“This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us” by Sparks, Sunday, April 24, 2022

The way classic rock radio plays the same ten songs over and over again may lead you to believe that you know all the songs and bands from the ‘70s, ‘80s, or whatever era that station plays. And of course, the 10 bands have full albums and lesser-known hits, but you think you’ve come across every professionally recorded band at least. That’s a really dumb assumption I had having listened to enough music both hit and non-hit because of my parents and just loving music. But then earlier this year I was introduced to the pop/rock duo Sparks when the group broke down their 1974 minor hit “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us" on the podcast Song Exploder (see below). In the introduction, Hrishikesh Hirway talked about the band’s accolades and their status as a “band’s band.”

ZOO TIME, SHE AND YOU TIME. There have been several incarnations of the band Sparks, but at its core, the band is two brothers: Ron and Russell Mael. The brothers grew up in Southern California. Ron is the main songwriter of the band and plays the keys. Russell is the singer known for his falsetto. Many people think that the band is British because they saw most of their success in the UK. The band has had a long career of making whimsical music, which toes the line between serious and novelty. They are listed as an influence by various bands and collaborated with many bands throughout the years including The Go-Go's, Faith No More, and Franz Ferdinand, even forming a super group with the latter called FFS. The band's 1974 break out record Kimono My House featured what would become their signature song "This Town Ain't Big Enough For the Both of Us," but at the time it was only a minor hit in the UK. In the '80s the band scored minor hits, including their entry to the Billboard Hot 100 by changing their sound to an electronic New Wave style. Scoring hits with singles such as "I Predict," "The Number One Song in Heaven," and "When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'" and later appearing on The Gilmore Girls and in a Dolce & Gabbana ad, the band has been around, but under the radar. 

SHOWER, ANOTHER SHOWER. Song Exploder tells the story behind this song the best. I'm adding this song to my playlist because April is already filled with novelty songs and pop acts. I included this song on my Foolish Mix on April 1. The falsetto matching the piano along with the ridiculous lyrics makes the song whimsical. The guitar and production remind listeners of some of the whimsical tracks by Queen, such as "Bicycle Races," "Fat Bottom Girls," or even "Bohemian Rhapsody." The song is all about a crippling anxiety for the speaker to talk to women. Building on the cliché from old Westerns, the speaker's wild fantasies about life-or-death situations intensify whenever a woman approaches him. His voice goes from intense to shrill by the pre-chorus. And although he says "This town ain't big enough for the both of us / And it ain't me who's gonna leave" listeners might miss that line. Today's song is worth a laugh. It'll get stuck in your head. It's a reminder of our teenage awkwardness or maybe even makes us think of Raj from The Big Bang Theory who can only talk to women when he's drunk in early seasons. Maybe it's a great way to use humor to make us makes sense of anxiety, whatever it may be. We hear Russell belting out his fears up and down the piano keys, and it sounds pretty ridiculous. Maybe we can think of our anxieties as just that, irrational and ridiculous. Or maybe not.

Song Exploder episode of this song: 

Read “This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us” by Sparks on Genius.

Live Performance

Official Music Video: