Interviews w/ Ron & Russell Mael, Ian Hampton, Tammy Glover and Muff Winwood + short clip from the recording of (Baby Baby) Can I Invade Your Country -2005-
I never thought I could learn so much about Sparks in 5 minutes! I never knew Russell had such an input in the creative process. Somehow I always thought he'd just sing what Ron wrote and Ron would mix it himself!
"...the people that I attract are a little more unusual, shall we say." As a hardcore Ron fangirl, I'm choosing to take that as a compliment. :-) Hooray for unusual!!
A mate of mine in the seventies told me that he saw Ron Mael in a left wing bookshop in London. He looked exactly the same as on the videos, including facial expression lol.
Love this. Have always loved their music & their stage presence. Now, I love how they are so close as brothers. They haven't bit the dust like other musicians from then or later -- they continue to look good, sound good, and rock on :)
First band I ever got into without outside influence at the age of 11 when they had their first hit with "This Town..." still an avid fan after all those years :-) I was totally transfixed by their unusualness.
I have loved this band from the beginning. Saw them numerous times in Los Angeles and stick by them. Completely innovative, yet they can out 'hook' anyone. Russell's voice is still great and Ron...well, just gets better with time. One without the other? Sorry, unthinkable. Lyrically, one of the best. Still have my Propaganda T-shirt from Island Records...a prized possession. So many favorite, quotable moments in their songs.
The first time I saw Ron with that moustache was in the official video for "Beat The Clock" or "No. 1 song in Heaven", and with that hairstyle I immediately thought of Charlie Chaplin. That was so obvious to me. Well, maybe that's because I'm a Charlie Chaplin fan.
Back in the Day...the late 70's early 80's, LA had, Sparks, the Wall of Voodoo and a lot of The Tubes shows thrown in for good measure, it sure was fun.
I was just thinking the same thing. He could almost put someone sitting on the front rows eye out!! Did you ever see those very short tight shorts when he was on TOTP?? Wow....
no question they put on a great show, they put everything they have into everything they do. Sometimes I think they just tried harder than was even necessary because the music, especially on Kimono My House and Propaganda was so good that it could have stood on its own. The music alone vaulted them high above everyone else.
Never has a moustache been the subject of such scrutiny! Ron's features are nothing like Hitler and didn't even have the same hairstyle. He certainly looked more like Chaplin when he had the long curly fringe to one side.
I remember being in their dressing room in 1982, I believe, and while being interviewed Russell stated that they lived from album to album. What else were they to do?
I remember seeing Sparks on TOTP's or the like way back, was it back in 73/74? I was 6 back then, loved "This Town" but Ron did freak me out watching him on the tele with that menacing stair and that Hitler tache back then. Great band, great tunes Sparks...
Ron's admission of having no friends isn't sad to me like it would be for a normal person, it's actually fitting. Keep the genius focused on music, not frivolity!
we wil never know if their music or the weird appearance of ron made them famous, and i'm betting on the second one, because i can remember that everyone did want to see this weird dude with the hitler moustace back in the days.
They're actually triplets. The third one, Ruben is 3 years older than Ron and has been kept in a cellar since 1972 and is fed and watered on the condition that he writes the songs. No songs = no sustinanace.
He looks like Leonard Nimoy with a moustache, and his brother at this peak looked like a cross between Jim Morrison and Paul McCartney at their peaks. Russell Mael could have been the most attractive man in history if he'd stayed off the caffein.
Grateful Dead almost gets "mocked" here for their looks, yet Grateful Dead were financially on complete different tier than Sparks. Sparks should have toured with the Dead if they really wanted that kind of monetary success.
Russell is a great singer, but I think you are right, Ron is the genius behind most of the songs, he is credited as the writer of most of the music and most of the lyrics, but he didn't do his best work alone either. I think their two best records are KMH and Propaganda, and it was the people around them then who helped make those records happen.The stage tension or joke was that Russell was always trying to steal the show from the real creator of it all, Ron. I wish they'd both toned it down.
why would that song have been their biggest hit, there were more tasteful songs on Kimono My House than that, yet the record company released This Town Aint Big Enough for the Both of Us one as their first single off the record. Hasta Manana Monsieur should have been the hit from that record. I still think Propaganda was their peak. They had a real rock sound on that record, and for some mysterious reason they dumped that great band and arguably never put out anything as good as that again.
Sparks are the most fantastic and innovative band ever... They kept reinventing themselves every period and they have released tremendous albums after propaganda..... Their recent album hippopotamus is really magnificent record
Hippopotamus, angst in my pants, No.1 in heaven, lil' beethoven, hello young lovers, exotic creatures of the deep, and indiscreet are all fantastic albums that came after propaganda.
yes, Ron looked like the genius composer behind the whole thing....but Russell .. I was in love with him when I was about ten , not in a gay way, I just thought he looked and sounded incredible, like something exotic and intelligent and mysterious..he didn't even seem that feminine to me, but the only record or exposure I had to him was Propaganda. He didn't look effeminate at all on that record, just British. Wish he'd manned up a bit actually.
