Play It Again, Sam

For this evening's Wild Reed "music night" I highlight another track by the ever-so talented Sam Sparro. (You may recall that a recently shared Sparro's song "Black and Gold.") Sparro's music has been described as "electro-soul," due to its artful blending of soul, funk, disco, and modern electronica. Tonight's track is "Pocket," which in Australia, at least, was the third single released from Sparro's 2008 eponymous album.

If you stand tall with your back to the door
Then it's your own fault when you get knocked to the floor
You may have fooled me once
But I've got a pretty damn good memory

It's a small world what a type cliche
But it's a small world, how many times can I say
That everything you do will end up
Coming right back around again

And if you don't know that by now
Then I feel quite sorry for you,
I'm sorry for you
Yeah, the people that you keep around
Well, you learn from them and they learn from you

So keep your friends close
And your enemies in your pocket
Yeah, keep your friends close
And your enemies in your pocket

. . . And it's a lively color not black and white
But some people think they're the ones who got it right
In a room so full, well, you have to be a little more flexible

And if you don't know that by now
Then I feel quite sorry for you,
I'm sorry for you
Yeah, the people that you keep around
Well, you'll learn from them and they learn from you

So keep your friends close
And your enemies in your pocket
Yeah, keep your friends close
And your enemies in your pocket . . .

Following is an excerpt from EQ Music Blog's August 29, 2010 interview with Sam Sparro. In it, Sparro discusses "Pocket," his "political" song "No End in Sight," and the changing world for openly gay recording artists such as himself.


EQ: What happened to the release of "Pocket" [in Britain]? That was and still is my favourite song of yours from the first album. I heard it was going to be the third single from the album, but it never surfaced.

Sam Sparro: You know it was just one of those things. I feel it would have been a great single. It's one of the songs people respond to most when we do live shows. At that point, I was having a bit of difficulty with the label. The guy who signed me was the head of the label and he left. There was just a lack of enthusiasm after that. They were just convinced that they didn't want to push it as a single – that's what happened. As far as I'm concerned, it was the third single really.


EQ: My absolute favorite song of yours was the B-side "No End In Sight." Love that track, tell me more about it.

Sam Sparro: Really? Wow! I guess that's me being political. I wrote that song in the tail end of the Bush era [laughs]. I guess I was feeling quite disappointed in the way things were going in this country and around the world. There was just a big tense feeling that a lot of people felt around that time. The feeling like we lost a lot of our privacy and the laws that changed that gave the government access to all our telephone calls and emails. It really pissed me off!


EQ: Openly gay artistry these days, is it changing with the likes of you, Scissor Sisters, Joe McElderry, Adam Lambert?

Sam Sparro: I think it definitely is changing and it has changed. I still think there's a ways to go. I don't even necessarily think it's a gay or straight issue. I think there is a difference in the way society perceives female entertainers and male entertainers and how often times female entertainers are allowed to express their sexuality much more openly than male entertainers - especially gay male entertainers. The whole thing with Adam Lambert kissing the guy on TV, it was really blown completely out of proportion and it really highlighted the double standard in the media. The evidence is right there. So I think that things are changing, but people do have some catching up to do.



See also the previous Wild Reed post:
Sam Sparro