Chords for Sparks - Ron & Russell Mael Interview (Vh1 1996)
Tempo:
131.7 bpm
Chords used:
D
Bm
F#m
G
A
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[D] The Reckoners.
In a more unconventional direction, joining me now are Ron and Russell Male,
who for roughly 20 years have been putting out records with the most bizarre titles.
Before they explain how and where, and possibly why, the inspiration strikes in the way it does,
let's get a glimpse of the latest, now that I own the BBC.
[Bm]
[Em] [Am]
[Bm]
[G] [D]
[F#m] As I took it off their hands The [D] fact I'm not old [Bm] is changing hands
[F#m] As I took it off their hands [D] I had [Bm] plans, I had plans
[D] Now that I [F#m] own the [Bm] BBC
[G] What am I supposed to [A] do with this thing?
[D] Now that I own the [Bm] BBC,
[G] what am I supposed to [A] make of this [D] thing?
All this power, [Bm] all this [Em] glory, all these [A] ages and all these [D] glories.
What was I thinking?
[Bm] What was I thinking?
[G] What was I thinking?
[A] What could I have been [F#m] thinking?
And if a nerd had helped me out,
I'm [D] flying blind, I'm [B] flying blind.
[F#m] You know the way to let things out, all [D] the refined and [Bm] unrefined.
[D] Now that [F#m] I own the [Bm] BBC,
[G] what am I [A] supposed to do with this thing?
[D] Now that [F#m] I own the [Bm] BBC,
[G] what am I [A] supposed to make of this thing?
[F#m] Well, a kind of familiar sound of the Sparks, yeah?
It's got a kind of sense of where you've been and what you've been doing for the past while, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah, it does.
Well put.
Well put.
We couldn't have said it [G] better.
But the title, though, that's something pretty radical.
Now that I own the BBC, I mean, for
Yeah.
Yeah, we always like just having titles of songs and subject matter
that maybe aren't your normal run-of-the-mill pop sort of lyrics.
Just, I don't know, this album's our 16th album and we always just have to kind of keep coming up with ideas
and things that keep us entertained and so maybe [N] that's why that title evolved.
You did mention a number to the amount of records you've released over this period.
It was
Yeah, 16 is the
16 albums.
The current album is the 16th.
So how do you see your progression from that, from day one to now?
Well, I think by and large we still have the core element of Sparks is his lyrics and melodies and my singing,
which makes up whatever it is that we have.
And so occasionally what we do gets put in a different sort of musical framework.
The current album has more danceable sort of elements than maybe some of the earlier albums,
but I think lyrically and vocally and melodically even there's similarities between even the first and the 16th album.
It's just that sometimes we find different frameworks to hang the essence of what we have on.
You've described it as being, stylistically, as being somewhat more eccentric than previous recordings.
What did you mean by that?
You know, I think on this album we didn't really worry, like sometimes we do worry often about what we're doing and who it's for
and will anyone ever hear this and then, or does it even matter?
So on this album we took the approach that it really doesn't matter who is going to be listening to this album
or what we're making it for, but to try to make it as uncompromising lyrically as we could
and just hope that there'll be someone out there on the other end that will maybe be responding to it.
There's been times in our career where we've kind of overanalyzed various periods and we said,
gee, what can we do to be played more on the radio or what can we do to have a wider audience?
I think sometimes we would overreact and do something that was really foolish
and knock off a lot of the character or personality that we have in our music
just in order to try to suss out how to reach a different audience.
From this album we just said part of the strength that we have is in having lyrics that are kind of uncompromising
and in the singing style and just melodically what we have
and let's just make an album that's appealing to ourselves and hopefully that'll also be appealing to someone else.
Was it therefore more interesting to make the record?
Because you actually made it together, didn't you?
At your home instead of going to a studio you did everything.
Yeah, we were also more ruthless as far as editing this album
because in the past we might have done what we considered eight good songs
and then you have to have those other couple on there just because you're trying to meet a release deadline.
On this one we were pretty murderous as far as the songs that we left off of this album
and we are producing ourselves now and so that part of the production process is doing that
and I think we did a better job on this album than maybe some of the more recent ones.
And did you also get a sense of fun like you probably would have had in those early days when you kicked this whole project off?
I think so because one of the great things that's happened that wasn't available in even the 80s
but especially in the 70s was the fact that you could record at home
and do professional recordings with a very limited amount of necessity
for having a record company pump in a lot of money
and so we're able to record all the time and that to us is just like a playground.
It's where we can kind of get away from all the analyzing that's going on around [C#] us.
We have got a nice surprise for you.
We take a look at you captured on Germany's top 70s and 80s show The Beat Club
and boy you want to see [F#m] this.
