‘Silly Love’ (Creme/Stewart) is my other favorite on the record, so much so that I even used it in a study of song lyrics I submitted for my ‘A’ Level English Language coursework (you see, this is a lifelong obsession and yes, I did go way over the word count!) This is a rip-roaring comedy song, full of tricky little rhymes and patter that are among the funniest 10cc ever wrote, but a serious message at it’s heart that, like ‘I’m Not In Love’, thinks the general rituals that go hand in hand with romance is too ‘sissy’ for an emotion so real and overpowering. There are some classic lines about how romance can be boiled down to tired crooned love songs heard so often they’ve lost all emotional impact and how love is all ‘cliches and toupees’ (a great line, no wonder Lol laughs his socks off in the background). By the end of the song we’re urged not to rely on worn-out methods of showing our love but to ‘take a little time’ and ‘make up your own rhyme’, because its being heartfelt that win the person of your dreams, not stealing lines from other people. There’s a terrific chorus too with all the band hissing ‘silly’ into the microphone – silly it may be but, together with the urgent, almost violent backing it somehow makes perfect sense. The band excel themselves here with the best group performance in their catalog, returning to the rockabilly 1950s feel of the first album but with the power of a heavy metal band. If you happen to own the single version of this song then you’re in for a treat with the ending too, with Eric – one of my favorite guitarists – attacking the main riff of the song over and over and improvising like mad while the rest of the band keep going behind him (most of the best guitar solos on Paul McCartney’s 1980s records are by Eric too, except the one by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on ‘No More Lonely Nights’!) It makes for a fabulous finale on a song that could have been twee but instead sounds tough and muscly, although sadly some nitwit somewhere chose to edit it down for the LP version, losing 30 seconds or so. Most fans forget about this song, which failed badly in the charts despite its obvious merits, but I rate ‘Silly Love’ as one of the band’s greatest moments, a cutting song that’s still great fun and couldn’t possibly have been written or recorded by any other band.