April 11, 1997 GOLDMINE #436
10cc :
A Pure Injection Of Pop
By Dave
Thompson
Chapter Two
: Graham Gouldman in Wrong Studio Revelation!!!
Meanwhile,
back in the singles chart, the band was busy hunting for the follow-up which
would confirm their ascendancy. They found it in Clint Ballard’s The Game Of
Love. This time, it was Baverstock who introduced the song to the band, but
the ensuing session was just as memorable as its predecessor. The band had
already recruited a member of the Spinners folk group to handle the bass vocals
on the song; at the very last minute, they would also recruit the next best
thing to a Jimmy Page guitar solo… Jimmy Page’s guitar. The teenaged Page,
already one of
Another
memorable moment was recording the single’s B-side, Since You’ve Been Gone.
“That was one of the first songs we ever wrote together,” Stewart recalled; in
fact, it was written in a
The
Game Of Love
proved one of the biggest hits of the year, #2 in Britain, it made it all the
way to the top in America, and that despite the record not only being the
Mindbenders’ first Stateside release, it was also one of the first releases on
the American Fontana label.
The band
set off for
It was not
the first time the band had played on without their frontman; back in March,
nervous exhaustion had confined
Once
again, the race was on for a suitable follow-up. And once again, they lost it.
An eponymous album totally failed to capitalize on the single’s success,
floundering to a lowly #92, while a new Carole Bayer-Toni Wine composition
Ashes To Ashes scarcely improved on that in the singles’ listings. It made #55,
although
The
Mindbenders made their final American tour in July, 1966, kicking off in
Meanwhile,
Wayne Fontana was finally gearing up to make the splash he had been threatening
for almost a year now. Three solo singles released through 1966, It Was
Easier To Hurt Her, Come On Home and Goodbye Bluebird had
done little more than lurch around the lower reaches of the chart. His fourth,
he believed, would change all that forever. IT was called Pamela Pamela
and it was written by Graham Gouldman. How could it fail? Eighteen months before,
nobody could have asked that question. In mid-1964, Gouldman had been just
another struggling musician, watching agape as the Mindbenders prepared to soar
into the stratosphere. Together with two school friends,
Look At
Me adhered closely
to Holly’s prototype, with a casual nod to the Stones, who had just made the
Top 3 with another Holly song Not Fade Away. Creme’s effort, despite a
great Gouldman guitar solo, was very much in the mould of countless
Beatles-influenced lightweight R&B numbers. It didn’t chart, and the
Whirlwinds broke up shortly after. By late 1964, Gouldman had begun writing his
own material, and was soon looking to put together another band to play it.
Retaining bassist Bernard Basso and guitarist Steve Jacobsen from the
Whirlwinds, and plucking
“Our
manager, Harvey Lisberg, said ‘This is such a great song, let’s play it to the
Beatles’ but I said ‘I think they’re doing alright in the songwriting
department, actually.” But he still mentioned the Beatles idea to a publisher
friend, who suggested that instead he should offer it to the Yardbirds, who
were playing with the Beatles at a Christmas show at the Hammersmith Odeon”
Having
wrangled his way nervously backstage, he handed the song to the first Londoner
he met. It was Paul Samwell-Smith, and the rest… how Eric Clapton was so
outraged by the song’s commerciality that he quit the band; how the ensuing
recording session was keyboard legend
Brian Auger’s recorded debut; that the finished record became the Yardbirds’
first ever Top 3 hit… is history.
“Their
version took me by surprise, because I thought it was so weird,” Gouldman
remembers. “Ours used an acoustic guitar instead of a harpsichord, which was
what really made their version work. It was amazing. It was fantastic having
such an entry into the Yardbirds [as For Your Love]; they did try
things, and even though they sort of failed, they did stick with it. The first
time I saw them was with Eric Clapton, and that blew my head off, but then I
saw them with Jeff Beck, and that was unbelievable; he was better, he looked
better, I liked the guitar he used better.”
Eric
Stewart In Air Gun Revelation!!! |
|
Graham
Gouldman In Wrong Studio Revelation!!! |
|
Graham
Gouldman In Songwriting Technique Exposé!!! |
|
The
Runcible Spoon… What Exactly Is It? |
|
Strawberry
Puts The ‘Hit’ In ‘Shit’!!! |
|
So
That’s How They Got The Name… |
|
A
Million Dollars Buys A |
|
Strawberry
Studios South… Now You’re Dorking!!! |
|
I Said
‘You’ve Got To Be Joking Man, It Was A Present From Me Mum’!!!! |
|
Headline
Writer In ‘Stuck For Words’ Shock!!! |
|
Sometimes
Having Wax In Your Ears Can Be A Good Thing |
|
And They
Still Don’t Give A… |