10cc - Don't Turn Me Away

Don’t Turn Me Away is a typically strong and moving ballad from the pen of Eric Stewart and features some lovely synthesiser work (no that’s not an oxymoron – not in this case anyway) on a song that deals with another unusually serious subject. The narrator is doing his best to convince a friend to talk about their problems after they suffer what sounds like a nervous breakdown, despite the fact that they seem to have cut off communications with him entirely along with everybody else in their life. Sounding like exactly the sort of friend you need in a crisis, Eric’s vocal does the song proud, keeping the song light and pleasantly hummable while sounding grandfatherly chiding and un-mistakenly worried throughout the song. The track then switches back into full throttle rocker mode on the middle eight, where some anger suddenly creeps into the song and we think this kindly narrator is finally going to break, only to get a typically 10cc rejoinder (‘When you find out where your heart is let me know…’ sings Stewart in a huff, before adding ‘because I’ll be waiting for you’) . With the sort of lovely cascading tune 10CC rattled off in their sleep during the 1970s and some fine band harmonies, this song would surely have been in with a good chance of becoming a hit single if the band had recorded it in their heyday and it belongs to a fine tradition of Eric Stewart-sung ballads that date right back to Groovy Kind Of Love with the Mindbenders. Even without single status, however, this seemingly personal letter delivered via the record business rather than the Royal Mail (it’s a tie as to which method is quickest these days) still hits the spot.

• 2019-04-12T01:21:44+00:00
• Duration: 05:05

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Keywords

10cc, pop rock, 80s, ballad