Frabjous Days: The Secret World Of Godley & Creme 1967-1969

Album review

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. If you're a 10cc fan wondering why Frabjoy & Runcible Spoon doesn't ring a bell, that's because they 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 with the collection Frabjous Days: The Secret World of Godley & Creme 1967-1969. This set brings together seven unreleased tracks that were completed for the aborted Frabjoy & Runcible Spoon album, the four rare tunes that did see release (two from a single, two from a sampler album), and Godley & Creme performing a pair of songs by their future 10cc collaborator Graham Gouldman. The assembly of the album is a bit scattershot, but the music fits together well enough that it feels like an album, or at least most of an album. By this time, Godley & Creme were showing off the compositional skills that would be the hallmark of their later work, as well as a knack for making the most of the resources of the studio. The pair were also well on their way to perfecting their vocal blend, with "Fly Away" and "Take Me Back" sounding uncannily like what they'd created with 10cc a few years later. If there's a difference between this music and what they'd perfect on Sheet Music in 1974, 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. All that said, this is fine and imaginative pop with a psychedelic edge that's a treat for fans of '60s sounds and those who loved Godley & Creme's later work. The set also includes the Yellow Bellow Room Boom's sole 45, well-researched and entertaining liner notes, and pleasingly restored audio, and it's a splendid look at the juvenilia of one of the most fascinating partnerships in British rock.

© Mark Deming /TiVo