Rumour Is the Bootleg Box Set to Get Your Music Lover for Xmas Isn’t from the “Basement”

Graham Parker & the Rumour Official Bootleg Box

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but admiration for my fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, and I certainly do not argue or quibble about the historical significance of the release last month of The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 (a six-CD set).  Hell, I marked the auspicious occasion by attending the last of Dylan’s run of three shows at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis two days after the release of The Basement Tapes Complete. I was going to write a review for No Depression readers but after reading Michael Goldberg’s excellent piece, Review: Bob Dylan & Band In Top Form at Oakland’s Paramount Theater, Oct. 30, 2014, on his definitive Dylan blog, Days of the Crazy Wild,  I so completely agreed that I literally had noting else to add.

But, with all the press about The Basement Tapes of late, another six-disc “official” bootleg box set by an artist with a crack back-up band slipped in under the radar. Graham Parker & the Rumour Official Bootleg Box covers the rise and all too soon break up of a band just as you thought they had made it. The first four discs provide a nice retrospective of the band through a series of  five live performances circas  1976-79 and the final two discs feature the final night of the band’s North American reunion tour at the Fitzgerald Theater  in St. Paul.

Needless to say, if you are a fan of the band and were fortunate to attend one of the shows from the reunion tour — as I was at the Fitz show — this collection is an absolute must if for nothing else to prove to yourself that it wasn’t a dream and yes the geezers still had “it”.  If anything Graham had mellowed with age like a fine wine and Rumour were as great as I remembered from their Guthrie Theater show back in 1981 warming and backing up Garland Jeffries.

From an aesthetic perspective, John Howells of Punkhart Productions has done a brilliant job for Quake Records of marrying the bootleg look and feel of the 1970s — plain white jacket and typewriter font on the outside box, which contains four separate single CD jackets and one double CD jacket containing the December 19, 2012 show at the Fitzgerald. All of the CD jackets have gorgeous original artwork and the piece de resistance is the booklet containing extensive liner notes by Will Birch. Birch does a great job of  setting the scene for each of the performances as well as filling in some of the grey areas of the band’s rise and demise.

Disc 1 consists of two live performances in Amsterdam. The first half of the disc  was recorded live at Boddy’s Music Inn in May of 1976, and the second half at Studio Bellevue in February of 1977.  The latter featured Brian Robertson on guitar, filling in for a sick Brinsley Schwarz. Disc 1 is notable for containing two previously unreleased songs, “I’m Gonna Use it Now” and “Let me Get Sweet  On You”, the former a Howlin’ Wind outtake and the B-side of the single “Silly Thing”.

The second Disc, Live in San Francisco, was recorded at the Savoy Tivoli on November 7, 1976 and captures the band sounding like they had been together for years not debuting what was essentially new material. The version of “Fools Gold” with the dueling guitars of Martin Belmont and Brinsley will have you rethinking the song completely. It’s phenomenal.

Disk 3, Live in Bremen, is the only one that has the Rumour “brass” or horn section, consisting of Dick Hanson on trumpet, Chris Gower on trombone, and John Earle and Ray Beavis on saxaphones. Note the discrepency with the notes on the CD jacket, which attribute trumpet to Chris Gower and omit Dick Hanson. The January 1978 performance showcases Graham’s original material perfectly, like it was meant to be: infectious, horn-driven R&B propelled by the rhythym section of Andrew Bodnar on bass and Stephen Goulding on drums, and Bod Andrews on organ. It’s simply stunning.

The last of the retrospective of historical live recordings features the band at the peak of their commercial success — the Palladium show in New York from the Squeeing out Sparks tour in 1979. Stripped of the horns, Parker rides the guitar-driven material with its intricate interplay between Brinsley and Marty Belmont like a wave.  That is, until crashing to shore, eventually in Australia, where the band gave its last performance … until … 

More Than Innuendo: The Return of the Rumour. December 19, 2012 was one of my musical highlights in a year that had many, but this one was special.  I had seen Graham with a band that included Brinsley and I had seen Martin playing with Carrack, and the Rumour with Garland Jeffries, but never Graham Parker and the Rumour.  Even with my incredibly high expectations, Parker and the Rumour delivered and then some. The resulting two-disc Live in St. Paul was a wise choice as the location for preserving the reunion tour. The Fitzgerald Theater is a great room, sound-wise, and the house engineers Maury Jensen and Dan Zimmerman deserve kudos for the excellent quality of the recording.  The band sounds as though they never took a day off, let alone 30 years. Parker was almost relaxed and it fit him and his fans well, although some of them looked a little old, like the old guy looking at me in my mirror every morning. The material is just the right mix of familiar material from the band’s heyday along with a sprinkling from Graham’s solo years and a good chunk of their new album Three Chords Good. All in all, a terrific box set at a great price.

 See http://www.grahamparker.net/Official_Bootleg_Box.html