Hi Bob, nice to see you write about Supertramp. Growing up in Glendale I played in high school with drummer Bob Siebenberg a number of times. Straight out of high school Bob moved to London followed by his brother-in-law Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy) the following year. In 1978 I was frequenting a club called Jason’s in Toluca Lake and those two guys walked in. I couldn’t believe it. All of us Glendale guys knew that they were in these successful bands and we were all in awe that they were able to do that.
They kept coming into the club, and one evening Bob brought a cassette of Breakfast in America straight from the mix sessions. A bunch of us piled into cars went to someone’s house at 2 AM and listened to that album with our jaws on the floor.
Over the next few years Bob and I wrote songs and in the early 80s Scott and I started a band actually. Nearly signed by Atlantic but alas, it didn’t happen. As I was working with Bob and Scott, I got to know all of the Supertramp guys and when Roger left the band, because I was a known session guitarist in LA at the time, Rick Davies asked me to come and play with the band which I did and then he hired me as the guitarist on the subsequent two albums that they did, “Brother Where You Bound” and Free As A Bird”. I went on those tours and I must say the response was phenomenal. The band, even without Roger, was really popular especially overseas.
I don’t know if their work would ever get them into the Hall of Fame but those initial albums that you mentioned were of course top of the sonic heap at the time
Marty Walsh
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Ask any Canadian stoner kid who grew up in the mid 70’s the theme albums of their youth and it’s Crime of the Century, Dark Side of the Moon and Led Zeppelin 4. Crime of the Century is still in my top 3 all these years later. Their performance of the title track at the old Empire Stadium in 1979 is still my favourite live moment. The album went platinum here in Canada.
Rob Schlyecher
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What’s so fascinating are all the Canadians who are sharing memories of Supertramp..
I loved Supertramp and owned Crime of the Century and Even in the Quietest Moments, which might be one of my desert island pics. I doubt I was old enough to see them live, but I recently downloaded both to Spotify (on my “Roadtrip” playlist). Listening to Quietest Moments and the memories of growing up in Toronto just flooded over me – the good and the bad..
I think Canadians always had an affinity to Supertramp..
Simma Levine
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I remember reading the liner notes of BREAKFAST IN AMERICA and loving that there was a guy not credited for saxophone and or clarinet… but WOODWINDS! Dude was a whole family of instruments! Somehow they rocked with clarinet… that alone puts SUPERTRAMP up there with anyone who’s ever attempted the rock and the roll. Thanks as always for another great read.
Adam Dalton
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All I had to see was the subject line Re-Supertramp and knew your readers would nail the historical significance of Supertramp coming out with “Crime of the Century” at the time they did. I was 16 yo and I remember being kind of pissed that this band getting a lot of attention, that*I* had never heard of (and I was the guy in high school who was supposed to have heard of everybody). And, to boot, they had a stupid name (by 1975 standards). They were out of the mainstream for 1975. Almost a little “throwbacky”. But the confidence and verve percolating through the opening track “School” communicated that these guys had arrived, no matter what art “school” they belonged to … or no art school at all, .. whether they were late… or early …they were just sui generis.
Emmett McAuliffe Esq.
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In 1977 I opened for Supertramp with my then band – The Hometown Band at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. They were a class act – both musically and to their opening act which wasn’t always the norm in those times.They were such a signature sound of that era. Great band and a highlight in a 52 yr career.
Shari Ulrich
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This album was clearly one of the first pieces of music that MOVED me. I was just old enough and just young enough to get it. It remains in my top 5 of all time. And it maybe has just a slight bit to do with I don’t hear as well as I used to. Made me want to go out and spend every last dime I had me on the best stereo equipment I could find, so I could play it as loud as it deserved. And I did. Still have the Bose 901’s and it’s the album of choice when I want to shake the room. Imagine a reunion in the Sphere. I would pay dearly to be in that room.
Thanks
Frank J Biederer
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I was at the March ’75 Supertramp Santa Monica Civic show.Found them on KWST,my favorite station.They handed on pins when you entered with crime logo.
