10CC / Cover Poster from # 4 - 1976 of the famous Swedish POP magazine POSTER issued between 1974-1980. That's the best answer I can give mate.
Iceberg: Another weird song I still find myself singing along to nevertheless. My vote would be for it being about a mentally unstable, socially awkward person, but the lyrics aren’t completely transparent. I think it’s interesting how both the man and woman are boneheaded. Musically I don’t find it the most interesting song, meaning most of their other songs have more standout parts and playing in addition to stellar vocals. Still appreciate the track quite a bit though; somehow it feels fun even with the lyrical content.
Thanks, I appreciate it. I’d love a decent sized poster or something hangable of the original four for my record room, so I’m always wondering. Never saw that pic before, pretty decent.
To me it isn't as smooth as many of their other tracks with multiple feels, but I get the impression that that is intentional due to the subject matter
Iceberg From listening to this track & reading the lyrics I take this song to be about a schizophrenic with even more disturbing sociopathic tendencies. Hence, the disjointed musical twists and turns suit the mood & the lyrics well. I can completely understand why a number of people won't like this track, but as I have a dark/gallows sense of humour I really enjoyed listening to this. 3.5/5
Consequences worked for me in the 1970's as a university student who did not avoid recreational drugs. It doesn't really hold up over time, I agree. Probably the most interesting aspect was the use of the "Gizmo(tron)"
I had to listen to the video Mark posted to familiarize myself with Iceberg. When we started discussing this album, I couldn't remember a second of it. Even now, listening to the video, it's not all that familiar. I guess I kind of tuned it out whenever I listened to How Dare You. It's a weird way to end side 1 of a weird album. It kind of reminds me of Twisted (by Joni Mitchell among others.) There song sounds like a bunch of little ideas they threw together to get that crazy mood. Why's it called Iceberg? Is that a gizmo near the end foreshadowing Consequences? I like it a little bit more than I Wanna Rule The World, but one off-the-wall song on side 1 would have been plenty.
Does anyone know if the Japanese issue of How Dare You (23PD-115) is any good? I still need this CD in my life, and I want one that doesn't have mastering issues.
I give Iceberg a 4/5 because it could use some body/harmonic support. It'll be interesting carrying this observation through the Godley/Creme stuff, which tends to similarly lack foundation. If anyone in the band knew/knows how to use a pedal note, it's Graham, but it seems they couldn't quite tether this one. All that said, this is one of my favourite 10cc songs and even though I've rarely if ever played this song outside of the album, I seemed to have memorised the whole lyric (a rarity for me)! So much fun, even it's muted space.
Art For Art's Sake This was one of the first 10cc songs to really grab me. I have no interesting in being cool or hip, so I am going to say straight out that I love this song, and it has so many subtle and brilliant pieces in its puzzle that it, to me at least, remains a remarkably good piece of music. We start with some beautiful dreamy chords that gently swell bare wriggle around. There is some really nice delay effects on some percussion pieces that end up becoming somewhat of a hook through the song. The song then moves into a staccato section that builds us up to the cool guitar riff, and then leads us into the vocal. When I say there are some nice subtleties in here ... listen to the chorus. For me the piano sitting on the one chord and tapping ever so slightly louder with each hit after the lyrics, is just a beautiful piece of writing and arranging to me. We move into the first real change ("Money talks, so listen to it") and it takes on a whole new character, with a nice little chord run up to give it a bit of a pump. Then we get a cool piece of guitar riffing. It isn't flash or fancy, but it just very cool. Then the hook that sold me on the song when I was a young pup "When you get down, down to the root ...." I always felt that this was a fantastic little insert that really gave the song some character. We also get some really cool harmony vocals through the song, but they are a little more subtle than the band usually did. When I first had the album, and I heard the outro lead guitar, I was annoyed that it had been cut off the single..... singles never made any sense to me .... Anyway, to me this is a rock classic and in spite of it being one of the more played (on the radio) songs in the 10cc catalog, I certainly don't think it devalues the song in any way whatsoever. To me, up to and including this point in the album, we have all killer, and every track has its own personality and takes more ground for the band musically. I really find this album to be so very good in its sequencing and the musical content of the tracks is just brilliant.
