Posted on 12/03/2010 10:01:00 AM PST by Reaganite Republican
10cc were an English art rock band initially consisting of four musicians: Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme...
For the most part, 10cc featured two strong songwriting teams, one 'commercial' and one 'artistic'. Both teams however injected sharp wit to lyrically-dextrous and musically varied songs. Stewart and Gouldman were predominantly pop-song-writers, who created most of the band's accessible songs.
In contrast, Godley and Creme -who went on after the band's breakups to make a series of records together- were the predominantly experimental half of 10cc, featuring an Art School sensibility and cinematic inspired writing. However, every member was a multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer, and producer.
"Donna", released as the first 10cc single, was chosen by BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Tony Blackburn as his Record of the Week, helping to launch it into the Top 30. The song peaked at #2 in the UK in October 1972. A similar 50's influence/ can be found in many of the band's pop songs, on-through 1977's American radio standard "The Things We Do for Love".
After a series of moderate hits the band signed a major deal with Mercury Records- the catalyst for the deal was one song – "I'm Not in Love".
The band's producer recalled: "At that point in time we were... struggling. We were absolutely skint, the lot of us, we were really struggling seriously, and Philips Phonogram wanted to do a deal with us. They wanted to buy Jonathan King's contract. I rang them. I said come and have a listen to what we've done, come and have a listen to this track.
And they came up and they freaked, and they said "This is a masterpiece. How much money, what do you want? What sort of a contract do you want? We'll do anything, we'll sign it".
On the strength of that one song, 10cc did a five-year deal with them for five albums and paid a serious amount of money. The Original Soundtrack, an LP which was already complete, was released just weeks later. The album went on to both a critical and commercial success.
It is also notable for its opening track, Godley & Creme's "Une Nuit A Paris (One Night In Paris)", an eight-minute, multi-part "mini-operetta" that is thought to have been an influence on "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Its melody can also be heard in the overture to Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical "Phantom of the Opera".
"I'm Not in Love" then gave the band their second UK #1 in June 1975. The song also provided them with their first US chart success when the song reached #2....
[YouTube]: 10CC - "I'm Not in Love" - 1975
Video/links/more at Reaganite Republican
I told my daughter and son-in-law just the other day that they missed out on one of the best things ever. Rock & roll and concerts and such.
Ich fahrn fahrn fahrn
auf der Autobahn!!!
Back in the mid 70’s I was a Prog Rock and Jazz Fusion fan, later moving on the Punk and New Wave scene, and in my condescending ignorance dissed a lot of the conventional rock and pop of that era. It was great to rediscover it years later.
There was SO much good music in the decade of the 70’s
My all-time favorite album came out in 1974, Genesis’ “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway”, it still sounds fresh today, which is unusual for a lot of prog from that era.
Regarding concerts:
I was just looking through my Concert ticket stub album. A representative entry:
Jeff Beck/Mahavishnu Orchestra
Ambassador Theatre
St. Louis, MO
1974
10th row-Left Center
$6.50 (!!)
Overall 10cc lost their magic after Godley and Creme left.
10cc’s How Dare You was one of the best albums of mid-70’s. I bought if for “Art for Art’s Sake,” but the whole album was surprisingly good.
ping
“And the carpet crawlers heed their callers:
We’ve got to get in to get out..”
Now you’re talking, Mr Dallas!
I have that bit of prime Prog/Art Rock on my music server at the office, and my patients will often ask (among the other esoterica I feature [LOL]), “Who IS that band? I never heard anything like that before!”
I’ve saved most of my concert stubs too, spanning the 70s to the present day. I remember fretting over paying $25 to see Roxy Music in 1977.
$25.00 in 1977?
That must have been a Backstage Pass! {LOL}
Or, California pricing....
‘Can’ was arguably the best of the German lot (a bit earlier than Kraftwerk, though). ‘Tangerine Dream’ if you *really* want to go ‘far out’ on electronic music. (My favorite Krautrock piece remains to be ‘Solar Music Live’
by Grobschnitt - horribly compressed as it may be.)
They actually paid to have their music published? What's the point of that?
Would still be 650 now, just remove the decimal lol
I am exactly the same
Last five years have been an eye opener, and luckily I caught the tail end of the golden rock era with late 70s concerts
Recent learning curve focused on 60s and more British stuff like Status Quo
I'm right with you there.
This is precisely the kind of older rock pop I feature every Friday, fwiw
http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/search?q=oldies
Heh! One of my closest friends in H.S. had an Olds 442 (performance version of the Cutlass) with t-tops and a 455 engine. That thing was awesome.
When I was in HS, Cutlass Supreme was the best selling car in the United States (1977)
Now it’s a freaking Toyota
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