by John Zenoni
I watched a screening tonight of a very interesting music documentary about the Sparks brothers, aka ‘Sparks’, and I have to say the longevity of their career is amazing as they definitely don't conform to your typical pop standards. The first time I encountered them was in in the 80’s with the song, ‘Cool Places’ with guest Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s, and the song that resulted in them severing ties with their record label at the time, ‘Music That You Can Dance To.’ What's ironic is that Ron and Russell Mael wrote this particular song, which I think is great, in response to the execs at the record label who said they should play music that people could dance to. Needless to say, the execs didn't like this ‘personal attack’ and they parted ways with the brothers.
I remember seeing them in videos back in the 80’s and thought how odd and strange this band was. The rest of their music I heard was just so off the wall that I couldn't relate to it. But kudos to them for being so well respected and having a music career last at long as it has. You can tell in the documentary how well respected they are and how much they respect each other as brothers.
While their overall music is just too odd and quirky for me, the film is a very well-done insight into their way of working together and how creative they are.
No comments:
Post a Comment