10cc is one of those bands that I keep coming back to because you never know exactly what you are going to get. They could make some of the smartest pop music around and then turn around and play something completely different. They had a sense of humor that ran through much of their music, along with being good musicians and songwriters.
This is a song that caught my attention because it sounds like 10cc taking an older form of music and running it through their style. The blues influence is there, but this isn’t a band trying to convince you they came straight out of the Mississippi Delta. That slightly off-center 10cc humor is there, and that made them difficult to put in a box.
By this period, 10cc had changed considerably from the original lineup of Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme. Godley and Creme had left in 1976, leaving Stewart and Gouldman to continue the band. They still managed a huge hit with “Dreadlock Holiday” (we will see later) in 1978 before moving into the 1980s with Look Hear?. The album arrived after a difficult period for Stewart, who had been seriously injured in a car accident in early 1979 and temporarily suffered problems with both his sight and hearing.
What I like about it is that it doesn’t sound like 10cc simply checking off the blues box. They were too quirky for that. They could take a familiar style and twist it enough to make it their own. That is one reason I’ve always liked this band. Even when they tried different things, it was always interesting.
Since I mentioned “Dreadlock Holiday…” Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman wrote the song after experiences they had while traveling in the Caribbean, mixing things that actually happened with fictional elements. Gouldman later explained that the idea was partly to poke fun at a white tourist trying desperately to appear cool.
The song peaked at number 1 in the UK.
The video might be as entertaining as the song. It was directed by Storm Thorgerson, one of the founders of Hipgnosis, the design team responsible for some of rock’s most recognizable album covers. The video plays the song’s story broadly, with Eric Stewart wandering into increasingly ridiculous trouble while the rest of the band eventually turns up. It has that wonderfully strange late-70s quality where you get the feeling somebody said, “We have four minutes, a beach and some costumes…let’s make a video.”
Modern Man Blues
I’m tired Lord and I’m drawn
And I’m chilled right to the bone
I crawled home from my work
And this note said she was gone
Said your dinner’s in the cat
And your love is out the door
I’m goin’ back to my momma
And I don’t want you no more, no more
She said she don’t want me no more
She’s gone back to her momma
Said she’s never never comin’ back no more
Now a man can take so much
And only heaven knows his limit
But a naggin’ bitchin’ woman
Digs a hole and puts him in it
A sophisticated man
Needs a little something on the side
So what you don’t get at home
You’ve gotta get outside, hey
She’s gone
I’m spending all of my money
She’s gone, gone, gone
And I can swing with my honey
She’s gone
I’m so glad my woman’s gone
Now time goes marching on
And it won’t wait for you
You’ve gotta take it when it’s offered
And get it when it’s due
Now a man can move much faster
Without a millstone around his neck
So if you get the chance to lose it
You’ve gotta drop it and run like heck, hey
She’s gone
I’m spending all of my money
She’s gone, gone, gone
And I can swing with my honey
She’s gone
I’m so glad my woman’s gone
She’s gone
I’m spending all of my money
She’s gone, gone, gone
And I can swing with my honey
She’s gone
I’m so glad my woman’s gone
