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Video Title: Jack Nitzsche

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Who: Singer-songwriter Graham Parker on working with producer Jack Nitzsche and The Rumour

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And they made you know eventually because I, you know we got popular enough they would, they got a record deal as the Rumour and their records didn't really do that much. And they tried a few gigs and it became glaring obvious to them that I was a front man and they weren't, so they kind of eased off on that a bit. But you know they, it was funny because by the time I got to 1978 and, and I'd written the song "Squeezing Out Sparks" which was you know probably my best known album.

I'd chosen this guy Jack Nitzsche as a producer. And he was legendary for working with Phil Spector and all these, you know he was an arranger and all kinds of stuff. And when he came over he heard what the Rumour were trying to do with my songs, which was you know what, what we'd done in rehearsal. They, they'd taken them and dismantled them and tried to turn them into their own thing. They were already complicated enough for goodness sake, you know.

"Passion Is No Ordinary Word" has a lot of chords in it with a lot of pushes and pulls. You know this is not 12 bar blues here, you know. And the Rumour were always tried to complicate even further. It was like how great we are as musicians, let's show the world. You know. And of course I'd kinda turned them on to Little Feat, I think, I'd been listening to Little Feat before my career started and, and you know oh my goodness, Little Feat.

You know this is it, rock 'n roll delta unbelievable. So they got even more complicated trying to be as good as Little Feat. And Jack Nitzsche sat there for three days in the studio. You know like, like this you know. I was like Jack, you know, what. Everything that came out was like it's too many cymbals, too many you know. Eventually he said why are they playing it like that? Play the song to me on the guitar. So I played it to Jack, played the song on guitar. He said why aren't the band playing it like that? I said you know we've got to talk about this Jack, you know.

He said I can't do anything with these people. They got so much ego. That's what he said, they, you know, it's all about them. It's not about the song. I said but you know you've worked with the, the Stones, Jack. You, you know, what are you talking about? He said the Stones have no ego. It blew my mind. I was working with these guys you know. We're not exactly superstars here. You know. He said the Stones it's all about the song. If Keith can play the bass better than Bill he plays it, you know. So I said to Jack well tell the band to play the way you want them to.

You're the producer damn it, you know, it was literally like this, it was like an Armageddon. It's like you know an epiphany. Do it for me, you're the producer, you know I know they overplay. I know it's all about them and not about me in the songs. So that's when we made Squeezing Our Sparks in 11 days after that because he said listen to what Graham is playing okay. Just play that. Now that didn't mean they weren't to be creative. They'd come up with all kinds of riffs and stuff but they came up with a, in the form of, you know "Discovering Japan" for instance is a very complex tune. It's, the groove of it is a very complex push pull thing.

It's not straightforward. And I was playing it on the acoustic guitar but the band wouldn't pick up on it. They wouldn't, they kept you know even Martin I remember was like every time we'd try to play it he would go [sigh]. You know and he said to me later, I was hoping you'd drop that song. I thought it was crap you know. And then Jack said play what Graham's playing [makes musical sounds]. So they started playing [makes musical sounds] and this push pull thing. Suddenly we're listening it back and it was the most amazing thing we'd ever recorded.

You know our jaws are dropping. And everyone was like wow what an amazing song. I was like I thought it was, you know I wasn't sure you guys are putting me off a bit like hell. You know so there, there was a bit, there was definitely some ego involved but in saying that they were, we were all friends. They were, they were really good guys to work with and they taught me, I mean an awful lot. But they're, you know intrinsically they were musicians who could not make a hit record if you, you know as I once said brought Tony Blackburn into the studios and told him what riffs to play.

He was a Radio One DJ who played hits, hits, hits. I mean they weren't that kind of musicians. They just couldn't even turn up on a hit record. That's not the way they played. You know so put that with my grungy songs and difficult lyrics. We were definitely a combination that weren't going to have hits per se. But you know they, they were just fantastic. I mean musicianship on those records is something else. You know and I, and live, blistering. You know we, we just got more and more intense. More and more pissed off. It was very strange you know.