The “most infectious song” of all time, according to Sparks
There’s being eclectic, and then there’s Sparks. As anyone who’s seen Edgar Wright’s brilliant documentary The Sparks Brothers knows, the Mael brothers have built their career on constant reinvention—transformations so bizarre they often feel absurd at the time, particularly when paired with their, let’s say, “distinctive” visual aesthetic. Yet, give it a few years, and their seemingly outlandish choices often reveal themselves as uncannily prescient, accurately predicting the future trajectory of pop music.
It happened right from the off too. ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’, still one of pop music’s greatest opening salvos, sounded at the time like a ridiculous novelty hit destined to mark the band as a one-hit wonder. Seemingly, this was proved by their follow up numbers being these weird synth-y numbers that no-one could quite fathom, until they realised that it was actually just new wave a couple of years early.
That’s a one in a million comeback, so trust a band as esoteric as Sparks to do it twice. When people pronounced their career dead on arrival in the late ’80s, only to discover they’d secretly invented eurodisco and were about to become massive in mainland Europe on the back of it.
Their status as “your favourite band’s favourite band” is all but secured by the sheer amount of famous fans Wright was able to wrangle for the doc, from Flea and Beck to Neil Gaiman and Patton Oswalt. So, those influenced by the band have gone on to mainstream success, but what about those who have influenced the band themselves?
Well, the band were kind enough to put a playlist together for The Dowsers, which gives us an insight into what inspires them. A cursory glance at the list shows that the band’s mix of camp kitsch and literary wit is no accident. The likes of Public Enemy, Miles Davis and Shostakovich sitting right alongside Joey Ramone, Babymetal and The Shangri-Las.
The band had always been a fusion of so-called “High” and “Low” forms of art in a way that pointed out just how ridiculous both classifications really are. It says a lot about their musical voraciousness that taking the top spot in the playlist is a song that very few people in the western world would have heard of.
The first track on this playlist is the song ‘Haisai Ojisan’ (‘Hey, Old Man’ to us Gaikokujin) by Japanese folk-rock legend Shoukichi Kina. Attached to every song on this playlist is a few words from the band about why they love it so. For this song, a massive hit in its native Japan but nowhere else, the band call it “The most infectious song of all time”.
A cursory listen shows how on the money they are. Even if you can’t understand the lyrics, the joyous melody, Kina’s honeyed voice and the flutters of Sanshin that decorate the track is more than enough. This is a song that well and truly deserves its place among the leading lights featured on the playlist, and a reminder, if needed, that inspiration can come from any source.
