Between the new Edgar Wright documentary, The Spark Brothers, and the upcoming film Annette, for which they provided the story and music, we’re in some weird parallel timeline whereby the Mael brothers are actually getting their due recognition while still alive. It’s wild to see the uptick of interest in Sparks this year.
Los Angeles radio station KROQ’s trailblazing embrace of all things novel, synth, and strange in the early 1980s informs a large part of my musical tastes to this day, but even by their wide open standards of the time, Sparks’ 1982 classic album Angst In My Pants was a really bizarre record. At the time I had zero knowledge of their quirky hit from almost ten years prior* – to me they were a new oddball carnival duo who were one part Weird Al and one part strange electro jams.
It was the ridiculous Dada tabloid lyrics of the track “I Predict” that captured my imagination and made Sparks feel so simultaneously stupid and rebellious. Refrains like:
They’re gonna find the Queen is a man
But that Philip don’t care
Lassie will prove that Elvis and her
Had a fleeting affair
Cold beer and pretzels takes care of cancer
They’re gonna stop having the sun
So you better get tan now….
And this song will fade out
And this song will fade out
And this song will fade out
(I predict)
The final minute of the song is indeed the song fading out (while Ron sings about the song fading out).
This was my summer of 1982 dork anthem and it’s pretty much the only Sparks I need.