A recurring theme of this blog is
that I hate middle of the road 1970’s pop music. Thus, the obvious, but previously unstated yin to that yang is that I love outré
experimental weirdness. Supposedly, there is an exception to every rule, and
this is no exception. 10cc are the one group in the world I know of that I like
more THE LESS weird they get. Probably to an unfair degree, I tend to place the
blame on the group’s more ‘art rock’ oriented song writing duo, Godley and
Crème. They are the band’s most overtly humorous songwriters, yet, ironically,
they are also its most pretentious.
10cc ** (1973)
Their debut album
heavily features satires of 1950’s rock ‘n’ roll that clearly seem to be about
laughing at the musical genre rather
than with it. When they played their
self-described “doo-wop parody” ‘Donna’ for impresario Jonathan King, his
reaction, to 10cc’s delight, was that he ‘fell about, laughing.’, according to
Eric Stewart. Their insincerity is reflected in the fact 10cc used modern,
1970’s production styles on these songs, rendering them as cheap parodies
rather than affectionate tributes. (For the sake of analogy, The Beatles’
‘Honey Pie’ is a great song -assuming it is a great song- because Paul’s
accurate recreation of the 1930’s era’s sound reflects his sincere love of the
style. Had the Beatles recorded the song with tons of echo, backwards tapes,
psychedelic sound effects and sung it in corny, exaggerated voices, it would
have become a parody without the integrity of accuracy, rather than a well-crafted
pastiche.) Even Frank Zappa, rock’s most unrepentantly snarky satirist
performed doo-wop music sincerely. He couldn’t deny his love for rock’s musical
roots, even though the mushy romanticism of the genre’s lyrics we’re ridiculous
to him intellectually. Here, 10cc are clearly rejecting any attempt at creating
authentic sounding period pieces, thus displaying their modern ‘superiority’
over those earlier ‘unsophisticated’ and ‘naïve’ songwriters. The bottom line
is, any of those original rock ‘n’ roll songs are a lot better and more
un-self-consciously fun than anything presented here. Interestingly, the two
best songs on the album, the contemporary sounding ‘Headline Hustler’ and
‘Ships Don’t Disappear (Do They)?’ are the only ones on the album written by
Gouldman and Stewart without any input from Godley and Creme. They would all do
better next time.
Sheet Music **** (1974)
The group hit
their stride with this album of unerringly timeless socio-political and pop –
culture satires. Sheet Music’s
subjects; Wall Street greed, crappy zillionaire pop stars, stupid dance crazes,
death-dealing Middle Eastern religious fanatics, terrorists and Hollywood
sleaze all remain as fresh as today’s 24 hour new cycle. It appears things have
improved distressingly little over the last 44 years. The 10cc of this album
just keep sounding sharper and more astute with each passing decade.
Artistically, the
band now have their horse before their cart. Specifically, they are choosing worthy
satirical targets, and are then setting them to musical styles appropriate to
the subject. “The Wall Street Shuffle” is somehow perfectly evocative of its subject matter. It is a
calculatedly cool, elegantly understated blues rocker on the verses, and a catchy
pop tune on the choruses. “The Worst Band in the World” has a recurring riff
that sounds like a band’s hopeless attempts to get in tune. “Silly Love”
manages to parody the (then) current glam rock craze with a song that (unlike
their 1950’s parodies of the prior year) actually works as a fine example of
the genre. “The
Sacroiliac”, a dance craze for people who cannot or absolutely will not dance,
is quintuple smooth and relaxing – simply impossible to exert to in any manner.
Godley and Crème present perhaps their finest moment with “Clockwork Creep”,
sung from the point of view of (of all things) a cute, cartoony li’l terrorist
bomb on the brink of exploding an airplane, set to comic opera music worthy of
Gilbert and Sullivan.
Why not a perfect
five star rating? The six and a half minute song about Hollywood is annoyingly
precious, in places, and the first minute of the 90 second song “Hotel” is just
plain annoying.
