Lyrically Speaking with Ron Mael (Special Guest Reader Edition): "Hasta Mañana Monsieur" 

I'd love to hear him sing.

Collaborations don't work.

Collaborations don't work

Collaborations don’t work

😅😅😅👍👍

It's the line i always use when trying to explain to people their humour :-)

That one and "While I fix her breakfast I hope it's just your laugh that is infectious", in 'Good Morning' from 'Exotic Creatures Of The Deep'. Another unexpected line is the short "she caused her twins delay" in the lovely 'Brenda's Always In The Way'.

You Sparks connaisseur, you...

@@iconicshrubbery 😂😂

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-I_SdlMrXtRw.html ... and for all connaisseurs/connaisseuses, the demo of Russ' Saccharine and the War.

@@iconicshrubbery THANKS!! I have heard /seen that before, but nearly forgot about it, I agree with Broadley's comment about Beatles. In fact I like it better than the album version. All I say is; Russell is commonly underestimated. And I am tired of the comments declaring Ron = genius, Russell do what Ron is telling him to do, and how. More or less so, anyway. They are both genius, completing the band Sparks.

Some are in their book 'In The Word of Sparks', just a sample of their works, together with some interesting photos.

This is Russell reading HIS OWN lyrics. Look at the info part!

@@annabackman3028 oh dear, i thought ron wrote all the lyrics

@@neonskyline1, It seams like most people do 😄 However are ✨'Pineapple' (Indiscreet) ✨'Roger' (Halfnelson /Sparks) ✨'Saccharine And The War' (Halfnelson /Sparks) ✨'Gone With The Wind' (An early B-side, also a bonus track on later issues of Big Beat) ✨'The Wedding of Jacqueline Kennedy to Russell Mael' (a funny little thing, B-side of the American edition of 'Looks, Looks, Looks' single from Indiscreet) ✨'The Great Leap Forward' (An instrumental B-side of the 'Sparks vs. Faith No More /This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us' single 1997. Very Japan (the country) influenced) ONLY Russell's. I am a happy owner of their book 'In The Words of Sparks' a collection of some of their lyrics. In that book there are some photographs, whereof one is of an old note book with 'Slowboat', in working progress, written with obviously Russell's hand writing. There is another photo like that, on an other song (don't remember which, and can't check now, I'm not at home) that has only Ron's name as composer/lyricist with a different hand writing, looking like the one Ron has on the 'Don't Fuck Up My World' video. 'Slowboat' is written by both Ron and Russell, and I haven't found anything more specific about that, but... It COULD be Russell's lyrics 🤔🤔 🤔 🤔? Perhaps a later session will reveal the truth... 😃 I THINK that Russell was more active as a solo writer in the earlier years, at least for Sparks. Anyway Ron is the main song writer, music and lyrics. They have told about how they work in several interviews, shortly in two ways. Either Ron writes a song and brings it to Russell. If it has potential they start to work on it together. Or they work together from scratch in Russell's home studio. In any case Russell does the main part of mixing and engineering, all of it on 'A Steady Drip Drip Drip'. So Russell isn't the "puppet - on - a - string" as some comments I have seen around RU-vid take him for. I have "defended" 😂 him several times, and this, the confirmation of him writing the lyrics to 'Hasta Mañana Monsieur' felt good 😊😊😁

@@annabackman3028 wow that's a fabulous reply, and rightly so, i've only just got into the sparks again, so i'm not in anarak stage stage yet, however, Sparks music is the most creative i've ever heard, and i'm a fan of mr creative himself, Robert Calvert, thanks for that info :)

@@neonskyline1, You're welcome 😄 I was 14 when I heard 'Propaganda', fell immediately in love, with both Sparks and Russell's fabulous voice, not only that impeccable falsetto, in general. There is something special, I can't put my fingers on what. I didn't understand much English back then, and missed all irony in 'Big Beat', the music was much tougher and I didn't like it AT ALL. I lost interest in following up what was next, but kept listening to 'Kimono My House' and 'Propaganda' through the years, never stoped loving them, nor Russell's voice! I heard /watched a few songs on MTV when that was new, but there were so many things going on in my life in that period that I didn't investigate any more. Later I thought they were gone, though they were (of course 😖) never played on any Swedish radio station that I listened to. (Not even 'The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman'!!) A couple of years ago I took a musical "walk on memory lane", playing a lot of especially seventies and eighties music on RU-vid, of course also Sparks. Suddenly I got a suggestion for Sparks's new (!?! "Are they still ALIVE? And active?") album 'Hippopotamus'. I immediately clicked on that "Hmmm... I think I begin with the title track." That after only 'Kimono' and 'Propaganda'... 🤣! My reaction was of course "What the hell is this???? For kids??" Now, knowing a lot better English, I quickly understood it was not made for kids, Russell's voice different but recognizable, and after gasping for air till "a painting by Hieromymous Bosch" I burst into laughter, and I realized that I must have missed a lot during the years. Oh, so much, and exactly so different from everything else that I had been longing for, without all smeary "I love you" stuff. When Sparks writes about love it's not smeary, it's feet to the ground, with a touch of humor. 'All That' is a WONDERFUL example. 'Good Morning' is another, as I see it, often misunderstood one. To me it's heartbreaking, the way the guy in that song is longing, desperatly, for someone to love, and be loved back. For that night he could pretend he had that, even though he knew it wasn't real he still so badly wished it was 😢. That story had easily became smeary, with everything written right out, but with Sparks all is said, but you have to think a moment. True poetry and a fantastic craftsmanship! Since I have dug through EVERYTHING that I found, Ruud Swart has a web page with more info than I have been able to digest 😂😂😂 among other things, like interviews here on YT. My friends are a bit tired of me by now 😂!

Let's hope for a couple more visits from that Guest Reader😉🤩💖! I would like to hear 'Saccharine And The War', preferably with an explanation of the lyrics 😁😍😍

Haha 😂! I think that is exactly what he had done, with the goal to look young and not so "old-man-polished". He sort of succeeded. 😉