THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,048) Yellow Bellow Room Boom* (Godley & Creme) — “Easy Life”
The B-side of future 10cc’ers Godley & Creme’s first single (‘68) is a “droll” (David Wells, liner notes to Frabjous Days: The Secret World of Godley and Creme 1967-1969) and wonderful song. ”Such a poignant song! How could such young guys write such a wise song?” (ajsmith, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO4VJXnDY48) Indeed.
As to G&C, Dave Thompson tells us that “Kevin Godley, a former member of Graham Gouldman’s Mockingbirds, and Lol Creme, once Godley’s bandmate in the early-’60s group the Sabres. . . . had studied for diplomas in graphic design”. (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/frabjoy-the-runcible-spoon-mn0001919409) They were attending different art schools. But, as David Wells tells us:
Although they were studying in different cities, Kevin and Lol were only about 45 miles apart, and they continued to play together. ”Lol would drive down in a van . . . with a Hammond organ in the back”, says Kevin. ”We would play loud, weird jazz all night and annoy the neighbours![“] . . . [T]hey hung out at weekends, as Kevin explained . . . “When we came back from the weeks at college, we’d sit down and write songs, discuss ideas for art and so on. At first we were keener on artistic things than music, and then gradually the music took over. . . . [They] worked on a project hat resulted in a Top Twenty single. . . . ”Pamela, Pamela” . . . came from an idea we had for a film . . .. We’d done the script for a story and then we’d written some music and we’d done the lyrics . . . . [Graham Gouldman] took the idea and developed it, and the song was a hit for Wayne Fontana. . . . suggesting that a career in music might be a viable option once they’d completed their studies . . . . [They] . . . . signed a management deal with Jim O’Farrell . . . .
liner notes to Frabjous Days: The Secret World of Godley and Creme 1967-1969
O’Farrell produced “Easy Life” and its A-side “Seeing Things Green”, and while the single “failed to make much impact . . . . [it garnered them] a publishing deal.” (David Wells, liner notes to Frabjous Days: The Secret World of Godley and Creme 1967-1969)
Mark Deming continues the story:
In 1970, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme would score their first serious hit with the oddball stomp of Hotlegs’ “Neanderthal Man,” and in 1973 they would become half of 10cc, who would release some of the smartest, wittiest, and best-crafted British pop of the decade. Dial back to 1969, and the two were veterans of the U.K.’s beat music scene who’d evolved into a pop-psychedelic duo called the Yellow Bellow Room Boom. Giorgio Gomelsky, who had previously helped guide the careers of the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds signed them to his Marmalade Records label and gave them a different (and similarly whimsical but clumsy) stage name, Frabjoy & Runcible Spoon, in hopes of transforming them into a British answer to Simon & Garfunkel. . . . [T]hey released only four poor-selling songs under that banner before Marmalade Records went under, and the album they’d been working on was doomed never to see the light of day. Thankfully, the tapes survived, and the British reissue label Grapefruit Records has released an approximation of that long-lost LP . . . . [including] seven unreleased tracks that were completed for the aborted . . . album [and] the four rare tunes that did see release . . . . Godley & Creme were showing off the compositional skills that would be the hallmark of their later work . . . . The pair were also well on their way to perfecting their vocal blend . . . . If there’s a difference . . . it’s in the absence of their pointed satiric wit, and a gentler melodic style more beholden to folk and pop-psych and lacking the splendid and shameless hooks that would reinforce the jokes on 10cc’s albums. . . . [T]his is fine and imaginative pop with a psychedelic edge . . . a splendid look at the juvenilia of one of the most fascinating partnerships in British rock.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/frabjous-days-the-secret-world-of-godley-creme-1967-1969-mw0003721503
* David Wells explains:
With Kev and Lol unavailable to promote their recording . . . five “ringers”[were assembled] to masquerade as the group for a publicity photo and live appearances . . . . [Kevin Parrott explains] “The Yellow Bellow Room Boom was an ‘artificial’ group put together . . . to front the first record by Godley and Creme on CBS. . . . Kevin and Lol were still away at art college at the time. The guys in the [publicity] photo didn’t play on the CBS single and actually never played a gig with that line-up . . . .”
liner notes to Frabjous Days: The Secret World of Godley and Creme 1967-1969
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