The Original Soundtrack ** (1975)
One would assume
that “I’m Not in Love” would be the worst song in the world, yet, just about
everything else on this album somehow actually manages to be worse. Not wimpier
– that would be impossible, but they
ARE worse. The first side has a suite of songs sung in allegedly comic French
accents less convincing than that of Pepe Lepeu. The music (true to this
album’s title) sounds like hokey, pompous soundtrack music evocative of a
clichéd (and inaccurate) idea of the sound of French music. This is a blasé,
failed attempt at a tone poem. It is not remotely rock ‘n’ roll or contemporary
pop music. Who would find this fun to listen to?
I suppose “The
Film of My Life” qualifies as a pop song, but it is a smug, “We’re so superior”
parody of a Dean Martin type song. Who would find this fun to listen to? If
they did, wouldn’t they rather be listening to Dean Martin?
Another non-pop,
non-rocker is “Life Is a Minestrone”. It sounds like a crowd scene of ersatz
Italians singing a jingle in a late
1950’s soup commercial.
Of course the
album’s centerpiece is the huge international hit “I’m Not in Love”. Who the
heck decided this song would be interesting for six and a half minutes? If you
are determined to try to listen to the whole thing all the way through, just
keep telling yourself, “Big boys don’t cwy … Big boys don’t cwy..”
This album was
clearly marketed as a rock or contemporary pop album and those forms are
largely, disappointingly absent here. I should also clarify. When I say “this
is not remotely rock ‘n’ roll or contemporary pop music”, I am not claiming
those are the only good types of music. I should be more specific and say these
songs have none of the joie de vivre epitomized in those styles, nor the
entertaining, emotionally moving
qualities that can be found in all good music in any style.
The album does contain
two fine rockers; “Blackmail” and the wonderfully provocative “Second Sitting
for the Last Supper”.
The best thing
about this album is its amazing cover drawing by Humphrey Ocean. The CD version
I own doesn’t even credit him.
How Dare You? ****
Typically of the
ironic charms of 10cc, this album’s wild, clashing eclecticism is actually one
of its most endearing qualities. Also,
typical of the band’s ironies, one of the album’s most straight forward and
overtly commercial songs is labeled as being “Art for Art’s Sake”. Hey, “Ars
est celare artem”*, dude!
Speaking of which,
10cc always viewed themselves as an art rock band, and this album features a
trio of quirky art rock songs; “I Wanna Rule The World”, “I’m Mandy, Fly Me”
and “Ice Berg”. The first and the last
are goofy, with the former being the goofiest. The former is an odd mix of
strident chanting of, “I want to rule the world”, a bit of Hitleresque hollered
speechifying, and a few interjections of a wicked Bee Gees impersonation. What
the hell does it all mean? You tell me. The latter (“Iceberg”), combines a
swingy, cool jazz melody, a second melody evocative of the lyric “Life is a
roller coaster that we all ride”, an obscure reference to ‘sloppy seconds’, and
it all ends with a demonic deep bass laugh. In between is the classic,
McCartneyesque “I’m Mandy”. The song tells the story of a man who, during a
plane crash, has an angelic vision of the stewardess from the airline ad, and
by her divine intervention, somehow survives the accident. The vocals and the
melody are worthy of ‘our Paul’, and lyrically the song is far more interesting
than anything McCartney has come up with since the break-up of his best band.**
Interestingly, the
title track “How Dare You?” which opens the album, is an instrumental, belying
the notion that instrumental music is somehow lacking in content or
significance.
CONTEST TIME! What
the heck is the cover art about? It seems to strongly imply that it is telling
a story. Maybe it’s all very obvious and I am just being my usual utterly clueless
self about it. SO! Tell me what the cover means – your submission must include
an explanation of front, back and inner gatefold, and how they are related
(assuming they are related)’. YOUR REWARD! My undying appreciation of your
insightfulness, and the promise I will always think of you every time I see the
cover or hear the album (as long as my brain is capable.)
