10cc current opinion ?
Posted by Fuzzyface on 11 December 2008 - 9:08pm.
Sort of related to the Steely Dan thread,10cc were often compared to Steely Dan.Just listening to them now I see similarities except of course, 10cc had four singer/songwriters split Godley/Creme art Gouldman/Stewart pop.
Their classic albums ran from 10cc to How Dare you and there also gems on later albums listening to the beauty complexity of their best work for example the track Don't Hang Up their music was some of the best pop since The Beatles.
This is shear cultural gold
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Agreed...
'Proper' 10cc (i.e. pre the split) were the British Steely Dan. Sadly underrated and due for a critical reassessment.
My personal preference is for Sheet Music over the others
Sheet Music was were they were at their peak...
...there may have been better music after but I found it a little too clever for cleverness sake. When Godley and Creme left the playfulness and true humour went - Dreadlock Holiday was so forced.
Followed Godley and Creme thereafter - and know they went into the Art Of Noise and film making respectively. Gouldman joined Wax and still tours with a version of 10cc but what happened to Eric Stewart after he played with McCartney?
It took me a LONG time...
...to get the joke in the title of Sheet Music.
(Try saying it in a cod-French accent)
Of course
For example
A fun size Pink Floyd
Is how I've always though of them
I never got the carping about them being "clever-clever"...
... I just thought they were Good. For purely nostalgic (got me at the right time when I was just getting "into" music) reasons my fave is "The Original Soundtrack", but love "How Dare You" and the wryly-titled "Sheet Music" too. Very much swept under the carpet of cool these days, but huge in their day and definitely ripe for reappraisal...
10cc... Reasessment...
Are you listening Mr Commissioning Editor?
Someone could do with a trip to Stockport :-)
Compared to Steely Dan?
I quite liked 10CC so I'm not knocking them for the sake of it, but who compared them to Steely Dan and when? It's not a comparison that I ever recall being made, it's not one that ever occurred to me or one I can recall any friends making. Can you supply chapter and verse?
Dunno who made the comparison in print...
...but I made it upthread and my opinion is just as valid as that of CSM, Nick Kent, Lester Bangs etc :-)
Back in the day, I got into the Dan and the 'Cc at around the same time and always thought they had a lot in common - witty, literate songs, exceptional playing, a wide range of musical styles and a perfectionism in the studio
Validity
I haven't said anything about the validity or otherwise of anyone's comments. I read the opening post as suggesting this was a common comparison being made back around 73 / 74. I never came across it, so I was asking from whence it came.
Have to disagree
I like 10cc a lot, and coming from near Stockport have a lot of affection for them. I even poked my nose into Strawberry Studios to see a very boring office like lobby before bottling it and legging it. I still have the "Thinks....school stinks" album with the fold out desk predating Alice Cooper's "Schools out" by a few years.
But....the Dan had a brilliant and unique fusion of jazz sensibilities and pop which noone else has come close to. 10cc were a great pop group but didn't really do anything new. Much as they were great, clever etc etc.
10cc might be the Brit Steely Dan in the sense that they were smarter than most of their contemporaries, but musically they are nothing like each other. And the Dan are better.
Thinks ...School Stinks
Slightly pedantic but wasn't that Hotlegs, who lacked, I think it was, Graham Gouldman?
I think you're right
I salute your pedantry sir. This is what happens when you allow work to disrupt concentrating on blogging.
Original Soundtrack
is a gem!!
Genius in my humble opinion!
It's Interesting
To compare the two band names and their meanings I think 10ccs is wittier and biologically stronger,as for comparisons I agree that Steely Dans overall body of work is better but believe 10ccs individual artistic peaks to be higher.Both great in their own way maybe the comparison was a lazy one.