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Track Listings
| 1. Discovering Japan |
| 2. Local Girls |
| 3. Nobody Hurts You |
| 4. You Can't Be Too Strong |
| 5. Passion Is No Ordinary Word |
| 6. Saturday Nite Is Dead |
| 7. Love Gets You Twisted |
| 8. Protection |
| 9. Waiting For The UFOs |
| 10. Don't Get Excited |
| 11. Mercury Poisoning |
| 12. I Want You Back |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is as good as it gets. Having already produced some superb albums Graham Parker seemed to be running out of steam when this classic appeared. Gone were the trademark horn arrangements, to be replaced by searing unison guitars. The band are tighter than ever, helping Parker deliver stunning versions of some of his best songs. "Discovering Japan" and "Local Girls" are breathless rockers dealing with the ups and downs of touring - without the uninspired weariness that usually acompanied such subject matter.
"Protection" is another highlight with bitter but enigmatic lyrics and hooks galore, whilst "Love Gets You Twisted" is equally bitter but all too understandable with a slowly uncoiling melody adding to the atmosphere of recrimination. But I could go on .. not a weak track in sight. The heart of this album though is the incredibly intense ballad "You Can't Be Too Strong" which deals with the subject of abortion from the male viewpoint - with every moment of pain, confusion and denial relived. The song could so easily have gone wrong - instead we have a masterpiece to rank with the great songs of rock.
The album is fighting it out at the very top - with The Beatles, Dylan, Presley, The Band etc - it is one of the few true classics. It belongs in your collection.
"Protection" is another highlight with bitter but enigmatic lyrics and hooks galore, whilst "Love Gets You Twisted" is equally bitter but all too understandable with a slowly uncoiling melody adding to the atmosphere of recrimination. But I could go on .. not a weak track in sight. The heart of this album though is the incredibly intense ballad "You Can't Be Too Strong" which deals with the subject of abortion from the male viewpoint - with every moment of pain, confusion and denial relived. The song could so easily have gone wrong - instead we have a masterpiece to rank with the great songs of rock.
The album is fighting it out at the very top - with The Beatles, Dylan, Presley, The Band etc - it is one of the few true classics. It belongs in your collection.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is a great, neglected album, beautifully paced with not a dull moment. Unlike anything else that he did before or after it, Squeezing has none of the Van Morrison-style pastiche R&B effects of GP's previous lps. Nor does it sound like the Springsteen-style affairs that immediately follow it. Instead, it has a hard new wave sheen, not too far away from The Only Ones or even Television, strewn with spiky guitars and great drumming. The man who does the singing wears an angry smile, and there are lyrics to match - words that capture a moment when hedonism and protest collided, joyous and cynical at the same time. The funny, angry rush of a song like Protection has the kind of frenzied attack that only the Clash could really match. You Can't Be Too Strong, on the other hand, draws you in with its gentleness and empathy, into a situation that becomes more real with every line.
This is GP's greatest strength - the ability to make it sound as if he is talking, almost, about something that happened yesterday. On Squeezing, he combines his slightly gawky warmth with a headlong approach; we hurtle through song after song, anticipating the moment when the brilliance must come to an end but never reaching it. Alongside GP's tireless singing, Brinsley Schwartz's fantastic guitar playing is perhaps the key. No longer backed by horns, fully exposed, he snaps and crackles.
There are only classics on Squeezing Out Sparks, and this release won't change that. It includes two excellent bonus tracks, a great Motown cover in I Want You Back and the hilarious Mercury Poisoning, a dismissal of a record company on a par with the Sex Pistols' EMI. On the day of this album's release, GP really was, as the song says, the best kept secret in the west.
This is GP's greatest strength - the ability to make it sound as if he is talking, almost, about something that happened yesterday. On Squeezing, he combines his slightly gawky warmth with a headlong approach; we hurtle through song after song, anticipating the moment when the brilliance must come to an end but never reaching it. Alongside GP's tireless singing, Brinsley Schwartz's fantastic guitar playing is perhaps the key. No longer backed by horns, fully exposed, he snaps and crackles.
There are only classics on Squeezing Out Sparks, and this release won't change that. It includes two excellent bonus tracks, a great Motown cover in I Want You Back and the hilarious Mercury Poisoning, a dismissal of a record company on a par with the Sex Pistols' EMI. On the day of this album's release, GP really was, as the song says, the best kept secret in the west.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I bought it in the 70's and it's still one of my favourite ever albums. A fantastic album of the time and I love it still.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Graham Parker "squeezing out sparks"
i used to have this fantastic album on vinyl, unfortunately like me, it aged and had to be replaced one day, well thirty three years later ive finally done it, im back in seventy... Read more
Published 1 month ago by martin4414
Squeezing Out Sparks.
The Graphic design on the cover is exceptional. Did Graham Parker reach number one in the charts with this album ? Read more
Published 3 months ago by powerp
Graham Parker's Masterpiece
This is one of the great albums of the late 1970s - a great band and a fine songwriter and singer working at the peak of his powers. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Alladin
Not the best of graham Parker but good none the less
People say this is a seminal work. Those that do are wrong it is a perfectly good piece of Parker but not the best by any means.
Published 17 months ago by Philip N. Roberts
Fantastic!
I bought this album on vinyl when it first came out thirty years ago and have only just got round to buying it on CD....It was definitely worth the wait. Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2009 by John
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