Live-Alone in America [Import]

Graham Parker | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 23, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Demon
• ASIN: B000024WUJ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,114 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Graham Parker's Cheese Steak Album, April 1, 2008

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Live-Alone in America (Audio CD)

Having made yet ANOTHER major label switch to RCA, the modestly successful The Mona Lisa's Sister found Graham Parker touring solo. On a stop at Philadelphia's TLA venue, a stripped down Parker revisited a batch of his 70's material for a surprisingly affecting live CD, his second after The Parkerilla.

Parker is loose and jocular, letting a few between-song zingers loose. These include the infamous Cheese-steak comments, which I've now heard him have to live down twice in other Philadelphia shows. If anything, the looser setting makes songs like "White Honey" and "Hotel Chambermaid" sound more human than the manic energy of Parker's Mercury days. "Protection" and "You Can't Be Too Strong" put in an appearance from Squeezing Out Sparks, and shades of the old Angry Young Man appear on "Soul Corruption" (which includes a racial epithet that may make the squeamish squirm).

Given that Parker acoustic and solo pretty much distilled his songs to their essence, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the next albums were almost blissful in the folkish sensibilities (Human Soul and Struck by Lightning.) Ending the disc on a soulful note with Sam Cooke's call for harmony, "A Change is Gonna Come," is just icing on the cake. "Live Alone" may not be for many outside Parker's fan club, but it's a good reminder about why he generated such a songwriter's buzz in his early days.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Man and His Guitar, October 6, 2006

By 

James Marceda "A Second Opinion" (Dumfries, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live-Alone in America (Audio CD)

I saw the tour from which this album was drawn. Just Gram and his guitar. He was charming and rocking. The CD brings back great memories of a great show for me. Being objective, most of the covers of his earlier work are spendid with one or two exceptions. The reason to own this one, however, is for the three songs that, so far as I know, do not appear on any other Parker release. The stand-out is "The Three Martini Lunch:" a sad but - oh so true - look at Hollywood in the 1980's and beyond.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Graham Parker and Philly Cheesesteaks, March 31, 2008

By 

Tim Brough "author and music buff" (Springfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Live! Alone In America (Audio CD)

Having made yet ANOTHER major label switch to RCA, the modestly successful The Mona Lisa's Sister found Graham Parker touring solo. On a stop at Philadelphia's TLA venue, a stripped down Parker revisited a batch of his 70's material for a surprisingly affecting live CD, his second after The Parkerilla.

Parker is loose and jocular, letting a few between-song zingers loose. These include the infamous Cheese-steak comments, which I've now heard him have to live down twice in other Philadelphia shows. If anything, the looser setting makes songs like "White Honey" and "Hotel Chambermaid" sound more human than the manic energy of Parker's Mercury days. "Protection" and "You Can't Be Too Strong" put in an appearance from Squeezing Out Sparks, and shades of the old Angry Young Man appear on "Soul Corruption" (which includes a racial epithet that may make the squeamish squirm).

Given that Parker acoustic and solo pretty much distilled his songs to their essence, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the next albums were almost blissful in the folkish sensibilities (Human Soul and Struck by Lightning.) Ending the disc on a soulful note with Sam Cooke's call for harmony, "A Change is Gonna Come," is just icing on the cake. "Live Alone" may not be for many outside Parker's fan club, but it's a good reminder about why he generated such a songwriter's buzz in his early days.