10 cc

“Bet you’d sell your mother.

You can buy another!”

 

 

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“D+”

Main Decade:

70's 

Main Ages:

The Great Transition (1970-1979)

 Miembros Clave:

Lol Creme: Rythm Guitar, Keyboards, Singer

Kevin Godley: Drums, Singer

Graham Gouldman: Bass, Singer

Eric Stewart: Lead Guitar, Keyboards, Singer

 

Key Songs:

The Wall Street Shuffle, Headline Hustler, Rubber Bullets, Donna, The Dean And I, Silly Love, Une Nuit A Paris, I’m Not In Love, Speed Kills, Life Is A Minestrone, Art For Art’s Sake, Good Morning Judge, Dreadlock Holiday, For You And I

 

Amid the ridiculous amount of top-notch music produced during the 1970s, and among names like Zeppelin, Clapton, the Stones, Pink Floyd, and the list goes on, a band like 10cc often goes almost unnoticed by the vast majority, even by the most dedicated classic rock fans. The reasons? It could be attributed to the brevity of their most prolific period, during which the four original members recorded together—a period that lasted just four years—or to their constant desire to experiment and record anti-pop songs that, despite featuring numerous catchy hooks and melodies, completely mocked the music industry and its many clichés. As a result, their songs could be too alien to audiences accustomed to, let's say, more traditional musical offerings. ​ While at the time there were many bands trying to take rock to the next level and transform it into a form of cultured music through progressive rock and other primarily European movements, 10cc went to the opposite extreme: they took themselves so lightly that they bordered on comedy rock, though not quite. They drew heavily from the twisted sense of humor of people like Frank Zappa and the Kinks, but they also took it further through the cinematic storytelling sensibility of their main composers: Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, who had once studied art in college. They were one of the most brilliant songwriting duos of the era and the ones that would contribute the distinctive humorous and experimental stamp for which 10cc stands out. ​ Their counterparts would be their two remaining companions, the popmeisters, the guys with a knack for creating catchy and accessible melodies: guitarist Eric Stewart and bassist and multi-instrumentalist Graham Gouldman (whose songwriting resume already included hits like the Yardbirds' "For Your Love," the Hollies' "Bus Stop," and Herman's Hermits' "No Milk Today"). In this way, both pairs—so uneven, as some might say—would achieve a remarkable balance between the experimental and purposeful with the commercial and melodic. And therein lies the greatness of their first four albums, a string of albums worthy of standing alongside the best works of other 70s giants like those mentioned above.

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The four had already played together here and there in other bands with very modest success, whose names were buried in oblivion. But it wasn't until the formation of 10cc that they would achieve considerable recognition, place some songs at the top of the charts (Rubber Bullets, I'm Not in Love), and reach their peak as musicians and composers.

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The fact that all four actively participated in the composition of the songs resulted in a tremendous diversity of sounds within the group's catalog: You will never, or rarely, find two similar 10cc songs, or at least in the period from 1973 to 1976. That's why they can suddenly surprise you with small operas like Une Nuit A Paris, powerful and highly technical rockers like Speed Kills, The Wall Street Shuffle, and Blackmail, or completely unclassifiable pieces like Clockwork Creep and Life Is A Minestrone.

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What happened after such a period of creativity and consistency? Of course, ego problems and musical differences between the two songwriting teams would arise. Godley and Creme would begin working on projects alongside 10cc, to which Graham and Stewart would react angrily, demanding that their bandmates focus solely on their main band. The two pairs' very different songwriting styles didn't help matters either.

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Godley and Creme were becoming less and less interested in Graham and Stewart's songwriting, which they found increasingly predictable. And if there was one thing these two disliked, it was clichés and commonplaces, musically speaking.

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In 1976, after finishing the recording of How Dare You? (in my opinion, their last notable work), they would announce their dissolution as a band. The point is that Graham and Stewart would keep the name 10cc, while Godley and Creme, without making much of a fuss about it, would continue recording together, simply calling themselves Godley & Creme.

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As expected, Graham and Stewart quickly replaced their other two bandmates and recorded more albums as 10cc. Many albums. But the band's songwriting quality plummeted, and each album they released after the breakup would be progressively worse than the one before it. And so, 10cc became exactly what they had once been mocked and parodied: a highly predictable, soft-rock band that even your grandmother could listen to. The quality of their songs and albums plummeted to the point of becoming one of the most generic and redundant bands of the 1980s. Some of their work is simply unforgivable.

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On the other hand, it's worth mentioning that the albums Godley and Creme released, despite lacking Graham/Stewart's signature melodies, would feel much more like a true continuation of How Dare You? and 10cc in general. Works like L and Freeze Frame come quite close to the qualitative level of that tetralogy consisting of 10cc's self-titled debut, Sheet Music, The Original Soundtrack, and How Dare You?, and seem at least like their spiritual successors.

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A bittersweet and somewhat tragic story. It's a shame that the conditions didn't exist for the four original members to continue together and that they went so quickly from being the best of the '70s to the opposite extreme of mediocrity and superficiality in their post-breakup period. I'm convinced that, had they continued together, they could have achieved truly interesting and transcendent things that would have given them the place and recognition they deserve. Unfortunately, the story was different.

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Finally, why did they call themselves 10cc? Well, according to studies, the average amount of semen a man produces in one ejaculation is 9 cubic centimeters (9cc). But Godley, Creme and company didn't consider themselves average guys, naturally.

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By El Hombre Mojón 

Mar/12/2014

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