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The other\nhalf of 10cc were Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. Stewart was a bit of a star\nin the 60s as frontman with the Mindbenders, which even included Gouldman just\nbefore they called it a day. Gouldman wrote career-building hits for the\nHollies, Hermans Hermits, the Yardbirds (who later morphed into Led Zeppelin)\nand others. In 10cc, Godley and Creme usually contributed the arty, more\ncomplex songs and Stewart and Gouldman, the smart pop songs, but that varied\nand Godley and Creme came up with their share of hits. It was a team effort.\nThe only other band I can think of which had four successful songwriters is\nQueen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stewart was\nkeen to produce so they built their own studio in Manchester: Strawberry\nStudios. The studio was even involved in recording notes for the Mellotron, an\ninstrument which played prerecorded notes from tape loops. Orchestral musicians\nwould painstakingly be recorded one note at a time. By 1972 they had become a\nproper band and released their first album. The band was different: clever,\nfunny \u2013 check out \u201cRubber bullets\u201d from the first album \u2013 and a huge hit of\ncourse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe two 10cc songwriting teams created a satisfying balance of pop and art\nmusic on their first four albums until Godley and Creme made a whole album of\ntheir own music in 1976\/77, \u201cConsequences\u201d. The consequence of that was, they\nleft 10cc. Godley and Creme didn\u2019t like the new songs, didn\u2019t like the set-up\nfor the coming album and decided they didn\u2019t want to make any more albums with\n10cc. A decision which they all regretted to some extent. Stewart and Gouldman\ncarried on anyway and had more hits (\u201cDreadlock holiday\u201d for instance), but the\nalbums were less fun without the arty input from Godley and Creme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also bought Deceptive Bends (without Godley and Creme), but it was too lightweight for me and after that I\u2019d also had enough of 10cc. At the same time, Godley and Creme\u2019s albums were hard to listen to as the pop which provided that magical balance and which had worked so well earlier, was mostly not there. But they also began making music videos just as MTV was taking off and became groundbreaking masters of that instead. \u201cCry\u201d, from 1985 is a good example of their writing skills and video innovation. Clever guys and good at whatever they put their hands to, in other words. I know quite a few old men of roll and roll, being one of them myself. But we don\u2019t play on dead strings and old drums and don\u2019t consider ourselves particularly over the hill and far away. On the other hand, we\u2019re not waiting for miracles either. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, two of the smartest songwriters I know, \u201cOld Wild Men\u201d is a song from an album, Sheet Music, by one of my old favourites, 10cc. Godley and Creme were both in their twenties when they wrote the song and envisioned life as old rock and rollers. A totally … <\/p>\n