Tackling a biography of the Mael brothers, when they’ve delighted over the years in adorning their background with everything from amusing diversions to the most outrageous of tall tales, is no mean feat. Thompson reports that, unlikely as it seems, there are those out there who still believe the brothers’ long-held claim to be the sons of Doris Day, while there certainly other, shall we say, fibs, that continue to circulate as gospel.
Thompson avoids falling into these traps for two reasons. Firstly, this has been a work-in-progress for many years and, in a history of discarded musicians, he’s managed to converse with most former Sparks collaborators. Secondly, he’s steered away from the brothers as characters in their own right and focused on a straight reporting of their album, tour, album, obscurity, comeback, album, international treasures story.
The result is a decent, but slightly vanilla account of Sparks’ successes and failures,. At one point, longtime drummer Tammy Glover makes allusion to creative tensions in the studio, but there’s really no delving into the people behind the eclectic legacy, so it’s a biography that lacks just a bit of additional – excuse us – spark.
