lately?
A. That our show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London last year had sold all 2,000 tickets about three months before the date.
Q. Finally, what should I have asked you? And how would you answer that question?
A. What do you think of Don’t Ask Me Questions?
The documentary was essentially finished when I suddenly announced that I was re-forming the Rumour, doing a new album with them and we were all appearing in a new Judd Apatow movie.
After taking over 10 years to make the [film], we finally had a proper ending, so the film really feels complete now.
It was shown in the UK on BBC4 and the reaction was really amazing …. They couldn’t have dreamed of a better ending.
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Style, Pages 47 on 04/20/2014