J.D. LePera
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Supertramp! That run from “Crime of The Century” through “Breakfast In America” is one for the books. I’d rate “Crime” as one of the 20 best albums ever.
Seeing them perform live in Bezerkely in ‘75 was magical. Greg Khin opened but the dude had a tough chore to work that crowd.
One of the best bands ever. Too bad Rodger Hodgson and Rick Davies couldn’t work out their creative differences because what they had in common was as special as Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters.
Like 10cc, it sucks to gave these bands that are greater than the sum of their parts fracture and produce lesser works of art.
But that goes all the way back to the Beatles and it’s hard to find examples otherwise.
Lee Elliott
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I think one of the most interesting aspects of Supertramp’s story is that they were funded by Sam Meisegaes, a Dutch millionaire. Without that seed money, would they have made it to the big time? Talk amongst yourselves….
Tom Scharf
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There was a phenomenal sounding Supertramp bootleg back in the day..It opened with “School”..A (blues) harp lick..Then cheering..Sounded like a small venue, possibly a club..The ANTICIPATION!..Then, “He’s coming along”..Pause..Cheering..Then, the band kicks in..Does anyone remember DYNAMICS? I can still picture the crude album sleeve, and our red bong.
I was lucky enough to catch Roger’s solo show in the mid 90s..Just him, an acoustic guitar, digital piano, and the SONGS..He did the hits, AND some of his more recent solo work..Which is worth a revisit.. Brilliant chap..Someone in the royal family loved his music, and had him do command performances..Why isn’t he in the R&RHOF!? (Spoiler alert-It’s a load of HOOEY!)
He was one of the great Prog lyricists..Few brought those themes into the top forty more often, nor more succinctly..”The Logical Song”, “School”,etc..It resonated/still resonates with the disenfranchised..Some of the enfranchised, too!
The QUESTIONING..Of societal norms and expectations..The SEARCHING..For some meaning beyond the scripts we’ve pitched by polite society.. Somebody GOT us..(Spoiler alert-It weren’t Jesus.) And in the Progosphere, Supertramp will always be persona GRATA..
And THIS hidden gem is the best example..Best coupled with that iconic “Crisis, What Crisis?” album cover..
THE MEANING..
The Meaning – Roger Hodgson (co-founder of Supertramp), Writer and Composer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Xz2q40ijA
James Spencer
I saw Supertramp in 1976 (Crisis! What Crisis tour) and again in 1977 (Even In The Quietest Moments tour) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Both featured heavy doses of Crime of The Century at these absolutely stunning and technically proficient shows. But what else that I noticed was how much fun this band was having and despite being sonically ‘perfect’, they were enjoying their time onstage immensely, with John C. Helliwell making sure the audience knew that.
As you know Supertramp were on A&M as were many of their label mates of the era like Nazareth, Styx, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Tubes, Split Enz, the Police and others.
You may not know this but it was Canada who broke most of these groups first and A&M was a label that helped make that happen. Might have been something in the water up here but it is also fairly well known fact that many groups got their toehold in North America via Canada first. And Supertramp was one.
I might also add, the Beatles were a phenom in Canada in 1963, almost 7-8 months before they conquered America in Feb ’64.
Keep digging Bob, threads like this are great, longtime Lefsetz Letter follower,
Stephen Marsh
Halifax,. N.S. Canada
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I loved your piece on Supertramp…….one of my fave bands of all-time. Roger is a gifted generous soul as well! For my 50th a few years back, he had me come as his guest (with three friends) to my local venue – the gorgeous Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA – and proceeded to dedicate “Logical Song” to me in front of the crowd to acknowledge my special day. Then he had me come backstage to hang out after the show; needless to say it was a magical evening.
Like so many others who have chimed in, their music was a huge part of the soundtrack of my life; “Breakfast in America” was the big breakthrough during my teen years — I didn’t come to appreciate “Crime of the Century” ’til I was in college. One of my fave tracks hasn’t been mentioned — that’s “Child of Vision”; a true masterpiece. A great homage to prog rock/fusion it has stood the test of time as have most of their music. As others have said, they were totally underrated. I really appreciate you acknowledging them and their contributions……
Kelli Richards
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“Right, quite right, you’re bloody well right
you got a bloody right to say …
Me, I don’t care anyway!”
