I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend.
ART NOTES - a landscape exhibition by Tula Telfair entitled A World of Dreams is at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum in Baton Rouge through March 15th.
HAIL and FAREWELL to the legendary jazz producer, record executive and journalist Orrin Keepnews - a winner of four Grammys, a lifetime achievement award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and a prolific writer of informative liner notes - who has died (just like Dave Brubeck) one day short of his 92nd birthday.
SAD to see that the Chicago Cubs baseball team has had to agree to pay a funeral home the back-amount it is owed for the funeral costs of the team's most loved former player Ernie Banks - who (having played in the old era) left an estate of only $16,000.
THURSDAY's CHILD is Tumbelina the Cat - a California kitteh born with a condition that makes it impossible to walk ... now learning how to get around (thanks to a specially designed buggy) and will soon be up for adoption.
TRANSPORTATION NOTES - as the continent of Africa improves its rail and road infrastructure, next year will see the completion of the final link in a north-to-south paved road from Capetown to Cairo - more than one hundred years after the first attempt to drive this route in 1914.
GOOD LUCK to the new president of Uruguay, Tabare Vazquez - who is from the same left-of-center party as his predecessor - and their now-routine peaceful transitions were noted by Spain's former king Juan Carlos ... who recalled his visit in 1983 when this South American country struggled to end its dictatorship.
FRIDAY's CHILD is Van Gogh the Cat - a one-eared English shelter kitteh ... with the ability to make paw prints with fruit juice.
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
YUK for today - at the local Humane Society in my city, one of the best names for a cat I have yet seen ... Chris P. Bacon ... sure hope he gets adopted soon.
CONGRATULATIONS to the actor Kevin Spacey who will receive a special prize at this year's Olivier Awards in Britain - not for, say, "House of Cards" but instead for his role as artistic director at London's Old Vic - widely credited with reviving the theater's fortunes (before he steps down later this year).
SEPARATED at BIRTH - TV stars Jason Bateman ("Arrested Development") and New Zealand native Antony Starr ("Banshee" on Cinemax).
...... and finally, for a song of the week .......................... after attending a local community college, I went away to school at age 20. It was just for two years, located only 50 miles away and I often came home on weekends ... but as my first time away from home, it was a right-of-passage ... and having to rely on the radio for entertainment while studying, it became a point of reference.
And so when I hear popular songs dating from September 1974 - June 1976 ... I am transported back. Songs like Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper", Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke", Manfred Mann's version of "Blinded By the Light" and Heart's "Magic Man" thus register in a way that songs from 1973 (or 1977 and after) do not.
And it doesn't matter whether I liked the song or not ... some I did not then (nor now) ..... it still evokes a time-and-place.
Recently I heard one of the songs from that era for the first time in ages ... and I got the same feeling listening to I'm Not in Love by the English band 10cc. I can't say I overly cared for it (and 10cc was too pop-oriented for my tastes) but it was a high-quality production, undeniably. And then to learn there was an interesting back-story ..... well, let's have a look at this song.
The band 10cc had come originally together the session band for Neil Sedaka on his two 'comeback' albums of the early 70's, and were more of Tin Pan Alley pop tunesmiths than rock stars. Yet during their original run (1972-1983) they did produce several albums that were critically acclaimed, and there were four eclectic band members of note.
Guitarist and keyboard player Eric Stewart - one of the co-authors of "I'm Not in Love" (and its lead singer) had been a member of Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders - who had mid-60's hits with "Game of Love" as well as A Groovy Kind of Love written by Carole Bayer Sager. Stewart rejoined 10cc for a stretch from 1991-1995, although his musical career suffered after he lost an eye during a 1979 auto accident. He lives in France (where he occasionally records) and in recent decades has produced other bands and released three solo albums, with an autobiography e-book scheduled to be published this year.
Graham Gouldman was the co-author of "I'm Not in Love" and is the only original member of the band since it was revived (in 1999) to the present day. He was one of Britain's most accomplished songwriters long before 10cc, writing three major hits for the Yardbirds: For Your Love, Evil Hearted You and Heart Full of Soul as well as Bus Stop for the Hollies in the 1960's.
In addition to his stewardship (principally on bass) of the present-day 10cc, he released a 2012 album Love and Work and richly deserved his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame just last year.
