SPARKS

Alex Robertson · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2023 6:10 am Post subject:

The album cover of A Woofer was always intriguing...I did read the explanation of the blurred images some time later.
Girl From Germany was the first Sparks single I bought ( b-side was Beaver O'Lindy) and as such alway retains a special place in my heart.
Beaver O'Lindy at the recent shows really showcased what a stomping song it is.
I've always liked Angus Desire...which I've always taken to be about a youngster struggling with his sexuality and having a sort of gay icon who he aspires to emulate. It most definitely is NOT a song about someone fancying an Aberdeen-Angus...you only have to listen to the lyrics to discount that .
My favourite track has to be The Louvre...a "Night At The Museum" scenario...where love blossoms at closing time but comes the dawn and they revert back to their original positions and the statue protagonist is once again left cold and alone (and slightly heartbroken).
The Doh-Ray-Mi track is a wonderful version...Julie Andrews on speed.
An utter joy of an album

Andy M · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2023 7:28 am Post subject:

Another album I’ve been regularly listening to for almost 50 years. It feels more mainstream than the debut; I always think the production has a muddier sound than the debut (or “denser and acrid” as Joseph Fleury puts it in his liner notes to 2 Originals . . .) Perhaps the blurred picture of Ron on the front cover is a nod to this as it turns what would have been a pretty bog-standard pic of an early 70s band into something rather more quirky: “You may think we’re an ordinary rock band, but we’re really not.” Interestingly, the cover of Woofer used in 2 Originals is the back cover photo (where Harley Feinstein hasn’t tipped Ron’s seat over) and this is also the version used on the cover of Repertoire’s 1990 cd reissue. Whether this was deliberate or not, I can’t say (but it was probably not!) Score out of 10? At least 7-8.

My favourite track is Moon Over Kentucky, despite its “shallow” lyrical content (Russell’s words, not mine) with Do-Re-Mi coming a close second. I do struggle with Nothing is Sacred, which plods along for too much of its length for my taste.

As for weird/enigmatic songs – well, they’re in here a-plenty. I’ll take Ron’s explanation that Beaver O’Lindy’s about a mythical rock singer and I do lean to Alex’s explanation of Angus Desire, but it could well be something entirely different. Then there’s Batteries Not Included, which I’ve always imagined is a young man bringing a vibrator home as a present for his girlfriend, but this could just demonstrate how my mind works!

Do-Re-Mi is great live and and I’d love for them to revisit that in a future gig. Kontra did a Finnish version of the Sparks cover, and Mark Burgess did a fine version of Moon. A Nouvelle Vague take on Girl from Germany would be well worth a listen.

highersynth · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2023 8:44 am Post subject:

Haven't re-listened yet, but all the tracks on Woofer are much more familiar to me than were those of "Sparks / Halfnelson".
At this stage, my favourite tracks would be Girl from Germany and Underground, the ones I find catchiest and that stick most melodically in my mind. Since seeing Beaver O'Lindy live on the current tour, that one has risen hugely in my estimation, but I still wish I could make sense of it. The line "The London that's dead" is very puzzling - anyone got an explanation for it?

Batteries not included is probably my least favourite - just doesn't grab me.

Intriguing - having just read all the lyrics, I agree Angus Desire is a bit of a mystery, as is Moon over Kentucky. I have a niggling doubt over Ron and Russell's comments about the tracks - they just sound too glib, and in line with their pretty consistent refusal to be drawn on just about anything. Sparks have periodically recorded songs with environmental themes (Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth; Please Don't f*** Up My World to name two) and I wonder if Moon mightn't be the first of these songs.

The first moon landings (conspiracies aside) were only a couple of years before this song was written - "I heard somewhere that they're stamping, trampling all upon you - Your pocked face remains impassive though I know it hurts you" - and the refrain seems to urge the moon to get the hell away and "take me with you" - "Leave this mooring and seek some new rendezvous. - Cut your ties with this possessive mother, she'll destroy you - Cut your ties and find another one who will respect you...".

If this is correct, the lyrical content is by no means shallow, as Russell alleges!

Until today, I'd never twigged that Here Comes Bob was a story song or what it was about. I like it more for knowing.
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Andy M · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2023 9:00 am Post subject:

I agree re Moon -I always thought that it was a song about warning it to get the hell away before humans ruin it, but Never Turn isn't an environmental song (R&R have said as much), it's about someone wanting to get back to civilisation after being stuck in the wilds. Maybe Magazine revisited this theme a few years later with Back to Nature - "I can't go on like this/I want to walk where the power is".

highersynth · Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2023 9:12 am Post subject:

Buckeye Randy · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 6:09 am Post subject:

This is another album I picked up after the fact. Clarification: I loved the glam trilogy so I bought Sparks/Half Nelson and was not impressed at all. My patience and money supply were both in short supply in the mid '70's so I did not seek out 'Woofer' at that time. Once bitten, twice shy.

Fast forward to sometime shortly after the release of 'Lil Beethoven' and I was picking up CD releases by Sparks that had slipped by me over the years.

