Sparks Appreciation & Album by Album thread

As others have pointed out Indiscreet was just so eccentric, but not in a really commercial way like Propaganda. The 2 singles were odd follow ups to their previous singles, but I really cant see that any of the other tracks would have faired better.

 

You're welcome chum.

 

Brilliant detective work chaps. So this poses another question; as Ron wrote a new verse for the 'Plagarism' version, did this original extended version from 1974 have unknown additional lyrics?

 

I remember reading a review of Indiscreet as the time of its release wherein the reviewer docked the rating because one of the songs was named "Tits". That just seemed ludicrous to me as I have always felt that is one of Ron's most fully realized songs. It tells a great sad story and has a lovely verse melody that Russell sings (and emotes) to perfection.

At the time the LP was released I was a bit disappointed after the two killer albums that preceded it. However it has grown on me over the years and is now in my top 5 Sparks' releases. As for the two odd single releases, I love them both. Get In The Swing has that awesome wind band arrangement and a truly weird Germanic vibe. Looks Looks Looks is a perfect 1940s nostalgia piece with the usual bizzare Mael lyrics. That they both made the UK charts at all is a bit amazing.

 

...I like that description...;-)

 

Big Beat (1976)

Big Boy
I Want To Be Like Everybody Else
Nothing To Do
I Bought The Mississippi River
Fill-Er-Up
Everybody's Stupid
Throw Her Away (And Get A New One)
Confusion
Screwed Up
White Women
I Like Girls

 

"Big Beat" is a good example how important arranging, mixing and mastering is. In this particular case nearly everything went wrong. The album suffers from a very dry sound and way too loud drums. It all sounds like a demo.
A german sampler called "In the Swing" strangely offers two remixes of "I like Girls" and "Big Boy". And it's like day and night. Although it's the same performances the sound on the remixes is fuller, especially "I like Girls" benefits from more orchestra. Another good example is the song "Confusion". The later CD version offers an outtake of the same song with a very different arrangement. And this outtake sounds more exciting than the "Big Beat" version.

For me "Big Beat" was the first "low" in their work, they lost me with that album for a while. And it took until "No 1 in Heaven", when I rediscovered them as a creative force.
We didn't know then, that it would be typical for their path, that their career would be a roller coaster. And we also didn't know, that this extreme change was their strategy, as Ron Mael later revealed: "For us it's kind of important to not feel locked into one kind of working, even if it's not commercially the smartest move".

 

I was a fan and bought the previous two albums but I cannot even name a single from this album.

 

I slammed into the wall with this one. It was such a downer after the previous three. It's still not a loveable album even now. I'd be interested to hear from long-term Sparks fans who came in at this one, those who would say it's their favourite. Biggest gripe is I missed the old band.

I like Rupert Holmes as a producer though. Thing is, the other two albums he worked on around the same time as this - Sailor's 'Trouble' and The Strawbs' 'Deep Cuts' - are both stunning pieces of work. Maybe he was spreading himself a little thin or simply the chemistry wasn't there.

 

Holmes said that the record company needed the track listing and running order BEFORE they recorded the album to avoid missing the release schedule, which is an absurd situation. The mixing took place over a three day non-stop session. Hilly Michaels hated the drum sound, and as noted, the chemistry simply wasn't there. There's nothing wrong with the songs - some of Ron's best lyrics - it's just the bland instrumentation and production. Even Russell seemed to have dropped the "European" sound of his vocals for a more American slant. Those two remixes on the 'In The Swing' compilation showed what could have been achieved with more time and effort. 'I Like Girls' apparently has different musicians playing on it to the rest of the album.
I remember buying my copy and ending up with an off centre and broken copy of the "801 Live" inside, also reading the inner sleeve and wondering "where's Dinky, Ian and Trevor?".
The worse was yet to come....

 

I hafta take point off the Columbia version for giving the songwriting credits as "R.Mael." That's just not helpful! Which "R"?

