If I�m to express an essence of glam�rock I�ll tell you about emphasis on a theatre, on a mystification, on a magnificence, on a pretentiousness. Yes, sometimes glam is like pop, but it resists to the hard � rock. When I talk about Sparks, I know it�s the theatre for one actor and two authors. The music, which Ron&Russell call �big beat�, is only a background for presenting bewitching falsetto and the musical style doesn�t matter. Sparks remain Sparks all times.

I�ll not discuss the musical part of the band, I�ll try to tell only about lyrics. The first thing I notice is very unusual syllable of texts and improbable length of verses. Elaborate writing of the glam is seen already in phrases construction and design. The impressionism is a favorite way for brothers �ael. There are scenes that are snatched out from life and frequently you cannot understand what they speak about. They only draw an outline, only impression and only flashing. Sparks are masters of words. There is a refined dictionary with lots of words with the sensual colouring and a lot of puns and synonyms in texts of songs.

I see there all characteristics of glam-rock (the richest and the most mysterious style of pop) at texts: here is virtuosity, a psychologism, �an unhealthy irony, an abundance of imagination, an intellect, an expressed sexuality, an indifference to serious problems, the largest creative finds have sent in packing entertaining simple song � .

There�s a very interesting reception Sparks� texts. The author of majority is Ron. It were called as the speech�s behaviorism and there are always two sides: "I" uttering and the person whom the saying is addressed to - "you". Sometimes there are third parties - "they".

I wanna go to cool places with you

I wanna take you cool places tonite

I wanna go where nobody's a fool

And no one says uh, "hey girl, need a light?" �

I gotta tell you, you're lookin' real good

They let us in so I'm feelin' all right

I like to go where sometimes they refuse �

It�s a familiarity and ease of the person from the street and it�s everywhere, this subject speech plays here basic role. This language has a wide circulation in a society, it shows behaviour of participants of a scene and nothing more. There�s an authority of the daily speech and there�s a concreteness as its symbol. However it is the language�s cleared of other contents and it doesn�t suppose any conversation around a society to which this individual belongs. There�s only a behaviour of participants.

Frequently there�s not even an ordinary language but many language atoms and fragments of phrases and it�s not always clear what the full contents of that speech are.

Oh, what a time

That�s what you said

You never asked

Are you well-read

You never sought a sensitive side

All that you said was, �ride, baby, ride� �

There�s a banal speech, but here the world is displayed most brightly through this banality. Becouse of the concreteness of a situation in texts is possible to withdraw a discussed discourse in a direction of the forces creating this situation (transcending scenes and the behaviour of speaking people) and open absolutely another universe. And brothers Mael do it.

The most part of songs is ironical. Each of their songs demands the comment and the explanation, usually oney are given by Maels. Figures of these songs aren�t built in a uniform continuous narration and are not conducted on behalf of one person. But as we can see all these songs deride our human society and we receive scenes of some social paranoia. In the 70th I watched very sarcastic film "Ladies and gentlemen", I would say Sparks creates something of this sort. A ironical genre of the band demands separate conversation and perheps I�ll prepare it in a future.

There are biographic songs in the Sparks creativity, but songs are alienated maximum from authors and I don�t identify heroes of songs with either one of Maels. Even if lyrics are really personal, Sparks plots will be transformed by the most unrecognizable image.

Although the Hero of songs is the invented person, brothers Mael show their attitude to life with lines such as this one � God helps those who help themselves to a real good time�, � So many riches just out of reach �, etc.

There are imagination and psychodelyc songs, they dominated in the beginning of dio�s way but there�s one more interesting lyric genre � love songs. I will consider this discourse in this article, though Russell was perceived as the comedian fand wasn�t understood in a role of the lover. Bryan Ferry � it�s hi-fi as the love-actor but our guy only giggles and, in general, Sparks is humorous and it�s not seriously.

Sparks� love songs aren�t sentimental or lyrical. There are no scenes in a bed which are in their ironical genre. So, this texts aren�t subordinated to Eros or Amur. There are no descriptions of passions, sighes, desires and all of the things that Robert Plant, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Janis Joplin give us. There�s nothing about what other singers sing on a theme �a love�. Nothing. And even this "you" is only abstract � beautiful girl � without additional descriptions. And it�s this time when other Sparks�songs display the smallest movement of the light, gastronomic predilections of brothers Mael, fashionable kinds of fabrics, and even � Wearing moth-eaten sweaters and gloves �! However this lyrical hero and his behaviour is by the steadfast attention of Maels. They created him. What for? So that, they could talk to us through this character? What�s the result?

Look at the very first album �Sparks� (1971)? The contents of it are a big strang. What is an abundance of phrases � this thing �, � do it � about? What kind of themes open this album? And who is �mister Nice Guys� doesn�t wish to participate in any intrigues. There�s an impression that these nice guys will start long travel through all albums and the main hero of texts is the correct hero, such as brothers Mael see him.

Having started conversation about �this thing�, authors refuse to move in a groove and already there�s the philosophy of the vitalism (songs � In my family � and �Tryouts for the Human Race� with words: �From the biggest branch to the smallest leaf �that's how it's gonna be��, �post-senility�, �gonna hang myself from my family tree�, �we're the future and the past, we're the only way you're gonna last�, �gotta get the chance to live and die�

All these phrases are a spontaneous display of the life �philosophy of Life�. It�s at that time when the generation of young nonconformists, named �Green America�, when people like Arlo Guthrie, all �easy riders� searched for answer to the main question, that �s a life, that�s I, where I go, where�s my place in this world, in what�s the meaning of life, brothers Mael answered it and quickly found a measuring instrument of human behaviour: �that from the God � that for me�. This truth lasts through all creativity of Sparks anyway and this system of values in their songs. Passion of love doesn�t interest authors of the love texts, but they asked why the person is �eaten by the monster of love� and they transcendent concepts a "love"discourse and don�t reveal a standard word "libido", but they give us the word "affinity" and that"affinity" is needed to emphasize �masculinity�, that�s an analogue - antipode feministic �feminity�: the something�s standing above the biological essence of the person (probably here�s the other ability to think, to choose other strategy of behaviour, to have other level of subconsciousness, I don�t know that).

As feminists speak; � the God has created the human on an image and similarity of the God, but it wasn�t Adam as a child of a patriarchy culture, it was Adamo with a neutral gender. The God rationalized the world and has created the most ingenious invention - the genetic generator. So, God didn�t make Eva from the Adam�s edge, the God has split the Adamo on two halves, has improved a design and expelled away from the paradise. Since this time these halves are looking for each other (on Sparks on a basis "affinity"). This search is the purpose of the hero of songs. And he searches for the lost paradise in the 70s, 80s,90s and in 2002 he � married myself �. Finish!

The lyrical hero�lover has come on a stage in the middle of the 70s but authors in the era of disco paid more attention to him and they constructed him to make a immersing in the various situations. However is Mr. Nice Guys with his underlined human dignity (this problem�s always on the foreground and I admit dignity is the Ron�s and Russell�s characteristic).

Mr. Nice Guys is an ideal type. He is the modern egalitarian man what Maels see him. Their hero resists not only the patriarchal culture, but also the "macho-superman" culture, and he has an antipode appearing in songs under the name Ugly Guys.

The ideal type is an ideal type. He should have the test through a life but �life may not be fair� and already � My shortcomings were of an economic nature � , �I underestimated the appeal to her of things �. There�s the impression that late Sparks tries to add elements of drama into pop music through his hero.