V nice
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 14:12 (five years ago) link
Hah I loved that song for years before finally realizing what it was really about
― frogbs, Saturday, 5 January 2019 16:44 (five years ago) link
Uh, what's it about?
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:11 (five years ago) link
... Really?
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:12 (five years ago) link
Predatory paedophiles, surely?
― Never Turn Your Back On Virginia Woolf (Tom D.), Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:24 (five years ago) link
It’s about avoiding child molesters on the way home from school isn’t it?
― frogbs, Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:24 (five years ago) link
... real or imagined.
Mmmmmmm
Nah
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:25 (five years ago) link
I can see what you mean, but...
I always had it as being in the army, posted to his hometown etc.
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:27 (five years ago) link
Army always tell you to go straight home to your parents at 3pm
― sans lep (sic), Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:34 (five years ago) link
Where does it say that?
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:36 (five years ago) link
I'm surprised this thread doesn't have my "I got this album from Ron and Russ" story, but I'm sure its somewhere on ilx so hey.
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:39 (five years ago) link
Army officers are promoted based on height, that's why they are 2 feet taller (I should know of course)
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:40 (five years ago) link
Where does it say that?The first line is:Don't dilly-dally, come right homeand the first verse further contextualises:It’s 3 o’clock and here they come...But I've been ordered not to stall...My orders come from high above meAbout a foot or two above meThe first line having already established that these orders come from people at the singer’s home, those people (a foot or two above him) are specified in the second verse:I hate to hurt their feelings soBut I'm supposed to tell them noMy parents say the world is cruelI think that they prefer it cruel
― sans lep (sic), Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:51 (five years ago) link
Sorry, Mark, that is just bizarre! I've never been in any doubt what it's about.
― Never Turn Your Back On Virginia Woolf (Tom D.), Saturday, 5 January 2019 18:56 (five years ago) link
OK, you guys win
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 21:35 (five years ago) link
I suppose that's what happens when you decide what it means at age 14.
So, does anyone want to disavow from me what "BC" is about?
― Mark G, Saturday, 5 January 2019 21:39 (five years ago) link
Recently uploaded in its entirety, unedited and in great quality, this is peak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BJMzW77u9I
― MaresNest, Friday, 25 January 2019 17:48 (five years ago) link
Ta very schön
― Mark G, Friday, 25 January 2019 18:20 (five years ago) link
Ausgezeichnet!
Wonder how well Ron's mid-70s look went down with the German audiences of the time...
― a passing spacecadet, Friday, 25 January 2019 23:12 (five years ago) link
He probably didn't look that much like Hitler to them.
― Mark G, Saturday, 26 January 2019 16:44 (five years ago) link
tbf Hitler never had a perm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H62a5TkohK0
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Friday, 17 April 2020 13:41 (four years ago) link
Those kids are really determined to dance.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Friday, 17 April 2020 13:44 (four years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVzQVZNX0AA3IU4.jpg
― mookieproof, Friday, 17 April 2020 14:16 (four years ago) link
You have what in your pants!
― frogbs, Friday, 17 April 2020 14:16 (four years ago) link
From memory, German journalists have always described Ron's moustache as Chaplinesque, rather than being modelled on Hitler. As the German magazine Spex put it in 2008:
»Hitler's playing piano on Top Of The Pops!« This is what many Brits felt when they saw Sparks on the popular BBC music show in 1974. Ron Mael played his keyboard with a stoical Buster Keaton gaze above his Chaplin moustache.
I seem to remember that the moustache once got them banned by a French TV station though.
― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Friday, 17 April 2020 14:23 (four years ago) link
why don't you PLEEEEEEEEEASEgo with me underground
― budo jeru, Monday, 15 June 2020 15:45 (three years ago) link
relistening to all my Sparks stuff. I'm kind of amused how they wound up aping Devo as Devo themselves were sliding into irrelevancy. you can definitely draw a line between Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat and Shout & Interior Design and Total Devo
surprised to find there are actually a few tunes on those albums I do like. "The Toughest Girl in Town" from Interior Design is actually quite good. and "Madonna" does make me laugh, I kinda love Sparks in "trying to be boring" mode
― frogbs, Wednesday, 5 August 2020 21:46 (three years ago) link
Other than the singles, I've never heard anything in between Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat and Balls. I've owned a copy of Interior Design for probably at least 10 years by now, but that little picture of Ron without a mustache on the back cover scares me too much to play it.
