Eighties Topalbums: 10CC - Windows In The Jungle

tracklist:

24 Hours

Oomachasaooma (feel the love)

Yes I Am

Americana Panorama

City Lights

Food For Thought

Working Girls

Taxi Taxi

I got to know 10CC at the end of the seventies / early eighties through my cousin, because everyone has inscribed Dreadlock Holiday in his memory. The first album I heard from them was Live And Let Live. A very strong live album, I have something with live albums, which is still among my favorites.

Eric Stewart, who after the departure of Godley & Creme in 1976 together with Graham Gouldman remained responsible for the sound of 10CC, got involved in a heavy car accident in 1979. After rehabilitation, he was no longer the old one, which certainly did not benefit the compositional aspect of 10CC. In addition, the group was confronted with a record company that demanded hits. To pull the car back smoothly, the duo worked together with Andrew Gold, but the songs they wrote with him did not end up on the European version of Ten Out Of 10; the eighth 10CC album that came out in 1981. The American version did contain some of those songs, and it took until 2006 until all the material from both albums was merged for the Japanese CD version. Incidentally, it only appeared in Europe in 2014.

For the successor Windows In The Jungle, Stewart and Gouldman wanted to make a concept album in Pink Floyd's tradition. That went partly well, partly because the record company continued to ask for singles, the quick money. Stewart later stated that the final result did not meet his expectations. He would have liked an album with songs in the line of One Night In Paris (from The Original Soundtrack) and Feel The Benefit (from Deceptive Bends). But the music world had changed and although in England at that time a new wave of progressive rock bands arose with Marillion, Twelfth Night, IQ, Pendragon and Pallas as standard-bearers, according to the record companies the concept album was completely outdated. Although the duo is limping on two thoughts with numbers of six to eight minutes (24 Hours, Yes I Am and Taxi, Taxi) and commercial (single) material of three / four minutes like Americana Panorama and City Lights, there is also a concept to be judged. Due to the top ten hit Feel The Love and Food For Thought, which was only released in the Netherlands, which scored 18 as the highest, the album managed to maintain itself for 10 weeks in the Album Top 100 with number 6 as the highest ranking. It also gave 10CC that year an invitation for Veronica's Rocknight where they gave a great concert. It turned out to be the last album for Mercury Records and 10CC went into the fridge for nine years. Graham Gouldman picked up his collaboration with Andrew Gold, and released three albums under the name Wax between 1984 and 1990. Eric Stewart had already released two solo albums in 1980 and 1982 and would only add two more in 2003 and 2009.

I am still very enthusiastic about Windows In The Jungle. I think this is also because Windows In The Jungle was the first new LP of 10CC, which I bought myself. 10CC is such a band that manages to mix progressive rock, reggae and pop excellently into art-like compositions, although it is striking that both singles who managed to make it to the top 40 have a high reggae content and clearly lie in the continuation of Dreadlock Holiday. 24 Hours, which also appeared as a single, did absolutely nothing, while musically there was much more tension in it.

The song is about the life of an artist and it seems that Eric Stewart stood model. It describes life in the city, where everyone has a nine to five job, where the daily hustle and bustle prevails, but where the artist sleeps and only takes action when the workers are at the end of their working day as a visitor at his performance. He must be on top while they are allowed to relax. With the success come the vague figures who force themselves on the band and the groupies who like to throw themselves into his arms. A fact that Stewart personally experienced when I'm Not In Love became a world hit. The subject is reminiscent of the three opening tracks of the 1980 Genesis album Duke (Behind The Lines, Duchess and Guide Vocal), which deal with the rise and fall of an artist.

Furthermore, decomposers of song lyrics reveal a second possible link to Genesis by means of the
following piece in the songtext:

I say Phil can you get it,
He say "Alright, alright, alright"
Tell me when can I get it,
He say "Tonight, tonight, tonight"
I want money on delivery hey
That's right, that's right, that's right
I say baby do not trust me,
He say "The city's a jungle where the strongest survive."

This would refer to Phil Collins and the Genesis song Tonight Tonight Tonight. However, this song did not appear until 1986 on the Genesis album Invisible Touch. So it could be just that it is the other way around and that Phil Collins was triggered by the song text of 24 Hours to write the song Tonight Tonight Tonight.