Art For Arts Sake Hooray capitalism and life is short, might as well enjoy it ? I never paid much attention to the lyrics and now that I do there's really no need Eric is on six string bass and fuzz bass. It's another high quality 10cc track. Lovely intro that slowly moves into full speed. Great percussion, sound effects fit in perfectly and excellent guitar work. Lol's part is a nice break, followed by more changes and right back to the beginning. Thuddy drum sound with clear cowbell and very bright percussion. The closing guitar solo has multiple takes and some. Excellent production and mix.
For the Record, the title of the song apparently came from something Graham Gouldman's dad Hymie used to say "art for art's sake, money for God's sake"
My original 70's vinyl artwork (inner gatefold, lyrics sheet, disc label) has it spelled Arts, the remaster cd has Art's
Art For Art's Sake ... love this song ... a bit ethereal, a bit reggae, a bit hard rock, a bit of everything really. --Geoff
I said before that I thought "Art for Art's Sake" was their worst single as a four-man band, but I have to amend that, because "The Worst Band in the World" is worse. However, since their singles are so good, being worst or second-worst doesn't really mean much. AfAS is a pretty good song, all things told. I like the wordplay and the production, and it certainly is something you can sing along with. It's not the best song on the album, but for me it brings the album back on track after a bit of a misfire and then leads into a wonderful stretch of three great tunes.
While I no longer own this album, this might be my second favorite 10CC song. That guitar solo (the edited single was released in the states before the lp) made the hair on my arms stand up. It's right up there with The Dean and I. It's an amusing song, an the humor isn't forced.
Art For Art's Sake This amusing Gouldman/Stewart art rock reggae ode to Capitalism. According to Wikipedia its inspiration was Graham Gouldman's father, Hymie Gouldman, often used to say "Art for art's sake, money for God's sake, okay". According to Songfacts: In The Daily Mail, May 27, 2007, Graham Gouldman of 10cc said: "'Art For Art's Sake' was a wry comment on the values of the music business, which became ever more apparent as our career developed." Graham Gouldman's father, Hymie, had a keen wit and often helped Graham refine his writing. Hymie often said, "Art for art's sake, money for God's sake," which was the basis for the title. Graham Gouldman started with the title and worked backwards to write this song. He completed it with band member Eric Stewart, who does the lead vocal on this song along with Lol Creme. I've probably over heard this track over the years (see also Pink Floyd's Money) but I prefer the extended album version to the more familiar edited single version for the guitar riff outro. 4.5/5
Coming back to Iceberg (sorry I've been away).. I love it and find it musically very very interesting; I am a little surprised by some of the reactions here, with all due respect. I am a jazz head though... It's like a demented parody of the kind of tunes you might have heard from Manhattan Transfer or early Barry Manilow around this time... what a riot! The whole bit from when Kevin sings "Iceberg", through "crazy people but you know I don't belong there" to the "I was an orphan" section... awww, so good!! Easily one of my favorite moments in their entire catalog. Of the "unorthodox" songwriter pairings, I feel that Godley/Gouldman and Creme/Stewart are the best fits in terms of what they bring to the table. Kevin and Graham in particular seemed to have a lot of fun and of course revisited the partnership later. The troublemaker throwing curveballs at the great pop classicist... Reportedly, when they were working on this, Godley wrote intentionally disturbing and unusable lines to deliberately mess with Gouldman, like "You'd better drop down your drawers, get on all fours, s**t in a handbag"... I believe that was in the Newton biography. Hysterical!! I really miss this kind of dynamic after the split.
Because a local store has a copy of it and I've waited a long time to find this album on CD. I'm not hung up on a Japanese version just for the sake of it being Japanese, but if it doesn't have the bad mastering on the later editions, then it would be a winner for me.