― cwkiii, Wednesday, 5 August 2020 22:24 (three years ago) link
not missing much though Gratuitous Sax is pretty solid if you wanna hear them do the Pet Shop Boys in a non-literal sense
― frogbs, Thursday, 6 August 2020 15:10 (three years ago) link
With Interior Design I feel like they were just a little too successful at "trying to be boring." At least their personality still shines through on Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat (and if nothing else it's got "A Song That Sing Itself"), but except for "Madonna," that's largely not the case on Interior Design.
(I love that "I Thought I Told You to Wait in the Car" from Gratuitous Sax is essentially a sequel to "Madonna"...six years later.)
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Thursday, 6 August 2020 19:40 (three years ago) link
ah yeah "A Song That Sings Itself"! what was frustrating about those 80s albums is that I'd randomly get tunes from them stuck in my head but not remember what they were. that was definitely one of them
poster child though is "I Wish I Looked a Little Better". hearing it again it's got some of the funniest lyrics they've ever written..."went to high school and majored in lookin' real bad/got a real ugly mom and a real ugly dad"
― frogbs, Friday, 7 August 2020 04:34 (three years ago) link
anyway every year or two I listen to all their albums in order and I'm always astounded by how fucking great Li'l Beethoven is compared to every record they made since No. 1 in Heaven to that point
― frogbs, Friday, 14 August 2020 20:58 (three years ago) link
It's a real treasure. Very glad I caught the LA show for that in particular.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 14 August 2020 21:14 (three years ago) link
only photo I've ever seen Ron actually smiling in
https://www.facebook.com/sparksofficial/photos/a.161269161864/10158241452116865
― frogbs, Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:37 (three years ago) link
https://sonicmoremusic.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/tumblr_m03ajh2zms1qjthhuo1_1280.jpg
― Dadjokke (Sgt. Biscuits), Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:41 (three years ago) link
Haha amazing.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 10 September 2020 17:48 (three years ago) link
He did "Get in the swing" on TOTP back in the day, smiling. In blackface. Footage lost.
― Mark G, Thursday, 10 September 2020 23:21 (three years ago) link
https://scontent-bru2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/118827022_10158241452121865_7114825431684141571_o.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=rYsRCjxUaVUAX-l8gZD&_nc_ht=scontent-bru2-1.xx&oh=89e64f56fe156489a4ac40d11f5b8d07&oe=5F826A73
― giraffe, Friday, 11 September 2020 08:37 (three years ago) link
Sparks talk through ten different ways into their ouevre: https://thequietus.com/articles/28269-sparks-interview-3
First of all, we never thought of that album as a disco album. We thought it was just something in its own area, a lot more beat-driven, but we never thought in terms of disco or not disco.
Disco or not disco? That could catch on.
― huge rant (sic), Tuesday, 29 December 2020 07:46 (three years ago) link
damn that movie was stinky
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, 24 June 2021 16:16 (two years ago) link
would like to hear complaints about it (I saw it too)
― Josefa, Thursday, 24 June 2021 16:27 (two years ago) link
Wow. I haven't had a chance to see it yet, but I've heard nothing but fawning review of it so far. The main complaint I've heard is just that it (necessarily, perhaps, given the scope) skips over some eras/albums a little too quickly.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 24 June 2021 16:31 (two years ago) link
Can it be rented on the internet somewhere yet?
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 24 June 2021 16:33 (two years ago) link
I think it’s theatrical now for the time being
OK so I’m dictating this into my phone but the movie was so goddamn long, had so many unnecessary talking heads that no one had to hear from, only showed live footage for a fraction of a song, went in an exhausting chronological order that made you want to slit your wrist by the end of the movie, and had a bunch of unnecessary interstitial animations that were also exhausting. It was claymation, comic book style, collage style, what the hell? Anyway I think and you’re right screwed the pooch on this one.
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:17 (two years ago) link
And you’re right = Edgar Wright lol
Agree with all of those criticisms.
And also it keeps using that dumb visual punctuation gimmick where, for example, one of the Sparks guys says they had high expectations for their album but then it tanked commercially and then you see film footage of an old timey experimental flying machine getting a few feet in the air before crashing.
― Josefa, Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:29 (two years ago) link
This trend for needless animation in music docs is tiresome.
― Maresn3st, Thursday, 24 June 2021 17:32 (two years ago) link
Complaints complaints. I didn't mind any of this! (Basically this is the first set of negative takes I've seen anywhere, so, sampling bias on my part perhaps.)
I am very much looking forward to Annette.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 24 June 2021 18:06 (two years ago) link
OMG, why would any film maker do this in 2021?
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 June 2021 18:10 (two years ago) link