Gold Coast

A collection of sketches of a more innocent time, complete with a heretical prayer book, teenage angst and broken hearts, the boundless exuberance of rock & roll, endless cruising beneath the pure Midwestern sky and True Love at Last.

A collection of sketches of a more innocent time complete with a heretical prayer book, teenage angst and broken hearts, the boundless exuberance of rock & roll, endless cruising beneath the pure Midwestern sky and True Love at Last, Gold Coast shuns the usual “coming of age” story lines, focusing instead on singular moments and the individuals living within them. Whether it's a junior space cadet at the dawn of the Cold War, a World War I veteran with a penchant for tall tales, or the wide-eyed passenger of a pair of all-night cruisers, Parker's characters and their tales – told in a rolling, conversational style – will not remind anyone of Happy Days or That 70's Show. They may, however, remind the reader of how things really were.

Bill Parker describes himself as “a guy from Gold Coast who plays guitar.” The fact that he remains largely unknown to the world-at-large for his musical efforts – this despite performing in both the United States and Europe and having recorded 18 albums since joining his first band in December 1967 – is, he says, “beside the point.” A habitual writer of notes, fragments and scenarios, he began writing stories to fill the gaps between bouts of songwriting and recording. Gold Coast is his first published work.