They could a written this song about you Bob.
Don’t you ever stop.
Saw Supertramp Reading Rock Festival 1975.
Blown away, next act up was Yes, they put me to sleep.
The “Wall Street Journal” did a piece on the effect on Four Seasons Hotels. “Vanity Fair” wrote about Aimee Lou Wood’s teeth.
And do you know how many people have e-mailed me about this HBO/MAX show?
ZERO!
But my inbox is blowing up about “Adolescence.” And until the last twenty four hours, the mainstream media has been out of the loop, because it’s been an underground story. Other than Trump, almost everything worth considering is an underground story today.
But this does not fit with the paradigm of the last century, where gatekeepers determine hits and the public consumes such, reporting is out of touch.
This is not only prevalent in streaming television, but music. Spotify told us last week… The share of the stars is coming down, music from around the globe is getting significant listens and independents are growing.
But all we hear about is Lady Gaga’s new album. I’m sure people are listening to it, but not most. It’s a return to what once was, as Gaga tries to recapture her success in the popular music world. We’ve been distracted by her work with Tony Bennett and in film so unless you’re a student of the game you don’t realize that other than a movie song, her work has been disappointing commercially for years.
Meanwhile, in the independent sphere you have acts testing the limits, because they’re less worried about maintaining the commercial juggernaut. It’s the same as it was in the late sixties and early seventies. Hit acts are hit dependent, the fans come and go, but the acts who made albums back then, who are independent today, can work forever, because they have DIEHARD FANS!
Fans of streaming television are making “Adolescence” a hit. They’re always looking for something new, they’re not brain dead and only watching HBO like it’s 1995. And when they find something they like, they tell everybody they know about it. This is how you know if you have a hit, is anybody talking about it?
HBO and the rest of the companies married to the old paradigm believe that by dripping out episodes week by week they’re building momentum, water cooler talk. In an on demand world where we want it all and we want it now, this is out of touch. If you induce any friction, you’re leaving people out. People love to binge, love to marinate in the story, THAT’S PART OF THE EXPERIENCE!
But HBO has its PR team. Working the media constantly. Dropping stories week after week to feed that water cooler talk. But there is none.
Now there is talk about “Severance,” I’m getting e-mail about that, but Apple has so little product it’s afraid of the one time drop, for fear people will sign off. This is backwards. You don’t screw your customers to pad your bottom line anymore, you superserve your customers and then they testify about you!
Like Netflix. Where churn is de minimis.
Because Netflix puts out a plethora of product, and with both music and filmed entertainment, you never know what’s good until it’s done. So you’ve got to come up to bat many times.
People are believers in Netflix. I’ve never heard a young ‘un talk about HBO… It doesn’t square with them. Little product that appeals to their parents dripped out over months? Who needs that, if you want me I’ll be in the bar, or on TikTok, or the big kahuna of streaming, YouTube.
You adjust or die. And many newspapers have passed. And those who worked at them, or still have a job, lament this. But institutions only survive if they change and deliver what the public wants.
Mainstream entertainment coverage is a tool of PR people. As inauthentic as it gets. Why is there suddenly an interview with some star…oh, that’s right, they’ve got a new movie or show coming out! As phony as it comes. Whereas TikTok is fluid, a constant river, which the public dips in and out of.
The public wants to feel that it’s understood.
Or you can tie yourself to an old demo and when it dies you do too.
I wish I got as many e-mails about music as I did about streaming television (I get almost none about movies), but the story is the music scene is overwhelming, with a tsunami of product that mostly doesn’t live up to the hype. Where’s the one listen hit of yore? The anti-establishment statement?
“Adolescence” is successful because it’s all available now. The public owns it, not the media. And it focuses on the one thing we’re all doing, living life. There are acolytes of science fiction and fantasy, but we all relate to real life. But it’s too scary for too many to touch.
