10CC: LIVE AND LET LIVE (1977)
1) The Second Sitting For The
Last Supper; 2) You've Got A Cold; 3) Honeymoon With B Troup; 4) Art For Art's
Sake; 5) People In Love; 6) Wall Street Shuffle; 7) Ships Don't Disappear In
The Night; 8) I'm Mandy Fly Me; 9) Marriage Bureau Rendezvous; 10) Good Morning
Judge; 11) Feel The Benefit; 12) The Things We Do For Love; 13) Waterfall; 14)
I'm Not In Love; 15) Modern Man Blues.
For some reason, 10cc never got around to
releasing a live album while still in their prime — not that, being a «pop»
band by definition, they should have felt as obliged to do it as their
colleagues in the heavy rock and prog rock departments. But with Godley and
Creme out of the band, Stewart and Gouldman may have sensed a need for proving
that «10cc still exists!» in as many ways as humanly possible — and so, with Deceptive Bends only six months away,
they hurriedly followed it up with a sprawling double LP of live recordings,
made in June-July 1977 in London and Manchester. Another possible goal was to
flaunt their newly reassembled band, showcasing Rick Fenn (who gets a bass solo
on ʽFeel The Benefitʼ), new keyboardist Tony O'Malley, and no less than two
different percussionists.
Unfortunately, even in their prime 10cc were
not a particularly great band to enjoy outside of the studio — and in 1977, the
only reason to buy this live album was to show financial support for the band.
Deprived of contributions by its weirdest, riskiest members, the 10cc setlist
was now almost exclusively limited to Stewart/Gouldman material, which, of
course, had plenty of winners, but this also means that Deceptive Bends is reproduced here almost in its entirety, so you
are basically buying the same album twice
— and it's not as if the live renditions had anything to prove that was not
already proven in the studio.
Other than that, ʽShips Don't Disappear In The
Nightʼ is stretched out to unreasonable limits with the addition of a slowed
down part; ʽArt For Art's Sakeʼ is stretched out to include a jamming part at
the end, with a passable, melodic, but rather out-of-place solo from Eric; and
ʽWaterfallʼ fares better, since its desperate romanticism is perfectly
compatible with guitar heroics — so Stewart adds an epic solo built along the
same lines as Jimmy Page's solo on ʽStairway To Heavenʼ (in fact, one might
actually state that they are trying
to transform ʽWaterfallʼ into their own private ʽStairwayʼ). All in all,
Stewart's guitar playing skills is more or less the only thing that distinguishes
these songs from their studio counterparts — and they are not nearly as unique
or inventive as should be required to make Live
And Let Live into a lead guitar lover's wet dream.
Nevertheless, the album still sold well,
reflecting 10cc's general level of fame and prosperity: with Deceptive Bends still showing traces of
the classic spirit, Stewart and Gouldman were only on the verge of squandering
the band's artistic reputation, and the power and the glory of their hit
singles still rang out loud and clear — enough to make people buy even
something that nobody really needed. Besides, most of the songs are so good, why
not buy them twice anyway?..
Minor correction: that's still Graham Gouldman playing the bass solo. I was there.
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