This will [N] take you back.
In a more unconventional direction, joining me now are Ron and Russell Male,
who for roughly 20 years have been putting out records with the most bizarre titles.
Before they explain how and where, and possibly why, the inspiration strikes in the way it does,
let's get a glimpse of the latest, now that I own the BBC.
[Bm]
[Em] [Am]
[Bm]
[G] [D]
[F#m] As I took it off their hands The [D] fact I'm not old [Bm] is changing hands
[F#m] As I took it off their hands [D] I had [Bm] plans, I had plans
[D] Now that I [F#m] own the [Bm] BBC
[G] What am I supposed to [A] do with this thing?
[D] Now that I own the [Bm] BBC,
[G] what am I supposed to [A] make of this [D] thing?
All this power, [Bm] all this [Em] glory, all these [A] ages and all these [D] glories.
What was I thinking?
[Bm] What was I thinking?
[G] What was I thinking?
[A] What could I have been [F#m] thinking?
And if a nerd had helped me out,
I'm [D] flying blind, I'm [B] flying blind.
[F#m] You know the way to let things out, all [D] the refined and [Bm] unrefined.
[D] Now that [F#m] I own the [Bm] BBC,
[G] what am I [A] supposed to do with this thing?
[D] Now that [F#m] I own the [Bm] BBC,
[G] what am I [A] supposed to make of this thing?
[F#m] Well, a kind of familiar sound of the Sparks, yeah?
It's got a kind of sense of where you've been and what you've been doing for the past while, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah, it does.
Well put.
Well put.
We couldn't have said it [G] better.
But the title, though, that's something pretty radical.
Now that I own the BBC, I mean, for
Yeah.
Yeah, we always like just having titles of songs and subject matter
that maybe aren't your normal run-of-the-mill pop sort of lyrics.
Just, I don't know, this album's our 16th album and we always just have to kind of keep coming up with ideas
and things that keep us entertained and so maybe [N] that's why that title evolved.
You did mention a number to the amount of records you've released over this period.
It was
Yeah, 16 is the
16 albums.
The current album is the 16th.
So how do you see your progression from that, from day one to now?
Well, I think by and large we still have the core element of Sparks is his lyrics and melodies and my singing,
which makes up whatever it is that we have.
And so occasionally what we do gets put in a different sort of musical framework.
The current album has more danceable sort of elements than maybe some of the earlier albums,
but I think lyrically and vocally and melodically even there's similarities between even the first and the 16th album.
It's just that sometimes we find different frameworks to hang the essence of what we have on.
You've described it as being, stylistically, as being somewhat more eccentric than previous recordings.
What did you mean by that?
You know, I think on this album we didn't really worry, like sometimes we do worry often about what we're doing and who it's for
and will anyone ever hear this and then, or does it even matter?
So on this album we took the approach that it really doesn't matter who is going to be listening to this album
or what we're making it for, but to try to make it as uncompromising lyrically as we could
and just hope that there'll be someone out there on the other end that will maybe be responding to it.
There's been times in our career where we've kind of overanalyzed various periods and we said,
gee, what can we do to be played more on the radio or what can we do to have a wider audience?
I think sometimes we would overreact and do something that was really foolish
and knock off a lot of the character or personality that we have in our music
just in order to try to suss out how to reach a different audience.
From this album we just said part of the strength that we have is in having lyrics that are kind of uncompromising
and in the singing style and just melodically what we have
and let's just make an album that's appealing to ourselves and hopefully that'll also be appealing to someone else.
Was it therefore more interesting to make the record?
Because you actually made it together, didn't you?
At your home instead of going to a studio you did everything.
Yeah, we were also more ruthless as far as editing this album
because in the past we might have done what we considered eight good songs
and then you have to have those other couple on there just because you're trying to meet a release deadline.
On this one we were pretty murderous as far as the songs that we left off of this album
and we are producing ourselves now and so that part of the production process is doing that
and I think we did a better job on this album than maybe some of the more recent ones.
And did you also get a sense of fun like you probably would have had in those early days when you kicked this whole project off?
I think so because one of the great things that's happened that wasn't available in even the 80s
but especially in the 70s was the fact that you could record at home
and do professional recordings with a very limited amount of necessity
for having a record company pump in a lot of money
and so we're able to record all the time and that to us is just like a playground.
It's where we can kind of get away from all the analyzing that's going on around [C#] us.
We have got a nice surprise for you.
We take a look at you captured on Germany's top 70s and 80s show The Beat Club
and boy you want to see [F#m] this.
This will [N] take you back.
