To celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the appearance of Sparks’ album Propaganda (November
1974)
***The many amazing faces of propaganda!***
We tend to think of propaganda in a political or military
context, and often negatively, as information, especially of a biased or
misleading nature, used to promote a point of view and persuade people. But the
more general dictionary definition: the spreading or promoting of ideas, (dis)information
or rumour to indoctrinate, influence or mislead, or to support a particular
cause, allows for much wider interpretation. The title of this essay is itself
an example of propaganda in the sense of promotion, publicity, advertising or
hype, something we see every day in the press, on television and on
social media, notably in the posts of ‘influencers’.
Propaganda (1974) is one of Sparks’ albums on
which there is also a song of the same title. This might suggest that is it an
important theme. We are well aware of Ron Mael’s genius in exploring different
nuances of language, often with layers of meaning or a metaphorical level. So, do
all the songs on this album reflect different aspects of ‘propaganda’?
The first and third songs on the album sets the scene with
military images to reflect the idea of the battle between the sexes, a theme
running throughout this album. As in many Sparks’ songs about relationships, women
are cast in the dominant role and seen as an enemy, or at least the opposition.
The brief acapella ‘Propaganda’, the introductory tract sung
at a manic pace, employs the extended metaphor of a military context merging
with the theme of sexuality and seduction. In her address, ‘hello soldier boy’,
the girl would seem to be inviting other suitors to ‘come on over’ but the
narrator, claiming ‘you are right to fight her propaganda’, insists that he
does not need ‘more/competition for/her affection’, and issues the opposing
command to presumably a possible rival to ‘fight on/fight on/over there’. There is a theory that this song alludes to
Tokyo Rose, the generic name given by Allied troops during the Second World War
to a group of English-speaking Japanese women who broadcast propaganda to
demoralise and destabilise the soldiers, the name later becoming synonymous
with sexualised and manipulative evil. More
likely, in my view, is an allusion to the more contemporary Vietnam war and Hanoi
Hannah (Trinh Thi Ngo) who broadcast anti-US propaganda on Radio Hanoi. Addressing
‘G.I. Joe’, she goaded the listeners by telling them that U.S. soldiers were
poorly informed and confused about why they are there and what was going on. The
last such broadcast was in 1973 when U.S. troops were withdrawing.
The third song, ‘Reinforcements’, echoes the military link
with its extended range of metaphors for either a fraught situation between
lovers or another unsuccessful attempt at seduction. Like the soldiers in Hanoi
Hannah’s broadcasts, the singer seems to be in a state of complete confusion
(‘You won’t tell me why the shrubbery moves’ is also a neat reference to Macbeth), his relationship is a
constant battle for which he is unprepared and inadequate (‘I could use a
strong rear guard’) and the girl outwits him at every stage: ‘My camouflage/
Well, it didn’t work on you… in fact most /Things they tell recruits never seem
to do’. The song is so full of sexual double entendre that we might wonder
whether it is in fact a joke about songs that do exploit such military imagery.
The narrator is yet another in a long line of typical Sparks’ suffering males
or nervous adolescents who are out of their depth in the romance stakes.
Russell’s deliberately rather shaky intonation ‘reinforces’ this idea (sorry).
The song that is linked on the album and in performance with
‘Propaganda’, ‘At Home, at Work, at Play’, also sung at an urgent pace, picks
up this idea of seduction as laying siege to the object of lust. The singer is offering
information (from his own experience?) on how to cope with a relationship with this
busy and popular woman. Like the speaker
in ‘Propaganda’, he does not want competition,’ I ain’t a glutton for a lot of
sweaty company’’. He is also speaking from a position of subordination: at
home, at work and at play, he is doing all the work as butler, maid and caddy to
win her approval and favour. This song can perhaps seem a shade sinister, implying
the need for calculation, tactics, and manoeuvres to reach the desired goal.
The first single from the album, ‘Never Turn Your Back on Mother
Earth’, depicts an equally age-old battle, that between mankind and Nature. The
latter is often depicted romantically as beautiful, kind and gentle but
this is deceptive. The listener is urged not to be ‘tempted by her favours’,
because she cannot be trusted, even when on her ‘best behaviour’. Far from
being a plea for the care of the environment, as sometimes thought, this song
is a warning of the power of nature and her indifference to the plans and
welfare of human beings. As natives of earthquake-threatened Los Angeles, Ron
and Russell are well aware of the potential for Nature to unleash a sudden
destructive side. Although couched in terms of a human relationship, the lines ‘I’ll
admit I was unfaithful/ But from now I’ll be more faithful’, urge that humans,
ultimately powerless in the contest, must stay alert and wary, and not be
seduced by the propaganda vision of a harmonious and benign Nature.
