How Dare You!

About

How Dare You! is the fourth album by British band 10cc. Released in 1976, it included UK hit singles "I'm Mandy Fly Me" and "Art For Art's Sake". It was also the last 10cc album to feature the classic line-up of Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme, with the latter two departing to work on their own musical project, and eventually becoming music video pioneer. The album was the band's second to feature cover artwork by the Hipgnosis creative team. In an interview at the time of its release, Gouldman told Melody Maker music newspaper: "It's as different as any album by the same band can be, and I think it's a progression from the last one. I think there's been a progression on every album and I think we've done it again. It's a strange mixture of song. There's one about divorce, a song about schizophrenia, a song about wanting to rule the world, the inevitable money song, and an instrumental." In a radio interview, Stewart recalled the origins of the song "I'm Mandy Fly Me": “ National Airlines used to have this beautiful poster that they displayed of this gorgeous stewardess inviting you onto the plane. Now her name wasn't Mandy actually, it was something like, er, oh gosh know, "I'm Cindy", a very American name. "I'm Cindy, fly me" which was a quite sexual connotation as well, but I remember seeing in Manchester this beautiful poster and just below it was this tramp, I mean a serious tramp, quite a raggedy guy, looking up at this girl, and I thought God, do you know, there's a song there. Look at that guy looking up at Cindy-fly-me and I know he's never gonna get on an aeroplane, I don't think, except in his dream. So I brought it back, the idea back to the studio, where we were writing for the How Dare You! album, and put it to the guys: "Anybody interested in this 'I'm Mandy Fly Me'". I'd switched it to Mandy. And Graham said "yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I've got some idea, I've got some chord. Let's slot those things in, try it, mess it around". We wrote it, and we didn't like it. We, we scrapped it. It just wasn't going anywhere. But, enter from stage left, ha ha, the "wicked villain" Kevin Godley, twiddling his moustache, says "I know what's wrong with it. Let's sit down again." He said "I think it just gets too bland, it just goes on, on one plane, your verses and your middles and your der-der-der, they're all going on the one plane. What it needs is someone to go 'Bash' on the side of your head". So we changed the rhythm completely, and we put two whacking great guitar solos in there, in the middle of this quiet, soft, floaty song. Once we'd got that idea in, it, it just gelled into something else. Again, impossible to dance to, as a lot of 10cc tracks were, but once Kevin had put that in, he became the third writer in the song so we were quite democratic in that way." Track listing:Side One "How Dare You" (Kevin Godley, Lol Creme) – 4:14 Eric - Steel guitar, lead guitar Kevin - Drum, conga, cow bell, bongos Graham - Ba, rizo-rizo Lol - Rhythm guitar, 12 string, lead guitar, clavinet, moog, marraca, sleigh bells "Lazy Ways" (Creme, Eric Stewart) – 4:20 Eric - Lead vocal, lead guitar, six string bass Graham - Acoustic guitar, tambourine, backup vocals Lol - Piano, clavinet, moog, tambourine, backup vocals Kevin - Drum, triangle, backup vocals "I Wanna Rule the World" (Godley, Creme, Graham Gouldman) – 3:57 Lol - Organ, piano, backup vocal, lead vocals Kevin - Drum, timpani, marraca, backup vocals Eric - Lead guitar, backup vocals Graham - Ba, backup vocals "I'm Mandy Fly Me" (Stewart, Gouldman, Godley) – 5:24 Eric - Lead vocal, lead guitar, piano, whistle, backup vocals Graham - Ba, zither, double ba, six string ba, backup vocals Kevin - Drum, backup vocals Lol - Lead guitar, moog, vibe, backup vocals "Iceberg" (Gouldman, Godley) – 3:43 Graham - Lead vocal, electric guitar, ba, backup vocals Kevin - 2nd lead vocal, conga, timpani, backup vocals Eric - Lead guitar, Levi zip Lol - Organ, gizmo, backup vocals Side Two "Art for Art's Sake" (Stewart, Gouldman) – 5:59 Eric - Lead vocal, piano, electric piano, six string ba, fuzz ba, lead guitar Graham - Electric guitar, cow bell, tambourine, backup vocals Lol - 2nd lead vocal, electric guitar, maraca, moog, recorder, backup vocals Kevin - Drums temple, block, backup vocals "Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby" (Gouldman, Stewart) – 3:58 Kevin - Lead vocal, drum, backup vocals Eric - 2nd lead vocal, lead guitar, pedal steel guitar, piano Lol - Electric guitar, backup vocals Graham - Ba, dobro, slide steel guitar, glockenspiel "Head Room" (Godley, Creme) – 4:21 Lol - Lead vocal, lead guitar, electric piano Kevin - Drum, tambourine, backup vocals Graham - Ba, backup vocals Eric - Slide guitar, backup vocals "Don't Hang Up" (Godley, Creme) – 6:16 Kevin - Lead vocal, cabasa, castanet, hand clap, backup vocals Lol - Piano, electric piano, marraca, hand clap, backup vocal, gizmo, moog Graham - Ba, Spanish guitar, hand clap, backup vocals Eric - Lead guitar, backup vocals Mair Jones - Harp Personnel: Lol Creme — Vocal, Guitar, Moog, Piano, Percussion, Organ, Clavinet, Recorder, Vibes Kevin Godley — Vocal, Drum, Percussion, Timpani, Conga, Bongos Graham Gouldman — Vocal, Ba, Guitar, Percussion, Glockenspiel Eric Stewart — Vocal,Guitar, Piano, Bass .

via Last.fm

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