If anything else, this is a great album to sing along to. Although, I'll admit that I've always found the end of 'I Like Girls' odd and out of place. Too much Ted Mosby and not enough Barney Stinson. All that heterosexual enthusiasm because he's desperate to marry one of them and settle down? And "and when I saw you standing there just asking for some curly hair"? What's that about? The 70s were weird, man.

I still play this one a lot, though, understandably, a bit less than the previous five. The lyrics have been toned down from subtle multiple entendres to just one joke per song, and that usually right in the title. It makes for a nice matching set with the first Ramones album, methinks. They intentionally scrapped much of what I'd loved of their previous sound in favor of more stadium-friendly bombast. It's not a bad sound, I just need more variety. Gotta adore that album cover, though, huh?

 

I think "Indiscreet" is my favorite Sparks album, but the others are all worthy contenders. The only one that falls really short is "Introducing Sparks". The studio musicians really bland out the sound...I blame the producer for that. The exit from Columbia/CBS to Elektra and then RCA was a welcome revitalization, but things got a little out of hand when they were left to their own devices (Ingmar Bergman?). FFS an unlikely combination is incredible and a true return to the form of the Island years.

 

I actually saw 'Rollercoaster' in the theatre when it came out. I can't imagine why I went to see it. I'm pretty sure I had no idea Sparks were in it at the time; their appearance was a surprise. And the movie (let's not call it a film, m'kay. If the Jacques Tati collaboration had come to fruition, THAT would have been a film) was pretty awful.

 

I've very very fond of Big Beat, though I can understand how after the previous 5 albums it would have come as a disappointment to the fanbase, very much like a dumbed down revamp of Sparks, like they'd been stunned by a heavy object before recording.
In some ways, the album could almost be seen as a concept album about dumbness, crassness, mediocrity, shallowness and brutality. We have 'Big Boy', about a bullying jock type, 'I Want to Be Like Everybody Else' (surely an intentional answer song to the Kinks song of a similar title) about wanting to conform, 'Nothing To Do' which seems to describe the aimless pursuit of shallow base pleasure, 'Mississipi River' about the more- money- than- sense dumbness of the obsecenely wealthy, 'Fill Er Up' which is a basic double entendre, 'Everybody's Stupid' which is self explanatory, 'Throw Her Away' which is a celebration of the shallowness of the male id, 'Confusion' which sounds hapless and blundering, 'Screwed Up' which seems like a more existential take on aimless frustrated energy, 'White Women', which revels in it's own on-the-nose crassness like a schoolkid shouting obscenities in church, and 'I Like Girls' which seems like a call-to-arms for cavalier sexual bravado.

 

When I first heard it, I was surprised at how good "Big Beat" actually was. But then again, I like "Introducing Sparks" too, so what would I know?

People commenting before me have already gone into the production problems and the shift in style, and I don't feel the need to ad anything on those points. In short: "Big Boy", ""I Bought the Mississippi River", "Nothing to Do" and "Everybody's Stupid", though different, hold their own against almost any proceeding Sparks recordings. And I prefer the earlier version of "I like Girls", recorded, if I'm not mistaken, with the original American band.

 

I think we're all missing the one great thing about "Big Beat": It's the funniest Sparks album ever! Beginning with a classic couplet in the first tune ("He's well equipped, the girls are sure/ Is that a guess, or something more?") it's just full of great deadpan jokes. I think ajsmith is right on about the overall concept, and the Sparks version of arena rock is the perfect medium for these sentiments. In its way a perfect album for 1976-77.

Has it been mentioned that the band was basically Tuff Darts?

 

Apparently The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman is being made into a film with Guy Maddin the director, which, on paper, is quite an amazing mix, but it remains to be seen whether this will get off the ground.

I thought Big Beat was terrible; they even raided Halfnelson for I Like Girls, which suggested a lack of new ideas. After the previous, brilliant, three albums, Big Beat is a massive let down, and they struggled for a couple of years afterwards until they came back with the quite brilliant No.1 In Heaven album.