Key:
D
Bm
F#m
G
A
D
Bm
F#m
[D] The Reckoners.
In a more unconventional direction, joining me now are Ron and Russell Male,
who for roughly 20 years have been putting out records with the most bizarre titles.
Before they explain how and where, and possibly why, the inspiration strikes in the way it does,
let's get a glimpse of the latest, now that I own the BBC.
_ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[F#m] As I took it off their hands The [D] fact I'm not old [Bm] is changing _ hands
[F#m] _ As I took it off their hands [D] I had [Bm] plans, I had plans
[D] Now that I [F#m] own the [Bm] BBC _ _
[G] What am I supposed to [A] do with this thing?
[D] Now that I own the [Bm] BBC, _ _
[G] what am I supposed to [A] make of this [D] thing?
All this power, [Bm] _ all this [Em] glory, all these [A] ages and all these [D] glories.
What was I thinking?
[Bm] What was I thinking?
[G] What was I thinking?
[A] What could I have been [F#m] thinking?
And if a nerd had helped me out,
I'm [D] flying blind, I'm [B] flying blind. _
[F#m] You know the way to let things out, all [D] the refined and [Bm] _ unrefined. _
[D] Now that [F#m] I own the [Bm] BBC, _ _ _
[G] what am I [A] supposed to do with this thing?
[D] Now that [F#m] I own the [Bm] BBC, _ _ _
[G] what am I [A] supposed to make of this thing?
[F#m] _ _ Well, a kind of familiar sound of the Sparks, yeah?
It's got a kind of sense of where you've been and what you've been doing for the past while, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah, it does.
Well put.
Well put.
We couldn't have said it [G] better.
But the title, though, that's something pretty radical.
Now that I own the BBC, I mean, for_
Yeah.
Yeah, we always like just having titles of songs and subject matter
that maybe aren't your normal run-of-the-mill pop sort of lyrics.
Just, I don't know, this album's our 16th album and we always just have to kind of keep coming up with ideas
and things that keep us entertained and so maybe [N] that's why that title evolved.
You did mention a number to the amount of records you've released over this period.
It was_
Yeah, 16 is the_
16 albums.
The current album is the 16th.
So how do you see your progression from that, from day one to now?
_ Well, I think by and large we still have the _ _ core element of Sparks is his lyrics and melodies and my singing,
which makes up whatever it is that we have.
And so occasionally what we do gets put in a different sort of musical framework.
The current album has more danceable sort of elements than maybe some of the earlier albums,
but I think _ lyrically and vocally and melodically even there's similarities between even the first and the 16th album.
It's just that sometimes we find different frameworks to hang the essence of what we have on.
You've described it as being, _ stylistically, as being somewhat more eccentric than previous recordings.
What did you mean by that?
You know, I think on this album we didn't really worry, like sometimes we do worry often about what we're doing and who it's for
and will anyone ever hear this and then, or does it even matter?
So on this album we took the approach that it really doesn't matter who is going to be listening to this album
or what we're making it for, but to try to make it as uncompromising lyrically as we could
and just hope that there'll be someone out there on the other end that will maybe be responding to it.
There's been times in our career where we've kind of overanalyzed various periods and we said,
gee, what can we do to be played more on the radio or what can we do to have a _ wider _ audience?
I think sometimes we would overreact and do something that was really foolish
and knock off a lot of the character or personality that we have in our music
just in order to try to suss out how to reach a different audience.
From this album we just said part of the strength that we have is in having lyrics that are kind of uncompromising
and in the singing style and just melodically what we have
and let's just make an album that's appealing to ourselves and hopefully that'll also be appealing to someone else.
Was it therefore more interesting to make the record?
Because you actually made it together, didn't you?
At your home instead of going to a studio you did everything.
Yeah, we were also more ruthless as far as editing this album
because in the past we might have done what we considered eight good songs
and then you have to have those other couple on there just because you're trying to meet a release deadline.
On this one we were pretty murderous as far as the songs that we left off of this album
_ and we are producing ourselves now and so that part of the production process is doing that
and I think we did a better job on this album than maybe some of the more recent ones.
And did you also get a sense of fun like you probably would have had in those early days when you kicked this whole project off?
I think so because one of the great things that's happened that wasn't available in _ even the 80s
but especially in the 70s was the fact that you could record at home
and do professional recordings with a very limited amount of _ necessity
for having a record company pump in a lot of money
and so we're able to record all the time and that to us is just like a playground.
It's where we can kind of get away from all the analyzing that's going on around [C#] us.
We have got a nice surprise for you.
We take a look at you captured on Germany's top 70s and 80s show The Beat Club
and boy you want to see [F#m] this.
