Graham Parker Sets the Records Straight

We haven’t heard the new Graham Parker album yet, but the Capitol Records’ press bio for it is sure to be one of the pop insiders’ highlights of the season.

Parker, who was the first “angry young man” in Britain’s ‘70s new wave of rock, has been a critics’ favorite for so long now that there is no need to actually tell his story in the bio. So Capitol simply asked him to jot down some of his reflections about all his past albums. He responds with his trademark humor and bite.

Here are some of Pop Eye’s favorite entries:

* About 1976’s “Heat Treatment” album, Parker notes, “(Producer) Mutt Lang’s idea was to record every instrument as separately as possible and then try to make them sound as if they were all recorded together! To me, it sounds like it was recorded under a blanket under water, but I hear he’s come a long way since then.” (Sure enough, Lange went on to become one of rock’s hottest producers, working with the likes of Def Leppard.)

* Recalling 1980’s “The Up Escalator,” he offers, “My manager at the time . . . had the idea that we should go with (producer) Jimmy Iovine to get that (Patti Smith) ‘Because the Night’ drum sound. Obviously, one listen to the record will tell you we didn’t get anything like that at all. In fact, the producer spent most of the time in the lounge shouting things into the telephone like, ‘Get me the coast . . . any coast.’ ” (Iovine, whose credits range from Tom Petty to U2, now heads Interscope Records).

* Lest you think Parker can only have fun with ex-producers, he pokes fun at himself when talking about 1988’s “The Mona Lisa’s Sister”: “I called myself the producer, which basically means sponging off the engineer’s talent and getting credit for it. It’s hard to find anything interesting to say about recording now, everyone’s so straight, boring and professional; it’s closer to office work than rock and roll.”

Parker’s new album, “Burning Questions,” is due July 28. You might snare a copy of the press bio by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Capitol Records, Publicity Department, 1750 N. Vine St., Los Angeles 90028.