I immediately found 'Woofer' likeable in just about every possible way. I kicked myself in the ass for buying Sparks/Half Nelson instead of 'Woofer' though not sure I had an option at Record Theater in or abouts 1976 or '77.

I find "Moon Over Kentucky" fascinating. IMHO, the song sounds like several songs by Cheap Trick when CT is doing their dark and sinister persona. Other standouts for me are "Girl From Germany" and "Here Comes Bob". All three in my Sparks top...50? Maybe 25?

I also think that the seeds that foretell the Island years are planted with "Beaver O Lindy" and "Do Re Mi".

Listening today, I'm liking "Nothing Is Sacred". Not sure how this one got by me.

I'll give it a score of 6/10. The score might be higher had I bought this as a teenager and the songs were in my musical DNA. The fact is, I bought it 30 years after the release. Bad on me!
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phdave that afternoon · Certified Fan Joined: 01 Jul 2023 Posts: 71

I am loving this album. Only had heard Girl From Germany and B.E.A.V.E.R. O’Lindy before listening to the whole thing.

Here Comes Bob is one of the funniest songs I’ve ever heard. Dead on with my sense of humor.

I’ve had Moon Over Kentucky on repeat (on audio devices and in my brain) for the past several days.

More detailed thoughts later.

Buckeye Randy · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 2:25 am Post subject:

I'm really surprised student turnout isn't better for our week of 'Woofer' observations/grading. I guess I'm surprised since I consider it superior to the debut.

Does anybody know what Sparks' poorest selling albums are? Maybe activity in our weekly conversations will correlate with sales. That would be a shame because I think the best part of this thread will be listening to things I may not have ever listened to again. Fresh perspective.
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Toughest Girl In Town · Sparks Guru Joined: 15 Feb 2022 Posts: 3840

This album is really well-written/played/sung and sounds surprisingly clever for the young people they were at the time.

I can't really explain why, but I get emotional each time I listen to "Moon Over Kentucky", this song moves me deeply for some reason. It is my favourite song of the album, definitely.

Also, as a native French speaker I absolutely love "The Louvre", because I just had to :)
Those lyrics are beautiful, the album's wiki page credits a lady called "Josée Becker" for the French translation. I don't know who she is but she did a great job.

highersynth · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 8:02 am Post subject:

waterloosunset · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 7:51 pm Post subject:

Oh, I have not been doing my homework, and I apologize. I love this album. For the most part, it is one of their most "out there" albums, and I really appreciate it. For some reason, I am obsessed with Here Comes Bob, maybe because of the performance in the 21x21 concerts [https://youtu.be/mHXPajDSZ24?t=3047]. I love the way Russell wipes the sweat off his brow after the long run up to "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania". I feel like this is one of the songs that propelled Ron into lyrics about bizarre situations (a guy who crashes his car into other people's in order to make human/girl contact; a song from some guy in heaven whose ladylove didn't keep her end of the suicide pact; a guy trying to think of more things to buy the woman who's got the goods on him in order to keep her quiet, etc.). What else? Really, I love almost every song on the album, even if I don't quite understand them all (Nothing Is Sacred, Moon Over Kentucky - they are brilliant but ????). There are only two songs that fall below the mark for me. It seems that Girl From Germany is just a reworking of Wonder Girl, and, ugh, Do Re Mi makes me want to peel my skin off (except for Ron's cascading keyboards in the middle - they're great). Did I mention that I detest The Sound of Music? Anyway, though I am fond of the first album, Woofer is a giant leap into Sparksian creativity. And Russell's falsetto - someone scrape me up off the floor. He could have been a great countertenor, but I'm glad he stuck with his big brother.

Overall Score - 9
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waterloosunset · Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 7:56 pm Post subject:

Oh, oh, oh I forgot to mention that I was ecstatic that they decided to dig SO DEEP in their catalog and played Beaver O'Lindy in 2023. It seemed like a nod to all those who are obsessed with Sparks, regardless of whether they have loved them for 50 years or only discovered them through The Sparks Brothers. Great song. Great performances in Boston, Chicago, and Boulder. Just, um, great.
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PeterE · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 9:45 am Post subject:

waterloosunset · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 11:03 am Post subject:

phdave that afternoon · Certified Fan Joined: 01 Jul 2023 Posts: 71

I really love this album. It makes no sense that it was ignored at the time. It is one of the best Sparks albums I have heard so far.

I can't really rate it very well relative to all other Sparks albums as I have many yet to absorb. But placeholder ratings for the first two are 6/10 for half nelson and 8/10 for woofer. The sound is improved from Half Nelson and several of the songs are a bit weirder, which I like.

Favorite track is Moon over Kentucky. It is one of my favorite Sparks tracks in general now.

My feeling about the lyrics (could be way off base) are that it is from the perspective of a teenager talking to another teenager about typical teenage problems in an emo/goth style. Moon over Kentucky has to be a reference to an old country song, Blue Moon of Kentucky, with the usual country music woe is me I lost my baby theme. The lyrics that make me think this is a twist on this for teenagers include "Pocked face", which seems like a reference to teenage acne. Cutting ties with a posessive mother suggests a teenage problem. A "first encounter" being "what a letdown" referencing losing virginity. It might be off target but it makes me chuckle thinking of them writing this song with this in mind.

