Sheet Music [Import]

10cc | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 30, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Castle Music UK
• ASIN: B0000040MP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #645,195 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Wall Street Shuffle

2. The Worst Band in the World

3. Hotel

4. Old Wild Men

5. Clockwork Creep

6. Silly Love

7. Somewhere in Hollywood

8. Baron Samedi

9. The Sacro-Iliac

10. Oh Effendi

Editorial Reviews

Digitally remastered, German reissue of 1974 album featuring'The Worst Band In The World'. Includes 2 bonus tracks '18 Carat Man Of Means' & 'Gismo My Way'. 2000 release. Standardjewelcase. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sheet Music, February 8, 2003

By 

Mr. S. St Thomas "suckerfly" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sheet Music (Audio CD)

This is a pop classic that many critics have hailed as one of the best releases of the 7o's, that not alot of people know about. Its not 10cc's fault. Their popularity at the time was still growing after the colossal success of their first album (1973's 10CC). When I say colossal I mean this. In 10cc's career from 1973 - 1976, they were rarely out of the Top 10 charts in Europe, with quite a few No. 1's. By 1975 that success repeated in the States. They were virtually the most successful of the 1970's British 'pop' groups. And practically no one knows.

I first picked up SHEET MUSIC on a whim in 2001. Being familiar only with their songs 'The Wall Street Shuffle', Í'm Not In Love',and 'The Things We Do For Love' I was not sure what 10cc's other material sounded like based from these 3 selections from different albums & years. By the time I heard the third track from SHEET MUSIC 'Hotel' I couldn't believe I was listening to an album that had sounds of the 80's in 1974. These musicians in the studio were years ahead of their time, and certainly influenced what came out of Europe and later America with the 4 albums they released with the band line-up of Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. That Stewart & Gouldman later went on to write one of the most played songs in the world Í'm Not In Love', and Creme & Godley later went on to direct some of the most familiar and groundbreaking Videos of the 80's should tell you that there was an incredible amount of talent & vision in this band.

That they were one of the few bands, if not only, to run their own studio, and have complete control over their recorded output says something else. Everything they did was ín-house'and performed,produced,engineered & mixed by 10cc from the debut album onwards. SHEET MUSIC is the high watermark of this collaboration between four musicians when songwriting partnerships hadn't quite been cemented, and wider success was around the corner.

Think of the writing teams in that old cliche style --- Stewart & Gouldman were the McCartney, Godley & Creme were the Lennon. I hate having to use expressions like these, but it generalises and gives you, as someone not familiar with the music, an idea of the difference. The Wall Street Shuffle by Gouldman & Stewart is pure pop, and a top 10 single in Britain and still gets circulated around today for Stock market reports on TV. Gouldman & Creme's The Worst Band In The World is a witty and very ahead of its time indictment of pop ego and the music business. Musically it sounds very little like 1974. It sounds ahead. Hotel is one of the most unique songs I have ever heard. Blending a very 80's sounding introduction with island Calypso, Hollywood 1930's backing vocals, and a twisted tale told with alot of humour, Hotel is an undeniable classic written by Godley & Creme. Again, it sounds nothing like what was going on in 1974 or before. I heard just about every 80's synth pop band in the introduction of Hotel. Old Wild Men is a beautifully played and sung homage to the ageing rocker and marks the debut of the Godley/Creme invented ínstrument enhancer'The Gizmo' which could be placed on the bridge of a guitar to make it sound like a multitude of instruments, primarily strings (violin, cello etc.) . This Godley & Creme composition is further enhanced by the dual vocal team of Godley & Stewart, in my mind, two of the best singers Britain has produced. Clockwork Creep also by Godley & Creme is a tour de force of effects, tempo changes, inventiveness all behind the story told by a bomb. Stewart, Godley & Creme play different roles in this all too brief saga. Stewart as the Passenger, Godley as The Plane, and Creme as The Bomb.

(?) Side two kicks off with Stewart & Creme's 'Silly Love'. Sheet Music is the start of identifying songwriting partnerships in 10cc. Stewart & Gouldman paired off, as did Godley & Creme, but success was also had by pairing Godley & Gouldman, and Silly Love became a hit song with the Stewart & Creme combination. Silly Love is a rocker like other rockers but with a twist. Imploring that those Valentine's consumers opt for their OWN way of saying I love you rather than seek out tired old cliche's, Silly Love is original, funny and it jams. Godley & Creme's Somewhere In Hollywood follows. This is where the inventiveness of this writing team shows itself fully, but also shows the talent all 4 possessed in contributing to a song. Godley & Creme's explorations and obvious eccentricities were harnessed in and made clarified by Stewart & Gouldman's pop sensibilities. It really was a near perfect marriage of two different visions.
Stewart & Gouldman's 'Baron Samedi' has a Santana/afrocuban backing but with (again) ahead of its time recording and quality. Godley & Gouldman''s 'The Sacro-Iliac' should have been a single, it is that catchy. Telling the tale of a dance that everyone can do if you can't dance. And the final song Oh Effendi by Stewart & Godley tells the tale of very current events (USA/French/Middle East relations) in a no holds barred humourous way, giving a little diplomatic relations history as it does.

Sheet Music should be regarded as one of the best albums released in the 7o's. It may not suit everyone's tastes, but this albums influence on musicians, fans,and critics alike is undeniable. Sheet Music was the 8o's before the '8o's arrived.
On their next 2 albums together, the original lineup of 10cc innovated pop music, in recording and writing to a degree that I find them as influential as any other group you hear too much about.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Sophmore Slump, March 16, 2005

By 

ElvisCostellosWeiner "Chekhov Is The Greatest" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sheet Music (Audio CD)

10cc was a band that got better with every album, up until How Dare You! any ways: I've only heard Deceptive Bends and Bloody Tourists after this (though Look Hear and Ten out of Ten are in the mail) so I can't really judge those albums. But while the first album was a perfect mix of goofy jokes, innovative song writing and playing, and great satire, this album not only one ups that album musically, but ten ups it! sorry, bad pun.

The music gets much more complex on this album: the strange styles have amagalized into a style of complex genre changes, complex chord changes and harmonies, multiple parts, and on somewhere in hollywood, a sweeping, dramatic feel.

The lyrics are good too: funny, catchy, very great word play. Not my main focus in the band: gotta love those songs!

Pick up the Double Disc Uk Records Collection. It has this album, plus the first, all their b-sides from the two albums, and the single versions of the singles, plus some cool liner notes. It's easy to find if you live in america, and a steal!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sheet Music - 10CC, October 20, 2005

By 

uncut76 "uncut76" (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sheet Music (Audio CD)

Further to the other reviews, which I agree with, I bought this CD version of Sheet Music for the bonus b-side tracks "18 Carat Man Of Means" and "Gizmo My Way".

18 Carat Man Of Means is as good as anything on the album...it starts off like a basic 12 bar blues/rock song, then morphs into a heartbreaking multi-harmonied classic.

Gizmo My Way is merely a hawaiian sounding instrumental, and not entirely essential but still pleasant.

Anyone who likes the spontaneous nature of this album should check out the album simply titled "L" by Godley&Creme from 1981 and prepare to be blown away with it's weirdness.

(it is also interesting to note the major similarities between "Somewhere In Hollywood" and Queen's subsequent mega-hit "Bohemian Rhapsody" released the following year. Freddie and Co. must have been studying it, surely).