From the third Sparks album Kimono My House released in 1974, their first with a new line up, the American band that included the Mankey Brothers had gone (Earle became a producer, Jim the guitarist in Concrete Blonde) English musicians were hired and Ron and Russell Mael’s Sparks relocated to England and the Glam Rock Scene. First there was Martin Gordon Adrian Fisher and Norman “Dinky” Diamond on bass guitar and drums in turn replaced for this vid at least with Ian Hampton and Trevor White, Dinky Diamond remaining.

Art Rock – catchy, complicated, melodic, edgy, original, traditional, funny, serious, contrived, natural, theatrical, Rock, Pop, Operatic, histrionic vocal, effortless singing  – the contradictions are endless and the result is spectacular – and then there’s the words:

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

On the cover the  winking Geisha is Michi Hirota and is the girl speaking Japanese on It’s No Game on David Bowie’s Scary Monster’s.

Sparks are one of the most interesting and original bands in the history of Pop music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparks_(band)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono_My_House