Graham Parker and the Rumour - The Up Escalator. This was his follow-up to Squeezing Out Sparks, which was voted album of the year in 1979 by the Village Voice. I remember his hit from that record, Local Girls - which was played tons that summer, sounding a touch like Joe Jackson, or vise versa. On this record, Graham taps an interesting list to play with him. They are - besides himself on guitar and vocals: Bruce Springsteen - background vocals. Nicky Hopkins - piano (of course). Jimmy Maelen - percussion. Martin Belmont - guitar. Danny Federici - organ. Steve Goulding - drums. Brinsley Schwarz - guitar, background vocals. Peter Wood - synthesizer. Andrew Bodnar - bass. Stupidly, mostly because their names sound similar, I do get him confused with Gram Parsons. But they could not me more different. Graham is an Englishman, and Gram is a California dude.
