Song of the Day 7/23: Graham Parker, “Local Girls”

Graham Parker is nearly forgotten today, but back in the ’70s, during British music’s transition from pub rock to punk/new wave, Parker was viewed as one of the scene’s angry young men, on a par with Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. His record company thought this song, from his third LP, “Squeezing Out Sparks,” would be the one to break him big in the U.S. Despite heavy promotion it failed to chart, but it did help make the album the highest-selling of Parker’s career, and it’s still a staple of his live show.

On his website, Parker explained,

“The idea for ‘Local’ is from remembering what it was like to be a boy at home, looking out the window, seeing a rather toothsome piece stroll by, nose in the air perhaps, down the quiet semi-detached suburban street, and knowing that she probably already (at 13/14 years of age) fancies herself as an army wife (I grew up next door to an army camp and the squaddies were always stealing the girlfolk) and is going to look upon your feeble advances with some disdain. It’s a fairly typical the-object-of-ones-desire-is-always-out-of-reach-type song, just about 30 times better and more pregnant with meaning/detail than pretty much anyone else on the planet could even begin to aspire to, is all.”

The video was made before the advent of MTV, so the production values are actually somewhat ahead of their time, even if they seem as dated as a silent film now.

When the time came for a tribute album, the producers put together Pat DiNuzio of the Smithereens, Gary Lucas of Captain Beefheart’s band and Frank Black of the Pixies for another go at it. It’s pretty good, but nobody can imitate Parker’s ability to sneer out his lyrics.