10cc: "The Things We Do For Love"--The Singles Collection

10cc made the definitive single of the Nineties--in 1975. "I'm Not In Love" has withstood punk, disco, and every other music craze of the past 20 years to remain the most modern recording of the postmodern age. Never mind the fact that the song itself is rarely off the charts, with hit remakes by acts as diverse as the Pretenders and Will To Power. Play 10cc's own version alongside the songs that originally flanked it on the Hot 100--tunes like Frankie Valli's "Swearin' To God" and Olivia Newton John's "Please Mr. Please"--and it's obvious that "I'm Not In Love" belongs more on today's charts, alongside the alternative and ambient acts for whom 10cc is no small influence.

A listen to 10cc's A-sides shows that the group not only made the definitive Nineties single 20 years too early, but also the definitive Fifties single--"Donna"--20 years too late. Fortunately, the lack of synchronicity only served to gain them millions of fans hungry for an alternative to a music world that had begun to take itself way too seriously. 10cc were masters of the British "piss-take," taking the wind out of the sails of that decade's bloated musical excess. The ultimate joke is that it backfired; "I'm Not In Love," with its 265-odd vocal overdubs, inspired a generation of one-upping technophiles. Nonetheless, 10cc has soldiered on, albeit in an abridged form, to the present day. "The Worst Band In The World" refuses to die--or to live up to its self-mocking alias.

Three-fourths of 10cc--guitarist Lol Creme (b. Sept. 17, 1947), drummer Kevin Godley (b. Oct. 7, 1945), and bass player Graham Gouldman (b. May 10, 1946)--first met in the early 1960s, when they all took part in the Jewish Lads Brigade, a youth organization in their hometown of Manchester, England. Among the rock bands that rehearsed at the J.L.B. center were the Whirlwinds, who included Gouldman (on guitar), and the Sabres, who included Godley and Creme.

Godley, asked which drummers influenced him, is at a loss. "I never used to think like that, quite honestly," he explains. "I was never what you might call a 'committed' drummer. Everything I've ever done has always been a spontaneous thing. I sort of found I could play drums because I didn't really feel I was good enough at the other instruments I'd attempted. When I sat down behind the kit, it worked. But I wasn't one of these cats who sat around and listened and studied and tried to copy. I just let the limbs do it."

Creme quickly tired of the Sabres and decided to, in his words, "go off and be a songwriter"--even though he hadn't yet actually written any songs. Unfortunately for him, there was no Brill Building in Manchester where a 16-year-old songsmith could ply his trade. However, as soon as he did write a tune, opportunity knocked. "The Whirlwinds got a record deal," Creme explains, "and their manager asked if he could use one of my songs as a B-side. When the single came out, I was thrilled to see my name on the label. I was the first person in my neighborhood to have that thrill, because Graham had yet to write a song."

When the Whirlwinds broke up, in 1964, Gouldman nicked Kevin Godley from the Sabres to form a new band, the Mockingbirds, and started writing songs for them. One such tune, "For Your Love," was rejected by their label, EMI, for being "uncommercial." When that same song then became the breakthrough smash for the Yardbirds, Gouldman suddenly found himself in the songwriting aristocracy. Surprisingly, while he penned classics for the likes of the Hollies ("Bus Stop"), Herman's Hermits ("No Milk Today"), and Wayne Fontana ("Pamela, Pamela"), his own group's discs went unnoticed.

Kevin Godley, when he wasn't drumming for the Mockingbirds, studied graphic design at art college. On weekends, he would meet up with Lol Creme, who was studying art at another school, and they collaborated on a number of artistic and musical projects. "Multi-media artists" before the term was created, they were spiritual kin of Andy Warhol's Factory crowd. They even wrote a musical, never produced. "I think it was called A Book Of Pumphrey," Godley recalls. "It was about a schoolteacher that freaked out." He suppresses a laugh. "It probably predates The Wall by about fifteen years."

"We didn't know what the hell we were gonna do with all this creative energy that was welling up inside of us," he continues, "and we threw it in all sorts of directions, and one of the directions eventually turned into 10cc."

Eric Stewart (b. Jan. 20, 1945) never went to the Jewish Lads Brigade, for good reason: he wasn't Jewish. This little-known fact later caused Creme to nickname the group "Three Yids and a Yok" ("yok" being Yiddish for "Gentile"). Stewart notes, tongue-in-cheek, "Well, I was circumcised at birth, so they did let me in the band." He adds, "Somebody asked them once, 'Why three Jewish boys with a yok?" And they said, 'Because he's very bright.'" Still, he admits that he's had to go through life with people wishing him "Happy New Year" in September and asking if Stewart is his real name.

