Passion Is No Ordinary Word: The Graham Parker Anthology 1976-1991

Graham Parker Passion Is No Ordinary Word: The Graham Parker Anthology 1976-1991 (Rhino) More tightly coiled than a rattlesnake, and just as vituperative, Graham Parker was clearly a jerk back in the new wave '70s-but a jerk who redeemed himself with songs as biting as any of his punk peers'. The first half of this double-CD set is as good a Parker collection as you could want, leaping from early classics like ''Fools' Gold'' to his '79 hit ''Local Girls''; it also includes his great, hard-to-find single ''Mercury Poisoning,'' on which he gave his first of many record companies a severe tongue-lashing. After that, as chronicled on disc two, he was simply a jerk who made clunky, em- bittered singer-songwriter rock records. It sure was fun while it lasted, though. B- -DB

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