Sparks : Kimono My House (1974)


Album Cover: Kimono My House

Kimono My House is available at Amazon. (The current releases contain a couple of bonus tracks, which is nice, but I think they hurt the structure a bit because the final songs on the original releases exhibited a kind of, um, finality.) You may also find the Sparks Compilations of interest.

This Town Ain't Big Enough

Zoo time is she and you time
The mammals are your favourite type, and you want her tonight
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
You hear the thunder of stampeding rhinos, elephants and tacky tigers
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave

Flying domestic flying
And when the stewardess is near do not show any fear
Heartbeat increasing heartbeat
You are a khaki-coloured bombadier it's Hiroshima that you're nearing
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave

Daily, except for Sunday
You dawdle in to the cafe where you meet her each day
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
As twenty cannibals have hold of you, they need their protein just like you do
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave

Shower, another shower
You've got to look your best for her and be clean everywhere
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
The rain is pouring on the foreign town, the bullets cannot cut you down
This town ain't big enough for both of us
And it ain't me who's gonna leave

Census, the latest census
There'll be more girls who live in town though not enough to go round
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
You know that: This town isn't big enough, not big enough for both of us
This town isn't big enough, not big enough for both of us
And I ain't gonna leave

Amateur Hour

Lawns grow plush in the hinterlands
It's the perfect little setting for the one night stands
Now the drapes are drawn and the lights are out
It's the time to put in practice what you've dreamed about

She can show you what you must do
To be more like people better than you

Amateur Hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know, she lets you know
Amateur Hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know, she tells you so

Girls grow tops to go topless in
While we sit and count the hairs that blossom on our chins
Our voices change at a rapid pace
I could start a song a tenor and then end as bass

Choose your partners everyone
If you hesitate, the good ones are gone

Amateur Hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know, she lets you know
Amateur Hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know, she tells you so

Dance, laugh, wine, dine, talk and sing
But these cannot replace what is the real thing
It's a lot like playing the violin
You cannot start off and be Yehudi Menuhin

Amateur Hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know, she lets you know
Amateur Hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know, she tells you so

Falling In Love With Myself Again

Similar mother, similar father, similar dog, cat and fish
And we'll make the same wish
When the birthday candles lit
We'll both be older
We won't get our wish
Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again
Yes, I think I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again

With her hand in my hand and my hand in hers
Don't we look a blur
Me and her and me and her
Hey, kiss her, oh kiss her
Our friends do concur
Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again
Yes, I think I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again

I can't see with you in front of the mirror staring, staring
I can't hear myself think with all that music blaring, blaring

Yes, I'm falling
Falling, falling
Falling, falling yes, I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again

I bring home the bacon and eat myself
Here's to my health
Hope that I am feeling well
I'm burning the candle at both ends, oh well
Yes, I think that I'm falling in love with myself again

Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again
Yes, I think I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling
Yes, I think I'm falling in love with myself again

Here In Heaven

Here there are lots of things to do
And a panoramic view
Of the universe completely surrounding you
You cannot buy souvenirs
You're never going back, never, never
Basically, I guess it could be worse
Yes, I do suppose it could be worse

Here, there are many, many sheep
And the people only sleep
And awake to tell how gory and gruesome was their end
And I don't have many friends
And it's really very clean and I'm thinking
Juliet, you broke our little pact
Juliet, I'm never coming back

Up here in Heaven without you
I'm here in Heaven without you
Up here in Heaven without you
It is Hell knowing that your health will keep you out of here
For many, many years

Dear, do you often think of me
As you overlook the sea
Do I qualify as dearly departed
Or
Am I that sucker in the sky
The fall guy for the first and the last time
Juliet, I thought we had agreed
Now I know why you let me take the lead

Up here in Heaven without you
I'm here in Heaven without you
Up here in Heaven without you
It is Hell knowing that your health will keep you out of here
For many, many years

Second thoughts, is that what you had?
Second thoughts, first I broke my back
Second thoughts, as I hit the sea
Second thoughts, for eternity, for eternity, for eternity

Up here in Heaven without you
I'm here in Heaven without you
Up here in Heaven without you
It is Hell knowing that your health will keep you out of here
For many, many years

Thank God It's Not Christmas

What do I hear, what do I hear?
Chit-chat and clinking glass
Cheap talk, a lady's laugh
After hours

What do I see, what do I see?
Some sunken hideaway
Where people go to play
After hours

There I'll spend the night
Meeting fancy things
At bistros and old haunts
Trying very hard to sin

