Music Review: Graham Parker & The Rumor: LIVE in San Francisco 1979 (Renaissance, CD)

Graham Parker was an angry, bespectacled, super-talented English singer-songwriter who had the bad luck of emerging around the same time that another, similarly gifted artist named Elvis Costello did. Dogged by comparisons with Costello throughout his career, Parker has never gotten the acclaim and success he deserves, which is a shame. This new CD release will hopefully set the record straight. Recorded in 1979 at the time of Parker's emergence with his strongest album, the brilliant “Squeezing Out Sparks,” this disc finds GP at his snarling, hungry best, backed by cracking band, The Rumour. The CD's 20 songs cover most of “Sparks,” including what should've been his breakthrough hit, “Local Girls” along with his sharp cover of The Jackson 5's “I Want You Back.” Although this CD sounds like a tweaked soundboard recording, it captures GP and The Rumour at their peak—and quite a peak that was.