Love Graham.
We toured together in Ringo's band a few years back and I got to play those songs you mentioned with him. Graham is an amazing talent and what a songwriter. Think of the hits he wrote PRE-10cc! Bus Stop for the Hollies- Heart full of Soul for the Yardbirds to name 2 of many...
Also one of the nicest cats I ever met. Old school English gentleman. The opposite of me. hahaha We get on great! 10cc is doing shows with us in Europe this summer and I look forward to seeing him again.
Amazing band as well!
Luke
(Steve Lukather)
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long-time reader, first time commentor (I think... ).
I was born in the UK in the mid-60s and therefore grew up with 10cc in the 70s. I live in Norway now, on a stretch of the coastline in the south known for its temperate climate, and a couple of summers back I went to see Graham and the boys (I hope they won't mind me calling them boys, as someone of a not-dissimilar age I practically invite its use) at one of the two towns local to me (Tønsberg, the oldest town in Norway).
It's worth commenting that the band put on an amazing show, packed with songs that were great to hear live after so many years. The venue was not massive, but the energy and enthusiasm for the music coming from the band was palpable. I mean, why wouldn't it be with that catalogue to call on...!? But we've all seen bands going through the motions and this was as far from that as it's possible to be.
It's quite a thing to get normally reserved Norwegian audiences to whoop and holler, but 10cc managed it on that balmy summer night.
Both band and audience could feel the benefit (sorry, not sorry).
All the best from the fjords,
Dave King
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Such pop brilliance!!
Kim Bullard
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Best thing ever. Brilliant song. Brilliant song writer.
Joe D'Ambrosio
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Always consistently great music from 10CC. And it started with Hotlegs' fantastic 'Neanderthal Man' - did that ever appear in the US charts?
Hugo Burnham
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Hi Bob - Have been a Graham Gouldman fan since his early songwriting days (Yardbirds, Hollies, Herman Hermits) which led me to 10cc and Rubber Bullets (great rhyme with balls and chains and balls and brains). My flatmate and I listened to the first several 10cc albums cover to cover and really locked in on the Original Soundtrack side 1 opener Une Nuit a Paris fading into I'm Not in Love. Plus the cover art was cool as well as the next couple of covers by the Hipgnosis team. Miss that fantastic LP art and packaging. Agree with you on Deceptive Bends. Thanks again for your writing and observations.
Boyd Allen
Exeter, NH
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That whole album is a work of genius. I got it in grade 9, 1978. Wore it out, got it on cassette, CD, and iTunes. Still play it. Only recently did I come to know that Graham Gouldman wrote Bus Stop, when he was just a kid. A hidden gem on Deceptive Bends is 'I Bought A Flat Guitar Tutor' which - via clever segways in the lyrics - tells you all of the chord changes to play the song, right on time. 'I bought A flat, *diminished responsibility, you're D9th person to C, to B suspended...' Honestly, I love it.
Kind regards,
Rob Whittaker
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Nice one Bob.
10cc is one of the 10 most underrated Brit bands ever.
And Graham Gouldman should be in the Songwriters Hall of Fame For Bus Stop, Look Through Any Window, Heart Full of Soul and For Your Love alone.
Stephen Dessau
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Totally agree with you Bob, 10cc was a ridiculously good band with fantastic clever lyrics that consistently surprised the listener while beautiful melodies stuck in your head. I bought everything they did from Rubber Bullets to Bloody Tourists. Thanks as always for the great deep cut dives that transport us back!
Dan Butler
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Great props to very deserving ARTISTS.
Dennis Pelowski
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Bob,
Headline Hustler!! Holy Macca!
When they sing "under my plastic mac, under my plastic mac" ... man!
Thomas Quinn
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I have always LOVED 'Feel The Benefit', especially the live version on the double live LP, 'Live And Let Live'. It even has a bass solo in the coda of the song? Love the build at the end. 'Bloody Tourist' is a great record, too. I still pull out the 10cc vinyl on a regular basis.
bfletcher28
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HONEYMOON WITH B TROOP (from 10cc Deceptive Bends lp)
DON'T HANG UP (HOW DARE YOU lp)
superb band
etc etc etc
Don de Brauwere
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Great to feel the love for 10cc's "Deceptive Bends" particularly their epic closer "Feel The Benefit" which had always been a fave. These days, only Graham Gouldman remains as an original member (2.5cc) but he's surrounded by long time compatriots who do just fine making their music sound terrific. Gouldman's side project with Andrew Gold was also an interesting listen.