* Latin for, “The art is to appear artless.”, or something like
that.
** No, I don’t mean Wings.
Deceptive Bends ***** (1977)
After Godley and Crème
quit, The Gouldman and Stewart faction proved they were more than capable of sustaining
the 10cc trademark of quality, on their instant classic album “Deceptive Bends”.
It is arguably the most consistent and accessible album in the history of 10cc.
It features their second biggest (but best) hit, the perfect pop gem, “The
Things We Do For Love”. The group establish that understated blues rock is one
of their specialties on the great “Modern Man Blues”. “I Bought A Flat Guitar
Tutor” is a jazzy acoustic guitar number in which all the chord changes are
punned in the lyrics as they change. Pretty much everything here is classic,
perfect 10cc. The only flawed track is “Feel the Benefit”, if only because the
guitar picking sounds too much like The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence”. It ends with
a great, lengthy, majestic guitar solo that would have been worthy of the Abbey Road album. Actually, the fact that
the song suddenly snaps off mid-melody is TOO reminiscent of Abbey Road. A fade
out would have been better. The version with the bonus tracks includes the
stupidly titled, but excellent songs, “Don’t Squeeze Me Like Toothpaste” ,“Hot To
Trot” and “I’m So Laid-Back, I’m Laid Out”.
Live and Let LIVE! **** (1977)
A nice live double
album. It presents a nearly perfect ‘Best of 10cc featuring Stewart &
Gouldman’ playlist. The songs are so perfectly performed they sound a lot like
the original studio versions, only commendably punchier and rockier.
Bloody Tourists **** (1978)
This is the first in a series of underappreciated 10cc albums. Clearly,
critics were initially impressed by Gouldman and Stewart’s ability to function
as a duo on “Deceptive Bends”. Perhaps, when the duo continued on, making it
look effortless on album after album, the critics simply quit paying attention.
Here 10cc continue to do what they do best – veering from the middle of the
road at those exact moments when things need to get a little quirkier and more
musically eclectic. Highlights here include the super-subdued reggae of
“Dreadlock Holiday”, upbeat rocker “Shock on the Tube”, the Fats Domino styled
“Anonymous Alcoholic” calypso on “From Rochdale to Ocho Rios”, and top-notch rock blues on the bonus track,
“Nothing Can Move Me”. A particularly cool moment occurs in the atmospheric
“Tokyo”, in the form of a sinister electric guitar solo that sounds like
soundtrack music from a tacky monster movie.
Look Hear *** (1980)
Ten Out of 10 *** (1981)
Windows in the Jungle *** (1983)
“Bloody Tourists”,
and the albums prior to it, are the 10cc albums everyone knows best. Since I am
a member of the group ‘everyone’, I will be as guilty as every other critic in
giving these later albums short shrift. However, I will not be guilty of assigning
them the low ratings they are usually given. While these are somehow less
memorable than the earlier albums (including those early, failed experiments I
gave lower ratings), whenever I do dig these out, I’m impressed with their
goodness, and disappointed that they are not better appreciated. Oddly, they
lack the trademark humor of the earlier albums. They are (not surprisingly)
characterized by top notch professionalism in their songwriting, performing and
production. The songs are tuneful, the guitar solos are heavier than one would
expect, and reggae and ska rhythms make frequent, welcome appearances. Of
these, “Ten Out of 10” is probably the best, “Windows” probably least.
… Meanwhile (?) (1992)
Mirror, Mirror (?) (1995)
I haven’t heard
these albums, so I can’t rate them. The first was a disappointment to the fans because
it was touted as a full group comeback, but only used Godley and Crème as
backup vocalists. The second has Gouldman on one side, and Stewart on the
other, and the two were never in the studio at the same time.
I’ve written it before and I’ll write it again. There’s more here
than meets the ear. Happy listening!
