- Audio CD (Jan 17 2006)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Wounded Bird Records
- ASIN: B000CC3S46
- Other Editions: Audio CD
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #52,050 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Album Description
Sparks is actually the sibling duo of Ron & Russell Mael. They started out as the group Halfnelson but quickly changed their name to Sparks. They issued numerous charting albums through the 1970s & 1980s. A Whoofer In Tweeter's Clothing was issued on the Bearsville label in 1972. Wounded Bird Records. 2005.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mael's and Mankey's with an Electric Prune,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing (Audio CD)
The first true Sparks album (Sparks was originally released as Halfnelson). The Mael's are truly complimented by the equally ecentric Mankey brothers Earl and Jim. The opening track Girl from Germany is truly a diamond in the rough and shows hints of what was to come with Kimono and subsequent albums. The songs on A Woofer that follow are teasers to the over 30 years of recordings. Much like "Halfnelson-Sparks" the playing has a quality that is a little unpolished which gives the feel of a precursor punk band. A cover of Do-Re-Me, apparently used as the warm-up track live is rockous. The question is just how fast can Russell sing? Nothing is Sacred has Harley Feinstein drumming like a mad fiend. Moon over Kentucky makes an interesting political statement. Whippings and Apologies attracts a certain kind of listener to it. The Louvre a track in French and English hints at a european band, which considering the fact that they're Americans make it unusual for the era. Beaver O'Lindy is an odd track with what appears to be the entire band contributing to it's writing. Here Comes Bob a song about meeting people thru automobile accidents, inspiration for Cronenberg's movie Crash? Other tracks filling out the album, Underground and the very brief Batteries Not Included. add in Angus Desire, about the goings on in public schools. One has to wonder what Kimono would have sounded like with this band and not the hired hands. Missed from the album is I Like Girls, re-recorded on Big Beat and the original released in the Profile collection. Of course had Jim Mankey continued with Sparks, we wouldn't have got Concrete Blonde. Ron's lyrics on this album are probably the most adventureous of any Sparks recording. A Woofer has a much harder sound than any other Sparks album, but after 30 years is still quite listenable.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weird and Wonderful,
By birdbrain4u - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing (Audio CD)
'A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing' is the album that introduced me to Sparks way way back in the early 70's.A progressive radio station at the time (WBCN-Boston) played several cuts from this album ( Beaver O'lindy, Whippings and Apologies, Here Comes Bob) on heavy rotation. I had to find out who they were and everthing I could about them. This is probably one of Sparks weirder recordings and I'm thrilled it's finally been released on cd. All the tracks are unique, popish, some are rave-up rock a couple are downright strange. One of my fav cuts is "Beaver O'lindy " with it's rapid drum rolls, crashing guitars and demented chorus spelling out B-E-A-V -E-R. The song is about a transvestite rock singer. Another fav is 'Whippings and Apologies which kind of sounds like Alice Cooper meeting Tommy James and the Shondells. 'Batteries Not Included' is a cute little joke with the title as punchine. This is an enjoyable sophomore recording from one of America's most unique bands. 17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
AND NOW, ON TO ENGLAND,
By Kerry Leimer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing (Audio CD)
"Woofer" is a perfect example of just how interesting and innovative rock can be, and how utterly uninterested and unresponsive the U.S. listening public is.Coming after their terrific debut as Halfnelson, on a record that already laid out the "classical" influences that would dominate "Lil' Beethoven" some thirty years later, "Woofer" shows the group in peak form. Bearsville had repackaged the band as Sparks, and released this one-of-a-kind album only to see the market's inability to comprehend this music literally send Sparks flying, in this case to comparative fame and instant acclaim in the U.K, with a real and symbolic bullet. Ah, the things you go through for art. And as brilliant as the follow-on "Kimono My House" is, "Woofer" turns out to be the one that got lost in the transition. Yet "Woofer" is a front-to-back delight. Great writing and playing, high in style and satire, it remains one of the most definitive releases by the Mael brothers. Here they explore the lingering threat of Nazism, unfulfilled Hillbilly longings, high kultur, the unbridled joy of a sadist finding a masochist and an expression of the deepest, warmest longing for beef ever performed. Not to mention the transvestite fumblings implied by the album's title, a crying game that's all for laughs. Looking back at this nearly forgotten gem, one can only ask, is nothing sacred? Apparently not. It's way past time you got yourself a copy. 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Sparks,
By Patrick W. Schubert - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Woofer In Tweeters Clothing (Audio CD)
It's hard to believe that the music contained on this CD was recorded in 1972. Talk about being ahead of its time! Take, for example, the closing track "Whippings and Apologies" (great title, by the way). This brilliant composition could be right at home with any post-punk/new wave era track lyrically, musically and production wise. Imagine what the adventerous and/or unprepared listener must have thought upon first encountering this song 30 plus years ago: "These guys have got to be nuts!" In fact, Sparks' Hitler moustache-sporting mastermind Ron Mael and his frizzy headed operatic voiced younger brother Russell were and are a bit "off", so to speak, which explains the unforced eccentricity and inventiveness of their music. Highlights include the very catchy "Underground"-which somehow manages to pay homage to Brit Pop of the past while foreshadowing the Stranglers, Ultravox, Wire, Swell Maps, et al.)-"The Louvre", sung almost entirely in French and, again, at least five years ahead of its time, and the wonderfully demented "Beaver O' Leary" ("The girl in your head and the boy in your bed"). "Woofer" and its self-titled predecessor are not only for any self-respecting Sparks fan's collection, but also for any lover of smart, unique and influiential songwriting.
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