A Quirky and Haunting Reflection on a Forged Alliance, a Surreal Fable of a Band’s Unlikely New Beginning.
By 1977, the musical world was in a state of chaotic transition, with punk and disco on the rise. At the same time, the British art-rock titans 10cc were facing a dramatic and seismic shift of their own. The band, a creative powerhouse of four brilliant minds, had just endured a painful and acrimonious split, with founding members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme leaving to form their own duo. The remaining half of the band, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, were left with the immense task of carrying on the legacy of 10cc. Their response was the album Deceptive Bends, a defiant and stunning statement that proved their genius was far from gone. The record was a massive success, soaring to a peak of number 3 on the UK Albums Chart and reaching number 31 on the Billboard 200 in the US. Among its more famous hits was a track that stood as a haunting testament to the band’s turmoil, a song that was never a single but held all the power of their heartbreak. That song was “Honeymoon With B Troop.”
The story behind “Honeymoon With B Troop” is a tragic, yet ultimately redemptive, piece of drama. The song is a direct reflection of the emotional and creative fallout from the band’s split. Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman were now alone, forced to find a new dynamic and a new creative voice. The title itself is a brilliant piece of dark humor, a surreal metaphor for their forced alliance. The “honeymoon” is not a romantic celebration, but a strange, unsettling period of cohabitation with a new and different creative force—a “B Troop” that wasn’t what they had signed up for. The song is a raw, emotional confession wrapped in a layer of the band’s trademark quirky musicality. It is a cinematic glimpse into a band in crisis, a story of two artists who had to navigate feelings of betrayal, loss, and the daunting challenge of starting over.
The lyrical drama of the song is a theatrical monologue, delivered with a sense of resigned melancholy and a haunting, ethereal quality. The lyrics evoke a bizarre and unsettling scene, like a surrealist dream. The music, with its strange chord progressions and intricate, layered instrumentation, perfectly captures the emotional complexity of the narrative. The song feels both beautiful and disquieting, full of a strange, almost cinematic tension that keeps the listener on edge. The song’s melody is a testament to the fact that even in moments of profound sadness and creative uncertainty, Stewart and Gouldman’s musical brilliance remained intact. The song feels like an artist’s personal journal entry, a way for them to make sense of the chaos and to find a new kind of beauty in a broken world.
For those of us who came of age with this music, “Honeymoon With B Troop” is more than just a song; it’s a poignant reminder of a time when a band’s inner turmoil could be sublimated into something profound and lasting. It’s a nostalgic echo of a time when albums were complete works of art, meant to be listened to as a whole. The song speaks to the universal experience of facing unexpected change, of having to forge new paths with new people, and of finding a way to make it work. It stands as a timeless and deeply emotional piece of music, a haunting and beautiful look at a band’s unlikely new beginning.