Remember This 1975 Deep Cut That Compared Life to an Italian Soup? Let’s Revisit Those Leftovers

Any lifelong songwriter knows that you can’t control when the muse arrives at your doorstep with an idea. All you can do is jot it down so you don’t forget it between the time that inspiration strikes and when you actually have a moment to turn it into a song. As 10cc guitarist Eric Stewart found out during an otherwise uneventful car ride, this includes when the idea is about soup.

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During an interview on BBC Radio Wales with Alan Thompson, Stewart recalled how he came upon the idea for the 1975 10cc track, “Life Is A Minestrone”. And no, it wasn’t just because he loves that kind of soup.

How a Muttered Phrase on the Radio Turned Into a Top 10 Hit

When Alan Thompson asked Eric Stewart if he was always on the hunt for new song ideas, the guitarist humbly replied, “Yeah, as a songwriter, your brain is always open to that somehow.” He continued that this was how he came up with the idea for “Life Is A Minestrone”, the lead single and seventh track on 10cc’s 1975 album, The Original Soundtrack.

“We’d finished in the studio, Strawberry Studios,” Stewart explained. “We’d finished recording. Lol [Creme, 10cc’s lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist] was staying with me at the time. We were driving home and listening to BBC radio, and this guy says, ‘mmmhrrhhr mmmhrrhhr strone,’ and Lol says, ‘Did that guy say life is a minestrone?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, but what a great song. What a great idea for a song. What a great title.’”

“Life is a minestrone, isn’t it?” Stewart continued. “It’s a mixture of everything we pile in there. And of course, once we sat down to start writing ‘Life Is A Minestrone’, well, what’s death? Death’s got to be a cold lasagna. You know, three days old, stuck in the fridge. You don’t want to eat it. Once you get on a roll like that about food and feeling, we had it written in a day.”

“Life Is A Minestrone” Was a Top 10 Hit in the Band’s Home Country

As off-the-wall as the metaphor might seem at first, 10cc had a point when they said “Life Is A Minestrone”. A real minestrone is a thick vegetable soup that features a myriad of veggies and legumes, such as onions, carrots, cabbage, beans, chickpeas, potatoes, and tomatoes. It’s a great soup, and the hodgepodge of it all makes for a relatable reflection on life and its complexities. (Though, this writer and expert lasagna maker would argue that if Eric Stewart is comparing leftover lasagna to death, he hasn’t had the right lasagna yet. He’s welcome to fly to Kentucky and try mine anytime.)

Food metaphors aside, 10cc found a hit floating in “Life Is A Minestrone”. The lead single off The Original Soundtrack peaked at No. 7 in the band’s native United Kingdom and Ireland. It performed less well in the States, peaking at only No. 104 on the Billboard pop charts. Maybe Americans just felt like they were having more of a “chicken noodle” kind of year.

Photo by David Warner Ellis/Redferns