Then it is day and in a way
The pattern's much the same
In-spots, a matinee
Every day

Blend with the crowd, blend with the loud
Hypnotic ebb and flow
Until the day goes slowly
Into night

See the same old crowd
At bistros and old haunts
'Til the lights grow dim,
The not-so-subtle hint to be gone

Thank God it's not Christmas
When there is only you
And nothing else to do

Thank God it's not Christmas
Where there's just you to do
The rest is closed to public view

Caroling kids, caroling kids
A trifle premature
In tones so rich and pure
And crystaline

Call for the day, the popular day
It's fast approaching now
But will the mood allow
One dissent

If this were the Seine
We'd be very suave
But it's just the rain
Washing down the boulevard

Thank God it's not Christmas
When there is only you
And nothing else to do

Thank God it's not Christmas
Where there's just you to do
The rest is closed to public view

Popular days, popular ways
Are for the chosen few
Not meant for me and you
Obviously

Popular nights, popular rites
Great things to say and do
Aren't said or done by you
Obviously

If this were Seine
We'd be very suave
But it's just the rain
Washing down the boulevard

Hasta Mañana Monsieur

I tried to tell you in the night
That with a girl like you I could do without guided tours
You tried to tell me in the day
That your leading exports were textiles and iron ore

Hasta Mañana Monsieur
Were the only words that I knew for sure
Hasta Mañana Monsieur
Were the three little words that I knew you'd adore

Leaving my syntax back at school
I was thrown for a loss over gender and simple rules
You mentioned Kant and I was shocked, so shocked
You know, where I come from, none of the girls have such foul tongues

Hasta Mañana Monsieur
Were the only words that I knew for sure
Hasta Mañana Monsieur
I'm gonna do it now
C'est la vie, c'est la mort, say no more, no no more

It's all the same, whether here or there or anywhere
There's them who have, and there are the others who have not

Kimono my house mon amour
I am sure that this motion don't need no accompanying words
Guess I was wrong because you've fled
Leaving me with my Michelin Guide and half-empty foreign bed

Hasta Mañana Monsieur
Were the only words that I knew for sure
Hasta Mañana Monsieur
Were the three little words that I knew you'd adore

Hasta Mañana Monsieur
Were the only words that I knew for sure
Hasta Mañana Monsieur
Were the three little words that I knew you'd adore

Talent Is An Asset

Albert is smart, he's a genius
Watch Albert putter, an obvious genius
Someday he will reassess the world
And he'll still have time for lots of girls

When he grows up he'll remember us
When he grows up we are sure that he'll remember us
We made sure that Albert wore his mac
We kept all the strangers off his back

(Go away)
Everything's relative
(Go away Albert's mother says to me)
We are his relatives and he don't need any non-relatives

Talent is an asset
You've got to understand that
Talent is an asset
And little Albert has it
Talent is an asset
And Albert surely has it

One day he'll sever his apron strings
All of the while he'll be scribbling things, genius things
Look at Albert, isn't he a sight
Growing, growing at the speed of light

(Go away)
Everything's relative
(Go away Albert's mother says to me)
We are his relatives and he don't need any non-relatives

Talent is an asset
And little Albert has it

Talent is relative
That's hypothetical
We are his relatives
That's parenthetical
Spare your superlatives
There's the receptacle
There's the receptacle

Leave Albert's study room
Leave Albert's happy room
Leave Albert's neighbourhood
Leave Albert's city, too
Leave Albert's country seat
Leave Albert's coun-ter-y
Leave Albert's continent
Leave Albert's hemisphere
Leave Albert's planet, too
Leave Albert's universe Leave Albert's universe

No one must see him now
Only the medical
No one must downgrade him
Don't be too cynical
Don't be too critical
Cancel the magazines
They're much to political
Don't buy him any jeans
They're much too casual
Talent is relative
That's hypothetical
We are his relatives
That's parenthetical

Complaints

Nothing in the world is perfect
Grin and bear it silently or yell into my ear
Complaints, it's my department
Complaints, it's my department
Everything you wear's too tight and clashes with the candlelight
Just give it back, no questions asked

Nothing in the world is perfect
Grin and bear it silently or yell into my ear
Complaints, stereophonic
Complaints, it's ironic
How they chatter, how they bore us like some avant-gardish chorus
Just give it back, no questions asked

I'll dive off the mezzanine if one more points at crooked seams
A sign of shoddy workmanship, of Asiatic hands that slipped
Just give it back, no questions asked

