Before they were Sparks, brothers Ron and Russell Mael were teenagers growing up in Pacific Palisades. More than the sunbeams, they bathed in the sound waves of the mid-to-late Sixties’ rock product, nourishing themselves on the transcendent and the trash alike. A decade later, after Sparks had achieved champion status on the international rock market, Russell Mael went on the radio to play his favorite songs from that period and talk about his LA adolescence.

The broadcast is about two hours long. According to the blog stranger than known, where I came across this remarkable recording, it’s a tape of Russell Mael’s appearance on BBC Radio 1 around November 1979. If the date’s correct, Mael would have been promoting Sparks’ collaboration with Giorgio Moroder, No. 1 in Heaven.

Mael sets up each song with a cultural observation, bit of rock lore, or a memory: seeing the Doors at local dances, auditioning bass players for garage bands with the ascending line from “Hey Joe,” driving up to San Francisco to see Moby Grape, watching surfers put lemon juice in their hair, playing the “Louie Louie” single at 33⅓ rpm in the hope of hearing a secret, lewd message, and so on.

The tape cuts in at the beginning and cuts out at the end, but otherwise it’s quite good for a home recording of a 1979 radio show. Note that the first track ends after “Kicks,” and the remaining hour and a half of the broadcast is on the second track.
 

 
Russell’s DJ set:

“You’re Lost Little Girl,” the Doors
“Hey Joe,” the Leaves
“Seven And Seven Is,” Love
“Surfer Joe,” the Surfaris
“Mr. Soul,” Buffalo Springfield
“Kicks,” Paul Revere & The Raiders
“Twelve Thirty,” the Mamas & the Papas
“Hey Grandma,” Moby Grape
“Louie Louie,” the Kingsmen
“96 Tears,” ? and the Mysterians
“Eight Miles High,” the Byrds
“Laugh Laugh,” the Beau Brummels
“Summer in the City,” the Lovin’ Spoonful
“Sweet Cream Ladies,” the Box Tops
“Wooly Bully,” Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
“She’s About A Mover,” Sir Douglas Quintet
“You’re A Very Lovely Woman,” the Merry-Go-Round
“Pretty Ballerina,” the Left Banke
“Walk Away Renee,” the Left Banke
“Pushin’ Too Hard,” the Seeds
“Let’s Live For Today,” the Grassroots
“Little Latin Lupe Lou,” the Righteous Brothers
“Nature’s Way,” Spirit
“Summertime Blues,” Blue Cheer
“Liar Liar,” the Castaways
“Misirlou Twist,” Dick Dale and His Del-Tones
“Let There Be Drums,” Sandy Nelson