 

The more I listen to it, the more 'Screwed Up' seems like the lyrical centrepiece of the album - although at first it seems quite an annoying song I think this is done intentionally and I actually find the ennui in the lyric very affecting. I also love the thumbnail descriptions of the first 6 decades of the 20th century in the first verse, they quite often pop into my head. Worth quoting in full, in fact:

'
In 1900 you held hands and felt like you'd scored
In 1910 you'd never need a horse anymore
In 1920 you could dance
In 1930 lose your pants
In 1940 you could go to war really soon
In 1950 you could just be dull and a bore
In 1960 set the world on fire
That was then, this is now
And nothing's blowin in the wind'

Really succintly evokes a sense of post-60s comedown, the bathos of which is compounded by the rest of the song: Mael describes an potential affair with a girl that is hopelessly shallow on both sides, and then complains that he's getting on his own nerves: He's frustrated in his attempts to find a deeper meaning to his life, and finds himself ridiculous and silly.

 

bRett - Only Jeff Salen was from the Tuff Darts. The other musicians were session drummer Hilly Michaels and former Roxy Music and Milk 'n' Cookies bassist Sal Madia.
I totally agree on the lyrics, probably some of Ron's best (and far superior to some later efforts like 'Popularity' and 'Shopping Mall Of Love').

 

Big Beat and Introducing Sparks are pretty good albums.

It’s a bold statement, and I’m sticking to it.

Before I get started, I should note that (1) I’m lumping Big Beat and Introducing together, for reasons that should soon be obvious, and (2) the history is considerably more interesting than the records.

When Sparks moved back to California, they returned successful. They had moved to the UK to show the world what they could do, and they did just that, causing an American explosion in the otherwise very UK-centric glam scene. Other Americans had tried their hand at that glittery parade of excess, but the vast majority aren’t usually considered glam today: the New York Dolls might have looked glam, but they were too messy: glam allowed silly, loud, goofy...but never sloppy. No heroin chic allowed. Kiss and Alice Cooper have been branded with that tag in the past, but very infrequently. The only other American act of note that tackled the genre on its own terms was Jobriath, and he was a resounding failure (history has been more kind to his oeuvre, and his records are indeed underrated, but let’s face it: he was a Bowie wannabe.)

So by all reasonable accounts, Sparks were a resounding success. But when they came back home, they might not have felt that way. Queen had taken over the world with music that bore more than a passing resemblance, and while they were still loved, their star was visibly waning. It made sense to come back: the world loved their sound, albeit through somebody else, and it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that they could use that to their advantage in the less clued in US of A.

There’s just one problem: they signed to Columbia, who decided to take their weird new band and make them a somewhat odd new band. They must have been aware of Sparks’ influence, but as so often happens in the music industry, they missed the point and sanded off the rough edges. They hired superstar photographer Richard Avedon for the cover, and although the Maels had hired a great backing band (former Roxy Music bassist Sal Maida, Tuff Darts’ guitarist Jeffrey Salen, and all around wackjob drummer Hilly Michaels) much of the recording was done by studio rats. Worst of all, Rupert Holmes was chosen as a producer, who was four years away from asking the world if they liked piña coladas.

Holmes’ was a successful producer, but for acts like Barbara Streisand and Barry Manilow. It was an arrangement that looked good to record execs, and horrible to everybody who wasn’t sniffing mountains of Peruvian marching powder.

But Columbia can only be blamed to a point. The truly disconcerting thing was the lunkheaded songwriting: Everybody’s Stupid is about everybody being stupid. Big Boys is about guys with big dicks. Screwed Up is about how dumb the human race can be. What the hell? Were they just trying to construct success, rather than earn it? That’s a popular interpretation, but...

First of all, it’s hard to believe that the Maels thought a song about finding minorities unattractive (White Women) would take the charts by storm, especially since Russell’s not shy about shouting the sentiment over and over. I have a different theory: Ron, looking around at the bland AOR mentality and undiluted ego, decided to skewer it as mercilessly as he could. Look at the song titles: I Want to be Like Everybody Else, Everybody’s Stupid, Throw Her Away and Get a New One. The coke addled New York music machine behaved according to these principles, but would never in a million years own up to it, and Ron was calling them out. While White Women didn’t sell well enough to make the public uncomfortable, it had to have made a few record execs squirm.