When you get a chance, put on "Blue Guitar" by Justin Hayward and John Lodge. That's 10cc as their backing band. Oh, to think what that ensemble could have created.
Dave Logan
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"Feel the benefit" a great song.
I always liked their "Queen meets Gershwin" mini rock opera "Un nuit a Paris" too. "Pretentious? Moi?" (Fawlty Towers.)
Thought 10cc basically fell between 2 stalls.
Too poppy for the prog fans.
Too proggy for the pop fans.
It's all folk music anyhow. "I ain't never heard no horse sing a song" (Louis Armstrong.)
Art for art's sake...
Mark Hudson
Schenectady, NY
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"I'm Not In Love"…had the disc on my turntable playing the morning after I broke up with my first real love post high school. I realized she and I weren't getting along and broke it off. "Just because…"
"Big boys don't cry…
Big boys don't cry…"
It was bleak time for me…
Tim Pringle
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10cc are a band whose album tracks I've warmed to over the years. Their singles were some of my faves, but the ultimate jukebox of Spotify has allowed me to dip in to their catalog and fall in love with a batch of their LP.s I then started picking up vinyl copies of their albums; their s/t debut, its follow-up Sheet Music, and just last week their double live Live and Let Live ($2.50 at Arroyo Records in Eagle Rock).
Like XTC, they're often too clever by half, taking their songs towards obscure, proggy directions, and obscuring their insane facility crafting hooks. But that's also the point. They don't always make it easy for you, and their knotty, intricate songs reward repeat listens.
I included "Honeymoon With B Troop", also on Deceptive Bends, on a playlist, and have listened to the track over and over.
Come to think of it, guess I have to buy that album one on vinyl too.
Michael Krumper
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The "young" fellow in 10CC (i.e. the one who isn't in his seventies) is a guy called Iain Hornal. I don't know him or anything, but he's also a touring member of ELO when the play live, so you know he has to be a bit good, and he has a couple of solo albums that well worth checking out - the latest one is here:
open.spotify.com/album/00DQNg2BQSyKpE8Q6qteiF
The title track is not a bad place to start to get an idea.
Matthew Best
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Deceptive Bends is among a number of vinyl albums I've kept from back in the day. From Good Morning Judge to Feel the Benefit, it remains one of my favorites.
A few years back I attended my third or fourth Ringo and his All Starr Band concert primarily to see and hear Graham Gouldman perform the 10cc songs.
Hoping for a 10cc tour of the States.
Andrew Paciocco
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Long time reader from France. Always listen to your great podcasts. We listened to 10cc after your podcast with Kevin Godley. I was never really a fan (aged 58 now) as I was more of a rocker at that age but I did always love Feel The Benefit…..great song and I had to explain to my French wife, the meaning of the title (I was born in Cocker country - Sheffield, up north). I think my explanation to her was, word for word, like the one below (except for the Graham bit !).
All the best - keep up the great work !
Cheers
Mark Shaw
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First of all "Feel the Benefit Pt. 1, 2 & 3" is a masterpiece that doesn't get its due. Still love the simplicity, but power of that guitar solo at the
end.
Side note-A million years ago, I was at Johnson's clothing store on Kings Road in London. I was literally the only person in the store and I was trying on some clothes when I heard voices. Four guys walked in, and from the dressing room stall which was enclosed by the kind of doors you see in Western movies, I peered over to see Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley perusing the garments in the store.
I couldn't believe my fly-on-the-wall perspective and what I was witnessing. If social media had been around then, a short video capturing the scene might have inspired rumors of a reunion. It was then, after hearing the banter between the four guys for a minute or two, that I surmised that Lol and Kevin were looking at potential wardrobe for a video for their former bandmates.
Great band, in every way. They need to come back and play in America!
Brian Diamond
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Thank you for validating my playing of "Deceptive Bends" continuously for the past 45 years.
I also owned the previous four LPs; my best friend and I thought we were in some exclusive private club where 10cc (and Roxy Music, Supertramp, etc.) existed.
I really thought that the departure of Godley and Creme would end one of my favorite bands... boy, was I wrong.
You are correct - "Bloody Tourists" is a superior LP, but for some reason I don't revisit it quite as often.
Seeing 10cc at Santa Monica Civic in 1978 remains one of the concert highlights of my life.
