10 cc in PA

 

Do you believe everything that you read in interviews?  LOL.  As perhaps the biggest 10CC aficionado (and historian) on the site, I can assure you that the meaning of 10CC's name is not an urban legend.  As an aside, their previous name - Hotlegs - did not come (...) out of nowhere either.  The members of the band had been playing with subtle (and not so subtle...) sexual references and double entendres for some time even before King became their manager.

 

All that said, there is one error in the meaning of the name.  While it does refer to semen, the average sperm count is 5cc's, not 10.  So the name does not refer to "one more cc than the average sperm count," but to masturbating (or having sex) twice.

 

Peace.

Always loved the intelligent, witty lyrics, superb production, and beautiful harmonies of 10cc.

All four musicians could write, play, and sing. They all knew each other well long before the formation of 10cc, were session musicians, had appeared in the charts as Hotlegs with Neanderthal Man (Godly, Creme and Stewart anyway) and had had a successful album released as that group, with appearances from Gouldman as well.

I always preferred them to Queen (even though I enjoyed the early Queen period) and agree wholeheartedly that they belong in the art rock genre.

Sheet Music is probably my fave album, but The Original Soundtrack runs it close. Deceptive Bends, How Dare You, the self titled debut and Bloody Tourists were, and are, all fine albums.

All in all, they are a fitting addition to this site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the support. 

 

Peace.

 

It is important to note that I did not fight for their inclusion because I thought they were "prog."  I fought for their inclusion because they are no less "prog" than Supertramp, Queen or Klaatu.  Thus, my argument - which can be found in numerous older threads - was that, if you are going to include Supertramp and Queen (among others) on the site, then 10CC's omission is arbitrary and capricious.

 

That said, I have never considered Supertramp "prog."  True, parts of Crime of the Century (and Even...) are "proggish," and there is a "concept" involved.  But to my mind, simply having a concept and "toeing the line" of prog does not make one "prog."  Indeed, I would argue that "Hide In Your Shell" - among Supertramp's most amazing, proggy songs - is far less proggish than 10CC's "One Night in Paris."

 

As for Queen, I fought as hard for their exclusion as I did for 10CC's inclusion, for the same reason: because despite occasional "cutting edge" proggish tracks like Bohemian Rhapsody, Prophet's Song and a handful of others, to my mind there is more to "prog" than simply having songs influenced by other genres, having admittedly exquisite harmonies and arrangements, and using numerous studio tricks.  (And no, I do not consider Queen 2 "prog" as a whole.)

 

Given that Supertramp and Klaatu were not about to be ejected, and especially given the even later inclusion of Queen (i.e., the 10CC debate preceded the Queen debate, and ultimate inclusion), I believe 10CC has as much right to be here as those three groups.  Indeed, Supertramp and 10CC were contemporaries who were not only close friends, but were constantly influencing each other, and have very similar sounds and approaches.  And Klaatu, in their first interview, stated that 10CC and Supertramp were two of their main influences.  (Indeed, Klaatu's debut album did not come out until 1976, at which point 10CC had put out their first four albums and Supertramp had put out their first five.)  So how can one justify including both Supertramp and Klaatu without including 10CC?  That was my original argument, and I maintain it.

 

As for 10CC's claims to "proggishness," let me make another point.

 

One of the arguments made for Queen's proggishness is the number of genre influences they use: from classical to jazz, from dance hall to vaudeville, etc.  If that is one criteria for proggishness, then 10CC can claim this right out the box.  The very first song on their first album, Johnny Don't Do It, is not simply an homage to the 50s, but a spectacularly brilliant homage to the 50s.  It begins with one of the most proggy guitar effects one can imagine (Eric Stewart being the most underrated and under-appreciated guitarist in rock), and has an arrangement that is no more or less "proggish" than many of the "homage" songs by Queen: if "Seaside Rendezvous" and "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" are proggish, so is "Johnny Don't Do It."

 

But even though 10CC can make claims of proggishness similar to Supertramp and Queen right from their debut album, it was with their sophomore album, Sheet Music, that they found their quasi-prog "niche" - which, as stated, is not "prog" as we all tend to define it (except broadly) - which they honed to frightening perfection on The Original Soundtrack and How Dare You.  And after the departure of Lol Creme and Kevin Godley (and why are they not here?), and the slightly weaker Deceptive Bends (which nevertheless has some amazing stuff), they returned to form on Bloody Tourists.  [N.B.  Now that 10CC has finally been included, I will be doing a complete series of reviews of their entire oeuvre.]

 

Finally, I believe that rather than classifying Queen and 10CC as "prog-related" and Supertramp as "art rock," all three groups should be categorized as "art rock," since they all came out of the same background - art school (which is where the term derives from: musicians who attended art schools in the 1960s and 70s) - and all have basically similar sounds and approaches vis-a-vis arrangement and production, especially re harmonies.

 

Peace.

I do not know of Eider Stellaire, so I will not include it myself

 

 

                   BUT

 

 

You can submit their candidacy on the suggest a band for admission.

 

The best bet is:

 

to provide a link and short historic of the artist including eventually a discography