Whatever the situation, Big Beat went nowhere. The followup, the fraudulently titled Introducing Sparks, is less defensible. The Maels, with the assistance of somebody named Tony Powell, produced themselves. Unfortunately, they buried everything in a big pile of studio musicians, and poorly chosen ones at that (Lee Ritenour? A guy who drummed for Steely Dan and The Osmonds? THREE GUYS FROM TOTO???)

Those hired guns couldn’t have come cheap, and they would have been bad decisions even if they had. Introducing is even blander than Big Beat, and there’s no detectable edge in the songs. There are good songs in there...Goofing Off, Occupation, and especially Forever Young are catchy as hell. But outside of Forever Young’s poke at the search for the Fountain of Youth, they’re just nice tunes with slightly silly lyrics. And even Forever Young’s sentiment had been expressed much more effectively on Indiscreet’s Happy Hunting Ground. Although it’s a decent album, it’s Sparks’ second worst album (nothing will dip lower than Interior Design, for very similar reasons.)

Fortunately, once they got all the boring out of their systems, they got interesting again. Like their move to the UK, they made a ballsy move. And also like the UK, the world loved them for it.

 

Fantastic post; though I don't agree with all of it, it's good to see such a lengthy and eloquent post on these albums. I actually think there's a lot more depth on (some of) Introducing Sparks's lyrics than you credit it with.. but I'll get onto trying to elucidate why when it comes up next. Interesting you connect 'Forever Young' with 'Happy Hunting Ground'.. while I've long loved the lyric to Forever Young, I have to admit that, despite having known the song even longer, I've never paid any attention to the lyric of 'Happy Hunting Ground'.. reading it now, it seems more obscure, poetic, and I would say less effective than the direct lyric of Forever Young, and I'm not sure it's trying to convey exactly the same sentiment.. 'HHG' seems to me more like the wistful yearnings of the recntly married man jealous of the younger freeer and singler, whereas 'Forever Young' is a more general anthem to a Peter Pan existance. It's almost impossible to find details about the private lives of the Mael brothers (not that I really want to) but I did read a rumour somewhere that Ron was unsuccessfully married early on in their career.. if true, this would certainly seem to explain the angst at the heart of a lot of their early lyrics, like 'Thank God It's Not Christmas', 'Don't Leave Me Alone With Her' and 'HHG'.

 

When I first heard Big Beat, I wasn't bothered at all. Some of the hooks from the previous albums were still there, though given a less eccentric and more of a 'Rock' sheen. The album does have it's fill of duds, mostly on side 1, but still a good number of strong songs. The whole project does look and sound very dated, though. The cover photo, right down to the text used, screams 1976, and the mixing of the guitar and drums locks it into its time as well.

Big Boy is an ok single, but it is a bit repetitious. And for those who saw it in the cinematic classic (cough, cough), Rollercoaster, got treated to a considerable amount more repetition as it seemed the song went on repeating for 20 minutes. But it's kind of fun to watch all these years later. Mississippi River has a classic Sparks hook and could have easily fit on any of the previous few albums, with a little musical rearranging I guess. But there's nothing else on side 1 that's worth a damn.

Side 2 get's much strong, despite the questionability of any of the lyrics or meanings. Throw Her Away is very catchy, White Women has a pretty cool drum sound, Confusion should have been the single (and the Indiscreet outtake version is also excellent). And I loved the marching band stomp of I Like Girls, and the single remix on the In The Swing compilation CD is an excellent alternate version.

Ron Mael has stated he doesn't like this album at all, but I think it's still classic in its own way. But like one of the other posters stated, I also think Introducing Sparks is a really good album as well, and unfairly maligned over the years. More on that later, but even though neither of these 2 Columbia-released (in the US) albums are perfect, I think they are FAR better than anything from 1984-2002.

Scott

 

There was also David Werner's glam infused Whizz Kid. Great album and should have been huge. For whatever reason it didn't sell.