In 1963, after doing time as rhythm guitarist in a host of Manchester bands, Stewart became a charter member of Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders (whose story and music are encapsulated in the PolyGram CD The Best Of Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders). When singer Fontana split in '66, Stewart took over most of the Mindbenders' vocal chores, singing lead on their classic "A Groovy Kind Of Love."

Eric Stewart crossed paths with the rest of the future 10cc through his connection with Graham Gouldman, whom he met in the early Sixties. After the Mockingbirds split in '67, Gouldman produced the Mindbenders, joining as bass player in their final days. When the Mindbenders fizzled out, Stewart brought Gouldman in as a partner in a recording studio which he and his friend Peter Tattersall, had bought. Strawberry Studios would play an important role in the development of 10cc.

Gouldman's manager, Harvey Lisberg (who manages 10cc to this day), got him a job writing songs for the New York bubblegum factory of Kasenetz-Katz. It was little more than a money gig for Gouldman, but he used the opportunity to engage his old friends Godley, Creme, and Stewart in making records--albeit under Kasenetz-Katz-owned names like the Ohio Express. "In a way," Gouldman observes, "it was through Kasenetz-Katz that 10cc was formed. Some of the first things that the four of us ever did were because of them, which is ironic in a way, since they were the kings of bubblegum and we became the opposite."

One day in early 1970, while Gouldman was writing in New York City, Creme, Godley, and Stewart happened upon the song that would make them international stars: "Neanderthal Man." Stewart and Tattersall, in the process of upgrading Strawberry Studios, had just brought in a new recording deck. To test it, Creme recalls, "Godley started thumping on the drums, and I was hollering this mad tune." Godley concurs, adding, "Lol was off to one side, strumming away on a guitar and singing this thing that he came up with the day before in a taxi!" The name "Hotlegs" came from their nickname for a Strawberry secretary who favored leather hot pants.

"Neanderthal Man" gained Hotlegs a contract with Phillips Records and international stardom. However, after it sold two million copies, there came the problem of how to follow up such a left-field hit. They tried with the tongue-in-cheek "How Many Times," with lyrics that made fun of the repetitive nature of their first hit, but it quickly became clear that the group was destined to be a one-hit wonder.

Hotlegs' third and last single, "Lady Sadie," came out only in England. Stewart says that, despite Hotlegs' lack of staying power, the experience that they all got from being in the group had a profoundly positive influence on 10cc. "Initially," he says, "we never took ourselves seriously. That all came later, and that was a shame. When it began, we were just kids with a great big sand pit, lots of buckets and spades, and no one watching the clock. We loved it." In late 1970, Gouldman returned home from America, just in time to play bass in Hotlegs for a tour with the Moody Blues. It would be the first time that the future 10cc lineup played together live.

By 1971, Hotlegs was over, but the group's members had no trouble keeping busy. Strawberry was established as Northern England's premier recording studio, attracting top-drawer artists. The four future 10cc members played on and produced others' records, while continuing to experiment making music of their own. In early 1972, they came up with a projected A-side--"Waterfall"--and brought it to Apple Records. Apple took its time deciding, and eventually passed. Fortunately, by the time the rejection came, it didn't matter, because, in the course of making a B-side, the group had come up with a superior A-side: "Donna."

A textbook example of Godley and Creme's collective wit, "Donna" was also the first major showcase for their dramatic, visually evocative song styling. Both of them were great fans of comics, cartoons, and anything that mixed words with images. Creme claims, "I'm a total artist, for better or for worse. I can't help but think of things to do with pictures and noises." Similarly, at the time of 10cc's debut, Godley told reporters that he visualized many of his compositions more as cartoons than "merely" songs. Today, Godley, letting his old sense of humor peek through, says that the group should remake "Donna" with a new title. "I think we should call it 'Madonna,'" he deadpans. "You know; 'Madonna waiting by the telephone...'"

Lol Creme was drafted to sing lead on "Donna" in the group's typically democratic fashion: Whenever they would record a song, each member would try doing the vocal. When one was done, Stewart would hold a sign to the control room glass that read, "NEXT," until together they decided which singer was best for the song. Interviewed today, the members agree that, when it came Creme's turn to try "Donna," it was no question that he was the one. "Lol's voice--that high-pitched scream--certainly suited 'Donna,'" Stewart says. "None of the rest of us could get that sound. After it hit, we had to do a television show in Germany, and the producer asked us where the girl singer was!" Shortly thereafter, an American writer wrote in Rock magazine that Creme's singing "makes Frankie Valli sound like Tennessee Ernie Ford by comparison." In the same article, Creme was quoted as saying, "I'd like everyone to know that I do have balls. I am masculine... honest."

To be continued in the March issue of Fufkin.

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