Sheet Music

by

10cc

Edit

This is a pop classic that many critics have hailed as one of the best releases of the 7o's, that not alot of people know about. Its not 10cc's fault. Their popularity at the time was still growing after the colossal success of their first album (1973's 10CC). When I say colossal I mean this. In 10cc's career from 1973 - 1976, they were rarely out of the Top 10 charts in Europe, with quite a few No. 1's. By 1975 that success repeated in the States. They were virtually the most successful of the 1970's British 'pop' groups. And practically no one knows.

I first picked up SHEET MUSIC on a whim in 2001. Being familiar only with their songs 'The Wall Street Shuffle', Í'm Not In Love',and 'The Things We Do For Love' I was not sure what 10cc's other material sounded like based from these 3 selections from different albums & years. By the time I heard the third track from SHEET MUSIC 'Hotel' I couldn't believe I was listening to an album that had sounds of the 80's in 1974. These musicians in the studio were years ahead of their time, and certainly influenced what came out of Europe and later America with the 4 albums they released with the band line-up of Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. That Stewart & Gouldman later went on to write one of the most played songs in the world Í'm Not In Love', and Creme & Godley later went on to direct some of the most familiar and groundbreaking Videos of the 80's should tell you that there was an incredible amount of talent & vision in this band.

That they were one of the few bands, if not only, to run their own studio, and have complete control over their recorded output says something else. Everything they did was ín-house'and performed,produced,engineered & mixed by 10cc from the debut album onwards. SHEET MUSIC is the high watermark of this collaboration between four musicians when songwriting partnerships hadn't quite been cemented, and wider success was around the corner.

Think of the writing teams in that old cliche style --- Stewart & Gouldman were the McCartney, Godley & Creme were the Lennon. I hate having to use expressions like these, but it generalises and gives you, as someone not familiar with the music, an idea of the difference. The Wall Street Shuffle by Gouldman & Stewart is pure pop, and a top 10 single in Britain and still gets circulated around today for Stock market reports on TV. Gouldman & Creme's The Worst Band In The World is a witty and very ahead of its time indictment of pop ego and the music business. Musically it sounds very little like 1974. It sounds ahead. Hotel is one of the most unique songs I have ever heard. Blending a very 80's sounding introduction with island Calypso, Hollywood 1930's backing vocals, and a twisted tale told with alot of humour, Hotel is an undeniable classic written by Godley & Creme. Again, it sounds nothing like what was going on in 1974 or before. I heard just about every 80's synth pop band in the introduction of Hotel. Old Wild Men is a beautifully played and sung homage to the ageing rocker and marks the debut of the Godley/Creme invented ínstrument enhancer'The Gizmo' which could be placed on the bridge of a guitar to make it sound like a multitude of instruments, primarily strings (violin, cello etc.) . This Godley & Creme composition is further enhanced by the dual vocal team of Godley & Stewart, in my mind, two of the best singers Britain has produced. Clockwork Creep also by Godley & Creme is a tour de force of effects, tempo changes, inventiveness all behind the story told by a bomb. Stewart, Godley & Creme play different roles in this all too brief saga. Stewart as the Passenger, Godley as The Plane, and Creme as The Bomb.

(?) Side two kicks off with Stewart & Creme's 'Silly Love'. Sheet Music is the start of identifying songwriting partnerships in 10cc. Stewart & Gouldman paired off, as did Godley & Creme, but success was also had by pairing Godley & Gouldman, and Silly Love became a hit song with the Stewart & Creme combination. Silly Love is a rocker like other rockers but with a twist. Imploring that those Valentine's consumers opt for their OWN way of saying I love you rather than seek out tired old cliche's, Silly Love is original, funny and it jams. Godley & Creme's Somewhere In Hollywood follows. This is where the inventiveness of this writing team shows itself fully, but also shows the talent all 4 possessed in contributing to a song. Godley & Creme's explorations and obvious eccentricities were harnessed in and made clarified by Stewart & Gouldman's pop sensibilities. It really was a near perfect marriage of two different visions.

Stewart & Gouldman's 'Baron Samedi' has a Santana/afrocuban backing but with (again) ahead of its time recording and quality. Godley & Gouldman''s 'The Sacro-Iliac' should have been a single, it is that catchy. Telling the tale of a dance that everyone can do if you can't dance. And the final song Oh Effendi by Stewart & Godley tells the tale of very current events (USA/French/Middle East relations) in a no holds barred humourous way, giving a little diplomatic relations history as it does.

Sheet Music should be regarded as one of the best albums released in the 7o's. It may not suit everyone's tastes, but this albums influence on musicians, fans,and critics alike is undeniable. Sheet Music was the 8o's before the '8o's arrived.

On their next 2 albums together, the original lineup of 10cc innovated pop music, in recording and writing to a degree that I find them as influential as any other group you hear too much about.

I have an earlier CD of this album, a double with "10cc" fronting "Sheet Music". I bought *this* version because the sound was simply awful on that older Sheet Music, with atrocious drop out on my two favorite tracks, "Old Wild Men" and "Somewhere in Hollywood", bad enough to make the album unbearable. It sounded to my uneducated ear like the master tape had a fold or two in it (because I've had RTR tape wind into the space between the tape and spool edges when I wound/rewound too fast, and when rescued this is what it sounds like).

If that is true there is a strong possibility that nothing can be done, though it is truly amazing what was done on "Casino Royale" in the same circumstances (the Woody Allen movie soundtrack, long a benchmark in the hi-fi world for reasons that are too arcane to describe suffered a master tape wreck that was fixed quite well on a digitally remastered-from-the-master process).

The good news is that most (but not all) of those drop-outs are gone from this version of Sheet Music. The bad news is that some are still there, and in the quietest places where the voices are low to start with. Grrr.

But another annoyance on the older CD was an inexplicable mix on the drums on "Silly Love" in which it sounds like someone who is having trouble keeping the beat is pounding on one of those big plastic tubs you put the beer in when you don't have enough coolers. I don't know whether it is a low tom-tom, the bass drum in overdub or a drunk on Plastic Tub. My experience of drumming isn't good enough to tell.

Whatever it is, it is alive and well on this version too and it makes "Silly Love" a horrible, horrible experience, and that could have been sorted out in the mix so easily it beggars the mind as to why it wasn't.

Which is a shame since I reckon this is the most accessible album tune-wise, and the cleverest one lyrics-wise that the band ever made. The high spot of the three classics (Sheet Music, Original Soundtrack and How Dare You), and under other circumstances I would recommend anyone give it several tries with headphones. As it stands I couldn't give it even one.

Oh well. I've still got my vinyl copy.