The world changes whether you want it to or not.
And one thing is for sure , the starmaking machinery behind the popular song is moribund.
We’re living in a free-for-all, but when something resonates, word spreads and it touches everybody.
And isn’t it funny that the biggest streaming hits are totally original, don’t fit in a known genre, are things we haven’t seen before?
And they’re almost all on Netflix: “Squid Game,” “Baby Reindeer,” “Apple Cider Vinegar”…
The public wants new and different. Sure, there’s a market for sequels, but rarely are they anywhere close to the quality of the original.
Everybody’s playing it safe.
That’s not the way to succeed in today’s market.
And just like in tech, failure is a badge of honor, AS LONG AS YOU GET BACK IN THE GAME!
Identity, credibility are everything today. But too much media has sacrificed this, and the public knows.
Just like it knows when it sees something great, like “Adolescence.”
When I moved from Detroit to LA in December ’74 to launch a bold new album rock station, KWST (K-WEST) to compete with KLOS and KMET, we chose Supertramp “Crime of the Century” as one of the albums and bands we would hang our new hat on and pounded in Heavy + rotation throughout the year. If not the first, certainly the most powerful major market station to blow it out. We played it all, including my two favorites, the title track and “Rudy”. A&M flipped and ran around the country spreading the story.
By March ’75 Supertramp headlined Santa Monica Civic and delivered a state of the art, magical show that lives in my memory. The show was recorded for us to air. Somewhere there is this recording of the show, beautifully mixed by legend, Ken Scott. We were permitted to then play it a week later start to finish and then again a short time later. It’s a truly extraordinary recording which deserves to be released if anyone can find it wherever A&M Records or band archives might be hidden away.
PS/ When the CD format debuted, Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century” was my first purchase.
Joni Mitchell “Blue” the second.
Jim McKeon
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Bob, I caught the Crime of the Century tour at the Santa Monica Civic in 1975. Everybody played the Civic in those days. Everybody. The album came out of nowhere and I ran to the Wherehouse in Westwood to pick up the vinyl. Then I saw it was produced by Ken Scott and it gave this band I never heard of before immediate cred to this stoner kid immersed in fusion and prog. You are spot on that this music could never register in another era, but 50 years ago was wide open. It was crisp, it was fresh, it was smart. The Civic show was a meticulous note for note recreation of the record. They didn’t stray and it wasn’t adventurous, but it was sparkling.
Jim Brock
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.. top 10 shows of all time .. Miami Jai Alai Fronton .. 04/11/79 .. they blew everyone away .. !
Jordan Zucker
Infirst Promotion
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Back in 1981, my college friends and I would go to Stereo Sound in Chapel Hill on slow Fridays. If it was a slow sales day, our buddy who worked there would usher us into the high end room with the $800 amps, $1000 turntables, and the giant speakers. He would play side one of “Crime of the Century” at full blast.
Ever since then, “School” is my go-to song for audio testing any piece of sound equipment.
Steven Leventhal
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I saw them at Madison Square Garden for the Breakfast in America in 1979. They were magnificent live. One of my top five concerts of all time. A very underrated group.
Harlan Coben
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Yes, Roger still has it. And the songs still resonate.
Had the pleasure of working with them in their heyday and nearly broke “Bloody Well Right” Top 40 (flipped the stillborn A-side, “Dreamer”) abetted by WB’s David Cahn and the rest of the local Buffalo promo guys plus the inestimable Barry Lyons.
And “Crisis? What Crisis” is basically “Crime Pt. 2,” with “Sister Moonshine” and “Another Man’s Woman.” Ken Scott, whoah!
Great stuff. Priceless memories.
Richard Pachter
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Saw Supertramp twice in Buffalo. Which was only fitting since the band was HUGE in Western NewYork. The 1978 show was better than the 1983. The visuals were excellent as well. When we went to the 1983 it was my last show in Buffalo as I was transferred to KC. While it to was also outstanding it was also also the show I believe Rodger announced that this was the last tour for him as he would be leaving band. There was a strange moment where no one knew how to react. Cheer him to show appreciation? Silence? Yell no?
