The Sparks Albums produced by Muff Winwood

I received a remainder bin cut-out copy of Sparks May 1974 Kimono My Place album from Ebay, after buying there a second copy of Sparks November 1974 album Propaganda, I also bought Sparks 1974 Propaganda in 1974 at Alexanders Department Store. As with many things I discover to be important to me, I couldn't find my Propaganda album after using it to learn one of its songs, At Home/At Work/At Play, for Susan Hwang's Sparks Birthday celebration in April, 2024. Upon receipt of our second Propaganda copy two months ago, our daughter (age 7) began continuously listening to it in its entirety while following along with the lyrics on its inner sleave, which I believe helps improve anyone's reading. Since 1974, I had never heard the entire album. I only listened to the first three tracks and the second side song, Something for the Girl with Everything. It escaped me that, if those tracks were good, then it was worth my time to hear the others. I just listened to those same tracks, Propaganda, At Home At Work At Play, Reinforcements and Something for the Girl with Everything.* Our daughter was not so limited and as a result I have heard the whole album many times (Wow, that's a good well played, well recorded album and it sounds great too.). I tried to share my understanding of the lyrics to the Something for the Girl song.... The singer sings to "you," who, through gifts, is buying the silence of a girl, also "you" because... "She knows everything. She knew way back when you weren't yourself." Other times the singer is singing directly to the girl with everything. "Nobody's going to hear a word you say." Like the song, At Home at Work at Play, which also uses the "you" as self-reflection, I think the singer is having a (histrionic?) inner monologue. He is really in a state of intensity in the song, and the achievement of that condition in music is worthy of MUSIC, both in its writing and performance. I think our daughter appreciates the humor in the singer's words. In an effort to help that I connected an expanding list song she had already enjoyed last holiday season, the "12 Days of Christmas" to explain why the "Three Wise Men" were "there" (in the Sparks song), and that their gift of a "partridge" came "complete with ornithologist." I tried to add that the only ornithologist I remembered was James Bond. However, she was well beyond the content of that song as she listened and read along through the entire album, which I'm realizing is in accordance with the artists' intention: that we listen from beginning to end. Quick notes from memory. There's an apocalyptic Noah's Ark finality to the album's last song, Bon Voyage. There's a song about a child (the son in the BC song?) responding to strangers with instructions from a higher authority, his parents (Thanks But No Thanks), and about a family coming apart although its father is reminding them that, together, they are as connected as ABC (BC). The lyrics are beautiful throughout Propaganda, and despite their variety and challenging pronunciation, their musical setting, with its impossible vocal range, plays as if effortless. My conclusion is that the entire audio existence of these songs is impossible, and yet they exist in these pristine recordings. Production on both records is by Muff Winwood. He's the brother of Steve Winwood of the band Traffic. Mixed by Bill Price Adrian Fisher - Guitar Trevor White - Guitar Norman Dinky Diamond drums Ian Hampton - Bass Martin Gordon plays bass on Kimono Apparently, their prior album, Kimono My House, has a reputation as the better album. After three repeat listenings (after the first listening I thought, no, not better) I'm realizing its own impossible greatness. It's just the record itself doesn't sound as good. The many things I thought were missing in "music" are already here. Now, if I have anything to add it is on top of these towering achievements. Oh the pressings... for some reason Island records used more vinyl for their US Propaganda release, enhancing its beautiful recordings with a more solid vinyl sound. The Kimono album vinyl was far more bendable in the copy I recieved, reminding me of the 1970's era of the dynaflex disc. Somehow the Propaganda album, released six months after Kimono, escaped that trend. Also, after more than 50 years since its release I can report my discovery that The Sparks Brothers are not on the cover of their Kimono album. * note: Those four Propaganda tracks were among the recordings I listened to while imagining a "novel" I was then writing, called Storm Cloud.