Thanks, Bob
bkilgour
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I too have the full 10cc set on vinyl from my younger days. Currently laid up convalescing from foot surgery, and immediately threw on the headphones to listen to this again after so many years and feel the full benefit of your spot on newsletter. Thanks for the reminder of why these guys are so great. Have a great Monday!
Ralph Covert
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Every few months a high school buddy sends me a FB message on how he just put Feel The Benefit on his excellent stereo and cranked it to 11. We were in high school when Deceptive Bends was released and we had become album guys, through the benefit of our local still free-form FM station (circa '78-'79). Used to cruise around in my Honda Civic with FTB at ear-splitting volume...probably at least part of the reason that I have hearing aids.
The entire album was great, if a bit clever at times (I Bought A Flat Guitar Tutor - loved it as a guitar player though). But FTB was the gem of the bunch. And you are spot on about the guitar solo. Still one of my favourites to this day. Couldn't believe an "unkown" like Eric Stewart could deliver a Page/Clapton/Beck worthy solo like that.
Regards,
DFinley
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Hi, Bob. Thanks for your email about 10cc and Feel the Benefit. Folks interested in learning more about the band can check out the Consequences Podcast, which started out as an homage to the Goldey and Creme triple LP but morphed into all things 10cc.
Tim Wood
Chatham, MA
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Greetings Bob,
10cc has long been one of my favorite bands. I was immediately drawn in by "The Wall Street Shuffle" when it was released as a single from their second album, Sheet Music in 1974. I rushed out to buy the album and was thrilled to find that the entire album was excellent. I subsequently bought their first album (which admittedly, was an acquired taste), and continued buying their albums until the band's breakup. Their tongue-in-cheek lyrics and incredible melodies have held up really well, and I frequently revisit those first six 10cc albums. The four musicians (Lol Creme, Kevin Godley, Graham Gouldman & Eric Stewart) in the original 10cc band are simply incredible, with each player bringing extensive credentials to the group.
Upon first hearing Deceptive Bends, the fifth 10cc album and the first to be released after the departure of Godley & Creme, I was struck by the opus "Feel the Benefit pts 1, 2 & 3" and was amazed that rock radio hadn't picked up on it. We played it many, many times at Long Island's non-commercial alternative, WUSB, Stony Brook, where we have no designated playlists (one of the few stations where truly anything goes - visit wusb.fm). And come to think of it, I'll be playing "Feel the Benefit" again on Saturday, April 23rd as part of WUSB's Vinylthon (collegeradio.org/vinylthon) on Record Store Day (recordstoreday.com/). I can't wait to "Feel the Benefit" yet again.
Thanks for the reminder, Bob!
P.S. I had the pleasure of interviewing 10cc's Graham Gouldman a few years ago. He's a delightful chap, and it was a wonderful conversation. BTW – Graham's favorite 10cc albums are Sheet Music and Deceptive Bends.
Bob Duffy
Senior Programmer
WUSB-FM, Stony Brook, NY
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…….10cc = 4 creative geniuses under one roof……spectacular!
Tommy Allen
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"Sheet Music" was a great album. "Do the Wall Street Shuffle" is well, very today. "Three yids and a yod" they called themselves…In 1979 I got Graham to write the songs for "Animalympics" (now running on Amazon Prime) and he wrote wonderfully catchy, tuneful numbers that the animators had a great time with (one of them, Roger Allers, wrote "The Lion King". Another (an "in-betweener") was Brad Bird. Very talented bunch….Graham was a smart hire!
Michael Fremer
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Thank you Bob! You thoughtfully articulated a feeling and emotion which has been buried in my memory. I do focus on the lyrics, words and even the meaning. A regular activity I also do with my daughter. However, long gone are my days of laying on the floor or ground, headphones on or off, staring at the ceiling or sky, and just getting lost in the music as it "washes" through me. You are absolutely right, "...the music sets them (us) free:" "They (We) don't feel the benefit". So true... music heals.
Best,
Judi Helfant
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I love 10cc. I had tickets to see them in Pittsburgh back in the 1970s but the show got cancelled for reasons that I can't remember.
I may be an old fart but I still lie on the floor and let the music take me away and now I go to the gym regularly so I'm still able to get up.
Harold Love
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"but no one lies on their bed or the floor and stares at the ceiling anymore as the music sets them free"
I still do.
Mike Marrone
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I was going to suggest that rather than being a casino, life is actually a minestrone.
Vince Welsh
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