This will [N] take you back. _
In a more unconventional direction, joining me now are Ron and Russell Male,
who for roughly 20 years have been putting out records with the most bizarre titles.
Before they explain how and where, and possibly why, the inspiration strikes in the way it does,
let's get a glimpse of the latest, now that I own the BBC.
_ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[F#m] As I took it off their hands The [D] fact I'm not old [Bm] is changing _ hands
[F#m] _ As I took it off their hands [D] I had [Bm] plans, I had plans
[D] Now that I [F#m] own the [Bm] BBC _ _
[G] What am I supposed to [A] do with this thing?
[D] Now that I own the [Bm] BBC, _ _
[G] what am I supposed to [A] make of this [D] thing?
All this power, [Bm] _ all this [Em] glory, all these [A] ages and all these [D] glories.
What was I thinking?
[Bm] What was I thinking?
[G] What was I thinking?
[A] What could I have been [F#m] thinking?
And if a nerd had helped me out,
I'm [D] flying blind, I'm [B] flying blind. _
[F#m] You know the way to let things out, all [D] the refined and [Bm] _ unrefined. _
[D] Now that [F#m] I own the [Bm] BBC, _ _ _
[G] what am I [A] supposed to do with this thing?
[D] Now that [F#m] I own the [Bm] BBC, _ _ _
[G] what am I [A] supposed to make of this thing?
[F#m] _ _ Well, a kind of familiar sound of the Sparks, yeah?
It's got a kind of sense of where you've been and what you've been doing for the past while, isn't it?
Yeah.
Yeah, it does.
Well put.
Well put.
We couldn't have said it [G] better.
But the title, though, that's something pretty radical.
Now that I own the BBC, I mean, for_
Yeah.
Yeah, we always like just having titles of songs and subject matter
that maybe aren't your normal run-of-the-mill pop sort of lyrics.
Just, I don't know, this album's our 16th album and we always just have to kind of keep coming up with ideas
and things that keep us entertained and so maybe [N] that's why that title evolved.
You did mention a number to the amount of records you've released over this period.
It was_
Yeah, 16 is the_
16 albums.
The current album is the 16th.
So how do you see your progression from that, from day one to now?
_ Well, I think by and large we still have the _ _ core element of Sparks is his lyrics and melodies and my singing,
which makes up whatever it is that we have.
And so occasionally what we do gets put in a different sort of musical framework.
The current album has more danceable sort of elements than maybe some of the earlier albums,
but I think _ lyrically and vocally and melodically even there's similarities between even the first and the 16th album.
It's just that sometimes we find different frameworks to hang the essence of what we have on.
You've described it as being, _ stylistically, as being somewhat more eccentric than previous recordings.
What did you mean by that?
You know, I think on this album we didn't really worry, like sometimes we do worry often about what we're doing and who it's for
and will anyone ever hear this and then, or does it even matter?
So on this album we took the approach that it really doesn't matter who is going to be listening to this album
or what we're making it for, but to try to make it as uncompromising lyrically as we could
and just hope that there'll be someone out there on the other end that will maybe be responding to it.
There's been times in our career where we've kind of overanalyzed various periods and we said,
gee, what can we do to be played more on the radio or what can we do to have a _ wider _ audience?
I think sometimes we would overreact and do something that was really foolish
and knock off a lot of the character or personality that we have in our music
just in order to try to suss out how to reach a different audience.
From this album we just said part of the strength that we have is in having lyrics that are kind of uncompromising
and in the singing style and just melodically what we have
and let's just make an album that's appealing to ourselves and hopefully that'll also be appealing to someone else.
Was it therefore more interesting to make the record?
Because you actually made it together, didn't you?
At your home instead of going to a studio you did everything.
Yeah, we were also more ruthless as far as editing this album
because in the past we might have done what we considered eight good songs
and then you have to have those other couple on there just because you're trying to meet a release deadline.
On this one we were pretty murderous as far as the songs that we left off of this album
_ and we are producing ourselves now and so that part of the production process is doing that
and I think we did a better job on this album than maybe some of the more recent ones.
And did you also get a sense of fun like you probably would have had in those early days when you kicked this whole project off?
I think so because one of the great things that's happened that wasn't available in _ even the 80s
but especially in the 70s was the fact that you could record at home
and do professional recordings with a very limited amount of _ necessity
for having a record company pump in a lot of money
and so we're able to record all the time and that to us is just like a playground.
It's where we can kind of get away from all the analyzing that's going on around [C#] us.
We have got a nice surprise for you.
We take a look at you captured on Germany's top 70s and 80s show The Beat Club
and boy you want to see [F#m] this.
This will [N] take you back. _