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 Arts Sake"[1]. 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 projects, and eventually becoming music video pioneers. The album was the band's second to feature cover artwork by the Hipgnosis creative team.
In an interview at the...
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 Arts Sake"[1]. 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 projects, and eventually becoming music video pioneers. 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 songs. There's one about divorce, a song about schizophrenia, a song about wanting to rule the world, the inevitable money song, and an instrumental."[2]
In a radio interview,[3] 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 knows, "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 dreams.
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 ideas, I've got some chords. 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 - Drums, congas, cow bell, bongos
Graham - Bass, rizo-rizo
Lol - Rhythm guitars, 12 string, lead guitar, clavinet, moog, marracas, sleigh bells
"Lazy Ways" (Creme, Eric Stewart) – 4:20
Eric - Lead vocal, lead guitar, six string bass
Graham - Acoustic guitars, tambourine, backup vocals
Lol - Piano, clavinet, moog, tambourine, backup vocals
Kevin - Drums, triangle, backup vocals
"I Wanna Rule The World" (Godley, Creme, Graham Gouldman) – 3:57
Lol - Organ, piano, backup vocals, lead vocals
Kevin - Drums, timpani, marracas, backup vocals
Eric - Lead guitars, backup vocals
Graham - Bass, backup vocals
"I'm Mandy Fly Me" (Stewart, Gouldman, Godley) – 5:24
Eric - Lead vocal, lead guitar, piano, whistle, backup vocals
Graham - Bass, zithers, double bass, six string bass, backup vocals
Kevin - Drums, backup vocals
Lol - Lead guitar, moog, vibes, backup vocals
"Iceberg" (Gouldman, Godley) – 3:43
Graham - Lead vocal, electric guitars, bass, backup vocals
Kevin - 2nd lead vocal, congas, timpani, backup vocals
Eric - Lead guitars, Levi zip
Lol - Organ, gizmo, backup vocals
Side Two
"Art for Arts Sake" (Stewart, Gouldman) – 5:59
Eric - Lead vocal, piano, electric piano, six string bass, fuzz bass, lead guitar
Graham - Electric guitars, cow bell, tambourine, backup vocals
Lol - 2nd lead vocal, electric guitars, maracas, moog, recorder, backup vocals
Kevin - Drums temple, blocks, backup vocals
"Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby" (Gouldman, Stewart) – 3:58
Kevin - Lead vocals, drums, backup vocals
Eric - 2nd lead vocal, lead guitar, pedal steel guitar, piano
Lol - Electric guitars, backup vocals
Graham - Bass, dobro, slide steel guitar, glockenspiel
"Head Room" (Godley, Creme) – 4:21
Lol - Lead vocal, lead guitar, electric piano
Kevin - Drums, tambourine, backup vocals
Graham - Bass, backup vocals
Eric - Slide guitar, backup vocals
"Don't Hang Up" (Godley, Creme) – 6:16
Kevin - Lead vocal, cabasa, castanets, hand claps, backup vocals
Lol - Piano, electric piano, marracas, hand claps, backup vocals, gizmo, moog
Graham - Bass, Spanish guitar, hand claps, backup vocals
Eric - Lead guitar, backup vocals
Mair Jones - Harp"
"I'm Mandy Fly Me"
The intro to "I'm Mandy Fly Me", a song (as possibly a fantasy or dream sequence) about being rescued following an airplane crash, features one of the bridge sections of the band's 1974 song "Clockwork Creep". The section, whose lyrics go "Oh, no you'll never get me up in one of these again / 'Cause what goes up must come down", is rendered soft and tinny, as if heard playing from a portable transistor radio. The song is regarded by some fans as a continuation of the story within "Clockwork Creep", whose subject was a bomb hidden on an airliner. "A Brilliant Song"... John Lennon, & Paul McCartney. Stockport:( Strawberry Studios, Manchester,UK )
Personnel:
Lol Creme — Vocals, Guitar, Moog, Piano, Percussion, Organ, Clavinet, Recorder, Vibes
Kevin Godley — Vocals, Drums, Percussion, Timpani, Congas, Bongos
Graham Gouldman — Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Percussion, Glockenspiel
Eric Stewart — Vocals,Guitar, Piano, Bass
Mair Jones — Harp
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