Sparks - Introducing Sparks
So this is "when groups you love do a really bad record" part whatever (see CAN 'Inner Space' from a few weeks ago). In this case it was Sparks, the Mael brothers, only a few years after their double whammy of incredibility, the 'Kimono My House' and 'Propaganda' albums for Island records. The two records they did in between those and this one, the Tony Visconti produced 'Indiscreet' and the Rupert Holmes (yes, the 'Pina Colada Song' guy) produced 'Big Beat.' This was their second album for Columbia records, and apparently there was a feeling that, five albums into their career, they needed to be introduced. What better way to do that than a really bad cover, red vinyl and replacing a great backing band with a bunch of lame LA session men (including several members of Toto). In their 21 albums over nearly 40 years, Sparks have done three really bad albums (the other two being 'Music That You Can Dance To" and 'Balls'), and I'd probably place this one as being second worse after 1986's 'Music That You Can Dance To,' an unlistenable bit of crap that they recorded for the Curb label (and Curb then re-issued with one additional song as 'The Best of Sparks'!). The songwriting is at least still pretty good here, even if the musical accompaniment is lacking. Ron Mael's lyrics were still witty, but by this point they were looking for a more commercial middle-ground. They became massive stars in the UK by enlisting English backing musicians and singing an incredibly English sounding that fit in, quite by chance, with the current rage of glam bands. After the Visconti album they were already looking for a fresh approach, and returned to the West Coast where they'd grown up. With 'Big Beat' there was still such an abundance of substance that the style change seemed secondary, but this album just seemed to bleed conformity in almost every way. The slick cover photos, the airbrushed production values, the overly competent to the point of boredom backing musicians (which also included guitarist Lee Ritenour in a pre-smooth jazz session!). Even the bit of Ron's lyrics is tamed down.
The one thing I found at all interesting about this album (aside from the press kit that was inside, with it being a white label promo and all!) is the song "Forever Young." I listened to the album and amazed myself by not knowing that the Alphaville song was a Sparks cover. I played it for my wife and she thought the same thing. Then I investigated it further and found that they were, indeed, two completely different songs except for the refrain (which is sung in a very similar manner). I could find no trace of a legal settlement, or even an acknowledgment that there had ever been any discovery of the similarity. Surely I'm not the only one to have noticed, especially after the rather high profile performance of all 21 Sparks albums in the UK last summer. You're telling me nobody noticed? An even more interesting aside to that is that Sparks just happened to be on Atlantic records at the same time that Alphaville released that song through Atlantic records. There's a story in there somewhere, and I'm curious how close you can come to having the same chorus and not get sued! It's the same words even, closer by far than "My Sweet Lord" and "He's So Fine"!
I've known since this album came out that it wasn't a good Sparks album. I don't know how, but I do recall seeing them in the movie 'Rollercoaster' (in a cameo that KISS wisely turned down!) and wondering where the hell they'd gone wrong. They got "normal" really really wrong...but when they made the switch to dance music they were finally on to something again (even if my initial reaction was "Sparks is playing Disco music? Oh man that's horrible!"). In fact the album was, for many years, the only album of theirs that had never been released on CD (rectified only recently by the band's releasing it on their own label).
Still, knowing its badness and everything, I bought a copy yesterday because I didn't have it. Now, I have it. When a band has 21 records out and only 3 of them outright suck that's not too awful of a batting record. Even YES has more bad records in their catalog than that!