Wednesday 1 December 2010

Sparks would have featured before this on the blog, in fact they did for a few hours before the post was taken down by Blogger in response to a DRM notice. 

Fair enough, many people have commented on the rights and wrongs of this so I won't add to it, but it's a shame as Sparks are one of the more unusual and innovative artists connected to the glam genre, they released some great singles and in 'Kimono My House' one of the best albums from the early 70's.

Like many bloggers I was trying to give more exposure to a style of music that I love. Anyway here's the original (edited) post but without the music.
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For most of the seventies I read ‘Marvel’ comics and one of my abiding memories is a holiday at Great Yarmouth where I picked up a 6p copy of The Avengers # 100 from a comic rack in some newsagent on the seafront.

My joy at finding this edition is further seared into my memory by the Sparks song ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us’ playing on the shop radio.

I spent the rest of the day trying to explain to my father why Hawkeye was a better 'Avenger' than Hercules. My father died four years later, so I remember this time with great fondness. I never did get him to understand about Hawkeye, or what “tacky tigers” meant.

Anyway, Sparks are an American band formed in Los Angeles in 1970 by brothers Ron (keyboards) and Russell Mael (vocals), initially under the name Halfnelson. Best known for their quirky approach to song writing, and the contrast between Russell's wide-eyed hyperactive front man antics and Ron's scowling, looking not unlike Adolf Hitler on a bad day.

They relocated to London in 1973 and recorded their breakthrough album ‘Kimono My House’ in 1974, scoring a # 2 hit with the single "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us".



“The rain is pouring on the foreign town,
the bullets cannot cut you down
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave”
(c) Sparks 1973

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