Clinical, Intellectual, Cynical

Supertramp : The Logical Song

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On March 29, 1979 Supertramp released Breakfast in America, an album that infiltrated both pop and album oriented rock radio for the rest of the year, spawning four singles, topping charts all over the world and selling four million copies in the United States.

The first single was "The Logical Song", a Top 10 hit and cited as the favorite song of the year by a bloke named Paul McCartney. Hodgson wrote the song based on his memories of boarding school similar to the one where I was studying when the song first made waves on the radio.

He told Songfacts how the song came to be:

"'The Logical Song' was born from my questions about what really matters in life. Throughout childhood we are taught all these ways to be and yet we are rarely told anything about our true self. We are taught how to function outwardly, but not guided to who we are inwardly. We go from the innocence and wonder of childhood to the confusion of adolescence that often ends in the cynicism and disillusionment of adulthood. In 'The Logical Song,' the burning question that came down to its rawest place was 'please tell me who I am,' and that's basically what the song is about. I think this eternal question continues to hit such a deep chord in people around the world and why it stays so meaningful.

What stands out to these ears forty years later is how much Supertramp has simplified their sound. Roger Hodgson  ("Give A Little Bit") was supposed to be the pop tunesmith of the band; the hitmaker. And his "Logical Song" did hit U.S.#6 while his "Take the Long Way Home" peaked at #10, but Rick Davies' "Goodbye Stranger" was also a major hit and a fan favorite, peaking at U.S.#15. Not bad for a song that may be about one night stands. 

Stephen Holden reviewed the album for Rolling Stone :

Breakfast In America is a textbook-perfect album of post-Beatles, keyboard-centered English art rock that strikes the shrewdest possible balance between quasi-symphonic classicism and rock + roll. Whereas Supertramp's earlier LPs were bogged down by swatches of meandering, Genesis-like esoterica, the songs here are extraordinarily melodic and concisely structured, reflecting these musicians' saturation in American pop since their move to Los Angeles in 1977.

Supertramp's major problem is an increasing dichotomy between their rhapsodic aural style and a glib, end-of-the-empire pessimism. The music in "Gone Hollywood" is so suffused with romantic excitement that it's difficult to believe the ennui the lyrics claim: "So many creeps in Hollywood/...Ain't nothin' new in my life today." Though laced with nice, Beach Boys-style falsettos, "Goodbye Stranger," an uncharacteristically happy fantasy about endless one-night stands, seems far more honest.

But the only cut that really wrestles the dichotomy is "The Logical Song." In this small masterpiece, singer Roger Hodgson enacts an Everyman who excoriates an education that preaches categorical jargon instead of knowledge and sensitivity. "And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical," he declaims, reeling off three- and four-syllable assonances with a schoolboy's tongue in cheek worthy of Ray Davies and the Kinks. Flamenco flourishes and a hot sax break help deflate the tune's self-pity with a wonderfully wry humor.

The next "logical" thing for these guys to do with their awesome technique is to turn it more toward this sort of ironic drollery. Then Supertramp might become not only the best-sounding art-rock band in existence, but one of the most interesting.

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was not so kind, grading the album a C+ , writing:

I like a hooky album as well as the next fellow, so when I found that this one elicited random grunts of pleasure I looked forward to listening hard. But the lyrics turned out to be glib variations on the usual Star Romances trash, and in the absence of vocal personality (as opposed to accurate singing) and rhythmic thrust (as opposed to a beat) I'll wait until this material is covered by artists of emotional substance--Tavares, say, or the Doobie Brothers.

40 Year Itch : The Magic In A Day

Supertramp : Sister Moonshine

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   While on tour supporting their surprisingly successful album Crime of the Century, Supertramp pulled over to the side of the road somewhere between Seattle and Vancouver, BC. Bouncing around on logs, guitarist Roger Hodgson playfully pushed a roadie who managed to fall and mangle Hodgson's hand, breaking his thumb and index finger badly enough to cancel their final dates.

  When Supertramp was healthy enough they entered an LA studio with mostly leftover songs and recorded Crisis? What Crisis? which sold well enough despite mixed reviews. Again, it is a Rolling Stone critic that pans the album:

   The biggest crisis is trying to get through both sides of the album

40 Year Itch : Crime of the Century

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After 1971's wretched Indelibly Stamped, the entire band quit. That's how bad things had become for Supertramp's remaining members, Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies. Worse, their benefactor , Dutch millionaire Stanley Miesegaes, pulled up stakes. He'd already lost $90,000 on Supertramp. He didn't want to lose another dime. Hodgson and Davies had one last shot to save their A and M contract. And they did so with a masterpiece called Crime of the Century.

   First, they had to recruit new members Bob Benberg from the pub rocking band Bees Make Honey and John Helliwell and Dougie Thomson from the Alan Brown Set. At a four month writing and rehearsal retreat on a 17th Century farm , Supertramp found their sound --a combination of progressive rock's imaginative scale and Hodgson's own pop sensibilities.

As Hodgson told Mojo Magazine:

This was the first time something clicked. We knew we had a band , not just a hotch-potch of styles and the music was working.

  The music clicked with UK and Canadian audiences straight away. The catchy single "Dreamer" hit #13 on the UK charts and helped propel Crime of the Century to #4 on the UK charts. Deep cuts like "Hide In Your Shell", "Bloody Well Right"  and "If Everyone Was Listening" will convince you this is the Supertramp album to add to your collection.

American audiences made Crime of the Century more of a cult hit. A and M has to give away a lot of the band's concert tickets. Still the album peaked in the US at #38.  

1979's smash , Breakfast in America,  was a completely different story of course.