This is also the song I'd most like to see covered and has already been done by Morrissey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftl6BJXA4GY

This cover probably influenced my interpretation of the lyrics admittedly.

As I mentioned before, I love Here Comes Bob. The 21/21 performance of these two songs back to back is incredible. I'd love to see that in person live, but it is nice that it exists in some format. HCB is a great example of the funny character/story songs that I have come to love in the Sparks catalog.

Least favorite track is probably Batteries Not Included, but it is only a 40 second novelty song perfectly fine for the album. I am pretty sure I heard that played over the years around Christmas time on the radio. If I excluded that one it is probably Whippings and Apologies. Also another fine track on the album but it has not done much for me. I would not go out of my way to listen to that.

I enjoy the other songs especially the hilarious Girl from Germany and BEAVER. I didn't realize that they didn't usually play BEAVER live. It was great seeing that at the Bowl and on the 21/21 concert video. Seems like it would have been an automatic live show set staple, but I guess it is an odd song.

I don't know how Angus Desire being related at least tangentially/metaphorically or double entendre to inter-species sex. If it was just the title that would be limited evidence, but other lyrics such as "Life's not so free for stockyard femme fatale" are at least referencing cows + sex/romance. If not, then I am not sure who is the femme fatale being referenced. The lyrics are definitely keeping the subject matter at arms length and might just be words and phrases picked because they fit the music, so it is probably not worth the effort making an argument about the exact meaning.

I think I read that Nothing is Sacred is about modern science extending lifespans: "We are now forever people, we'll outlive our will to live"

I'm very happy I put the effort into listening to this album on repeat this week and will enjoy listening to it into the future. I envy those who have enjoyed it for 50 years.

waterloosunset · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 2:40 pm Post subject:

Morrissey loves Moon Over Kentucky so much that he wrote about it in his autobiography. Of course, that was before Morrissey went off the rails with his bigoted rants, to which Russell responded with a certain dislike. That was it for Sparks and Morrissey, I believe. If you know more about this, please chime in.
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phdave that afternoon · Certified Fan Joined: 01 Jul 2023 Posts: 71

I have so much history to learn.

highersynth · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 3:39 pm Post subject:

I seem to be swimming against the tide here - I'm finding the more I listen to Woofer, the less well it compares to Halfnelson for me! But saying that, I've only listened about 4 times this week, and today, back to back with Halfnelson. Consistently with Sparks if I don't like a song, the more I listen to it, the better it gets. Beaver o'Lindy is a case in point - seeing it live clinched that for me.

I see what WaterlooSunset means about Wonder Girl / Girl from Germany - something similar occurred to me today, although I don't see it as a straightforward re-working. It's certainly reminiscent; there were 2 years between the first release of Halfnelson and the release of Woofer - so it's just possible it's a kind of "previously, from Sparks..." device. Though the release of "2 originals" would render that unnecessary, of course. I really enjoy Girl from Germany though for the same reasons as Wonder Girl - strong bass and percussion lines counterpointing Russell's fluent, floating vocals.

Nothing is Sacred is another listen-til-you-like-it for me. The extended (erm, sorry Russell) wailing really used to grate on me; but I've somehow come to terms with it now and was surprised to find it my earworm today. And not in a bad way.

@PhDave, I also found myself thinking today that the "theme" of Woofer seems to be teen rebellion, which is curious to me, given the ages of the band at the time of recording (Ron pushing thirty). Even The Louvre describes a kind of rebellion (at one level). More on that in another post. Do re mi offers a subversion of Julie Andrews' sweet as honey, squeaky-clean original with the von Trapp children. It's Rogers and Hammerstein all grown up and screaming "up yours" to the nursery!

My favourites are still Girl from Germany and Going Underground. My least is Angus Desire, mainly because I can't get a handle on it. I lean toward @Alex's interpretation I think. "Life's not so free for stockyard femme fatale" could easily refer to the school dance style of cattle-show where girls are (or were, when we were kids) sized up like stock and their "look" dictated by the demands of fashion. Musically, of all the tunes on the album it excites me least.

I'm banging on too long in this post, and will stop there for now - got some more thoughts about The Louvre and Whippings and Apologies to follow at some point, along with overall score etc.
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highersynth · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 3:41 pm Post subject:

waterloosunset · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 4:44 pm Post subject:

@highersynth, There is assorted reportage about Morrissey's statements and Sparks's unhappiness with them. This one is pretty succint.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/news/sparks-singer-disillusioned-by-morrissey-comments/36934646.html

Then after that, there is Morrissey's response

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/morrissey-responds-to-criticism-from-sparks/

If you don't know about Morrissey's teenage obsession with Sparks, I and many others can fill you in on that later (my fave is Morrissey's almost dumpster diving for Sparks' leftover rolls in a hotel)
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