Nothing in the world is perfect
Grin and bear it silently or yell into my ear
Complaints, there's too many hours
Complaints, the bosses cower
Two weeks free from all complaining, it was due to our complaining
Take her to Spain, hear her complain

Now she says she is expecting
That's my fault for not protecting
Her from all the risks of passion
She's complaining, she's old-fashioned
Just give it back, no questions asked

Complaints, it's my department
Complaints, it's my department

In My Family

That's how it's gonna be
In my family
From the biggest branch to the smallest leaf
Still you're gonna see similarity

In my family
That's how it's gonna be

That's how it's gonna be
'Cause it's my family
Gonna live to see post-senility
Lots of time to spend with my family

In my family
That's how it's gonna be

There you got your Rockefeller
There you got your Edward Teller
J. Paul Getty is a splendid fellow, but
None of them would be in my family

In my family
That's how it's gonna be
Family
It's like any other family
Big and small
It's like any other family

That's how it's gonna be
Before and after me
Manufacturing many, many me's
Gonna hang myself from my family tree

In my family
That's how it's gonna be

Equator

I always felt that I had quite a gift as a judge of human character
This is the day and the time and the place and I wonder, wonder where you are
Surely, we set it for 3pm
Surely, we said it was March the 10th
(Equator, Equator)
You said you'd meet me there
(Equator, Equator)
You must be just around the bend

All of the gifts are now melted or dead, and I'm sorry, sorry in advance
I'll make it up to you, that I can promise you, if I am given just half the chance
God, you'll be laughing, I look a mess
But you see I've been half way around this place
(Equator, Equator)
You said you'd meet me there
(Equator, Equator)
You said you'd be right there
(Equator, Equator)
Oh, yeah

I've got to stop here and rest for a moment, I'm sure that you're not far away
You always walked just as slow as you talked, letting me think I could have my way
I wasn't fooled for a second, girl
I knew it was you who controlled our world
(Equator, Equator)
You said you'd meet me there
(Equator, Equator)
You said you'd be right there
(Equator, Equator)
Oh, yeah

Barbecutie (bonus track)

For the sake of man he has forsaken his whole tan
Living in the snow advancing how much we will know
But his heart cries out

Barbecutie, Barbecutie, Barbecutie, you Barbecutie,
When you're with him he is warm

Let's pursue this more why should he leave so much that's warm
To his detriment maybe he's oh so slightly bent
Ask her, she would know

Barbecutie, Barbecutie, Barbecutie, you Barbecutie,
When you're with him he is warm

The friends are getting friendly on the lawn
The flies are making enemies of all
Aroma rising from the ancient coals
has turned you into someone very bold
and killed whatever hesitance she showed

Barbecutie, Barbecutie, Barbecutie, you Barbecutie,
When you're with him he is warm

Look he's back unharmed he must defrost his frozen charm
"How are you today" that's very good, he's on his way
To the Barbecue

Barbecutie, Barbecutie, Barbecutie, you Barbecutie,
When you're with him he is warm

Lost And Found (bonus track)

Lost and found, a wallet from a man, careless man, careless man
Too bad, too bad, too bad, too bad
Lost and found, a wallet from a man, careless man, careless man
And all the streets are paved tonight, and we won't be their slaves tonight
And I ain't gonna feel bad at all, feel bad at all

Lost and found, a wallet from a man, careless man, careless man
Too bad, too bad, too bad, too bad
Lost and found, a wallet from a man, careless man, careless man
He's Robin Hood by accident, I need it more than he does and
I surely will not feel bad at all, feel bad at all,
Feel bad at all, feel bad at all, feel bad at all, feel bad at all

Lost and found, a wallet from a man, careless man, careless man
Oh is there anybody out there by the name of Mister Jones?
No? No? Well, I tried
Lost and found, lost and found, lost and found, lost and found
Lost and found, a wallet from a man, careless man, careless man
Too bad, too bad, too bad, too bad

Lost and found, a wallet from a man, careless man, careless man
We sailed off on a bubbly sea, with Nina, Pinto, and Marie
And none of us will feel bad at all, feel bad at all, feel bad at all,
Feel bad at all, feel bad at all, feel bad at all, feel bad at all
Yes, all the streets are paved tonight, and we won't be their slaves tonight
And I ain't gonna feel bad at all, feel bad at all
Lost and found, lost and found, lost and found, lost and found

10 Marto 2003 modifita.