The other two members of 10cc in their heyday were two childhood friends of Graham Gouldman, who used to rehearse at Jewish Lads Brigade in North Manchester, England. Gouldman even said (for a brief, mad moment) they looked at the religious make-up of the group and wondered if they ought to use the name "Three Yids and a Yok" (referring to Stewart).
Guitarist Laurence 'Lol' Creme in recent years was a member of The Art of Noise (from 1998-2000) and since 2006 has been a member of The Producers (with Trevor Horn).
Drummer Kevin Godley since 1988 has forged a career directing music videos and films on his own. Now based in Ireland, he is involved with a music app - which won an award in 2013 at the SXSW festival.
Both Lol Creme and Kevin Godley left 10cc in 1976 (at their height) to form the techno-pop band Godley & Creme - which lasted until 1988 - as well as serving as critically-acclaimed video directors for Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel and The Police. Their leaving 10cc shook the band, causing some rifts. Years later, when they agreed to release a boxed set in 2012 called Tenology - it marked the first time all four members of 10cc have spoken to the same publication (the Guardian newspaper) for the same article, since their split in 1976:
All agree they should have been adult enough to accommodate Godley and Creme's extracurricular activities and welcomed them back as and when they were ready to record as 10cc. But that didn't happen, and although Godley and Gouldman remain friends and Creme and Stewart keep in touch (they are brothers-in-law), Godley and Creme's partnership dissolved after 27 years in the late 80's and Stewart and Gouldman's relationship broke down soon after that. A full-scale reunion, then, seems unlikely.
(Photo left: the four members in the 1970's ..... right: the current band (led by Gouldman) who make frequent
European tour appearances.
The genesis of "I'm Not in Love" came from Eric Stewart (with help from Graham Gouldman):
"At that time my wife and I had been married about eight years," Eric Stewart recalls, "and she asked me 'Why don't you say "I love you" more often?' I had this crazy idea in my mind that repeating those words would somehow degrade the meaning, so I told her 'Well, if I say every day "I love you, darling, I love you, blah, blah, blah," it's not gonna mean anything eventually.'
That statement led me to try to figure out another way of saying it: and the result was that I chose to say 'I'm not in love with you,' while subtly giving all the reasons (throughout the song) why I could never let go of this relationship."
But when the band was recording their third album, 1975's
The Original Soundtrack, the original recording of this song was done in a bossa nova style .... which was met with
disdain by the other band members, and they erased the tape (as 1975 studio tape was quite valuable).
And this is where the back-story comes into play, according to Stewart:
Walking through the studio, occasionally I would hear the secretary (Kathy Redfern) walking past me and singing, 'I'm Not in Love' and then someone else, a young guy, an engineer walking past and whistling the melody and I thought, "WHAT?! - there’s something here".
So I called the guys into the control room. I said, "OK,'I'm Not in Love' - we've scrapped it, I’ve erased it ... but there’s something in it. Just listen to the people in the studio walking around (singing it). There's something there; we've just not nailed it."
Then Kevin (Godley) said, "Let’s do it all with voices. Let’s do the whole backing track with voices." Brilliant, but how? It was Lol (Creme) who said, "Tape Loops. Like the Mellotron." You could make a loop that would last forever if we could find a way to do it. So I started to think about the mic stands and putting rollers on so that the tape could loop. We spend three weeks doing the backing track, the "ahhh's" on to separate tape loops until we had 624 voices.
The instrumental break featured the repeated spoken phrase, "Be quiet, big boys don't cry...", spoken by Kathy Redfern - the secretary at the studio where the track was recorded - who had told Stewart, "Why didn't you finish that song? I really love it. It's the nicest thing you've ever done." when he suggested they were planning to re-record the tune.
And below you can hear what they finally came up with - which reached #1 in Britain (and #2 in the United States) in 1975.
I'm not in love, so don't forget it
It's just a silly phase I'm going through
And just because I call you up
Don't get me wrong, don't think you've got it made
I'm not in love, no no, it's because..
I like to see you, but then again
That doesn't mean you mean that much to me
So if I call you, don't make a fuss
Don't tell your friends about the two of us
I'm not in love, no no, it's because..
I keep your picture ... upon the wall
It hides a nasty stain that's lying there
So don't you ask me ... to give it back
I know you know it doesn't mean that much to me
I'm not in love, no no, it's because..