If we look at the wider meaning of propaganda as the use of
words to persuade or manipulate, then we can see how the theme appears
elsewhere on the album in respect of daily life. For example, in ‘Thanks But No
Thanks’, we see the child’s viewpoint about his parents’ orders, coming from
‘high above him’, warning of the dangers in the world about him. The lines, ‘My parents say the world is
cruel/I think that they prefer it cruel’, is deeply thought-provoking but actually
reflects the child’s perspective. He resents their warnings as just a means to
control and limit him, privileging his own naïve viewpoint (‘I know that you’re
all ok’), despite painting a picture of being besieged by offers of sweets and
rides from dubious individuals who materialise at the end of the school day.
The fearful speaker in ‘Don’t Leave Me Alone With Her’ is also
guilty of a sort of propaganda, deliberately casting aspersions on a woman,
name-calling to present a dangerous and unsavoury image to others and evoking a
bizarre range of horrors (‘Hitler in high heels’, ‘De Sade who makes good tea’)
obviously designed to influence opinion.
The lines ‘If you go, who’ll say no to her?’ suggest that his panic is because he fears succumbing
to seduction himself. Is the woman concerned perhaps already his partner? If
so, his attitude is reminiscent of that of the speaker in ‘Thank God it’s Not
Christmas’, who dreads spending time alone at home.
Another anxious protagonist appears in ‘Something For The
Girl With Everything’, fearing that if his girlfriend is allowed to speak out,
her knowledge of his past may be used in spreading propaganda that might damage
or destroy his reputation (‘She knew way back when you weren’t yourself’.) He
goes to increasingly extreme lengths to ensure her mouth remains firmly shut so
that ‘You can breathe another day/ Secure in knowing she won’t break you
(yet)’. Again, language itself can cause
harm and is in this case is a constant and unpredictable enemy.
‘Who Don’t Like Kids’ can be seen as propaganda to present an
enhanced image of the speaker’s self
with the idea that children are proof of a man’s virility and assure his
‘survival’: they are ‘living proof that I’m really sound/ They’ll ensure I’m
always around’. The assertiveness of the title, with its uncertain or sarcastic
undertones, indicates that the singer seeks to impose this as a ‘truth’ on the
listener, perhaps to convince himself too of the value of his domestic
lifestyle. Similarly, in ‘BC’, the speaker Aaron laments the breakup of the
stability of his little family, indulging in painting a propagandist (and
evidently untrue) picture of their previous domestic bliss (wedding, honeymoon,
little house) to persuade his wife and child to return. Moreover, the words
‘rumours spread like tumours, too too fast and too too true’, would seem to
allude to the undisclosed cause of the breakup, suggesting that he sees himself
as a victim of malicious propaganda of some sort.
We might even include ‘Achoo’, another tale of a faithless
female, in which a sneeze is seen humorously as a devastating kind of wordless propaganda
that is capable of infecting everyone: ‘Achoo, one breath the deed has been
done’ and ‘You can’t ignore that sort of air’. In a witty response to the idea
of propaganda as verbal persuasion, no words are needed to create this kind of
harmful result.
And so to ‘Bon voyage’. The back story to this scenario from the
Biblical story of Noah’s Ark is that God punished all living creatures for the
corruption and depravity on Earth by sending a great flood to destroy
everything, saving only the righteous and obedient Noah and his family and a
selection of pairs of animals and birds. There are many versions of a great
flood story about judgement and salvation in other religions and myths, the aim
being to warn and persuade/threaten humanity to be obedient and change their
ways. In other words, a key theme in religious propaganda. In the song, the
animals left behind in the loading of the Ark see themselves, however, as
victims of ‘the randomest sampling’, in an unfair situation of ‘safety for the
few’, which is ‘all governed by the laws of chance’, and ponder how they might sneak
aboard undetected. The insincere generosity of their repeated ‘bon voyage’ to
their ‘lucky friends and foes’, suggests a reluctant acceptance masking a
deeply felt reaction against such propaganda.
Although we obviously can not pretend to know
what Ron had in mind, it seems to me that throughout this album, the aims and dangers
of propaganda are explored on many different levels, blended with humour in
typical Sparks’ fashion. Ron claimed in 1974 that the album art, which depicts
Ron and Russell in various precarious positions, was just intended to be
eye-catching, not reflecting the lyrics. However, the images do humorously
reflect the themes of unseen danger and sinister goings on that emerge on the
album as well as acting as ‘propaganda’ (in the sense of dynamic publicity) for
this follow up to Kimono My House.
Thank you for reading this and, as
always, I would welcome any comments and suggestions.
