Squeezing Out Sparks & Live Sparks
Squeezing Out Sparkswas not only Parker's finest moment, but it still stands up today as one of rock's best albums. When it was first released in 1979, Arista simultaneously issuedLive Sparks, a collection of live radiocasts that featured the same 10 songs in the same order plus the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and Parker's kiss-off to his former label, "Mercury Poisoning." The latter package was made available only to radio stations and critics, but it was a riveting live record worth all of the $40 it commanded on the collectors' market. Now Arista has reissued the 10 studio tracks and the dozen live tracks on an invaluable single CD. Included are two versions each of rock's best pro-choice abortion song ("You Can't Be Too Strong") and best Hiroshima song ("Discovering Japan").--Geoffrey Himes