I remember for a long time after many of us
were in the “He will be back probably just taking a break”
Jeff Appleton
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When i was in college in Washington, DC in the early 1970s, i worked for a concert promoter and one of our venues was a great little theater at Georgetown University called Gaston Hall. We did some great shows there including Bruce Springsteen (pre Born In The USA), National Lampoon’s Lemmings with all of the early Saturday Night Live cast members, a great double bill of Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt, and many others. In 1975 we received a call from A&M Records telling us they had a new band they had just signed called Supertramp who had made a great album called Crime of the Century and they were going to put them on a tour where the label would 4 wall all the venues with no risk to the promoter. Over the next few weeks we received boxes of posters and other promotional materials to try and ensure a full house. Absolutely old school artist development record business which both A&M and Warner Brothers were most famous for in that era. The venue was full and the band performed Crime of the Century in its entirety and it was breathtaking. Even though he wasn’t one of the two lead vocalists, sax player John Helliwell was definitely the focus of the show as he played with an electric lit jacket and did the majority of the talking. That night i became a lifelong Supertramp fan and years later got to know bassist Dougie Thomson when he was a consultant for Warner Chappel Music in Chicago. While they obviously had many hits that followed, i still feel that Crime of the Century is one of the best produced albums of the era and still holds up today.
Larry Mazer
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As a kid we Listened to super tramp on the way up to the ski hill. Whistler in April. Bloody well right. Goodbye stranger. On the way to a ski race. Sunshine. Spring skiing. Those memories seared in my head forever. My parents knew what to play!
James Rose
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Thank you for saying all this out loud, as it were. For some reason, as a senior in high school, I lived off this music. It had the rebellion and questioning you need at that age, along with the ability to feel sophisticated as you tried to figure out who you were. Roger and Rick are who I wanted to be. All the albums were easy to get lost in, but “Live” in Paris brought it all together nightly for me, hiding from my parents and sister in my room doing my homework.
Joe Fusco
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Thank you for sharing this. I was seventeen, in high school, when Crime of the Century came out. I still remember that opening with the harmonica wailing. It gives me chills even today. Growing up in Toronto school, was rote learning designed to get a job. I hated it. Music was my lifeline. I was alienated too as I didn’t fit into the right box. I saw Supertramp live in 1977 when they were at the peak of their career. Can’t say I remember much of it, but this video brought every note and lyric back to me.
Elbows Out, Canada Strong
Ellen Worling
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I was a bíg Supertramp fan back in the day, but never catch them in a live concert.
But some 20 years ago I saw Roger playing a small theater in Buenos Aires, him alone with a local sax player.
He blew my mind, one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.
Today my 22 y.o. son listens Supertramp in awe. It seems we’re a family of alienated music fans indeed.
Thanks for the memories.
Aldo Blardone
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Supertramp’s virtuosity still thrills me all these decades later.
Tom Guarriello
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Crime of the Century is criminally underrated because it was too prog for wide commercial acceptance, yet too commercial for prog. Fifty-plus years later, the concert I saw in support of Crime remains one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. And I’ll die on the hill that while not as vaunted as Fleetwood and McVie, Supertramp’s rhythm section of Bob Siebenberg on drums and Dougie Thomson on bass was as rock-solid as any in the business. By Breakfast in America, Supertramp had ditched most of the prog trappings that made Crime of the Century so special and were merely a great commercial rock band.
Chris White
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Nice reminder of how wonderful Supertramp was. They created unique songs with interesting lyrics. Roger Hodgson toured quite a bit prior to Covid, and my wife and I were lucky to see him multiple times in small venues. His voice was still in excellent form, and he is one of the best at connecting with his audience. To me, he was the driving force behind the music of Supertramp.
I will never understand why this band is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Absurd!
Don Weis
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Supertramp not ever being nominated tor the Hall of Fame is a Mystery????
Mike McGinley
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My family just love Supertramp. My late father was the best man at their band managers, Charlie Prevost, 2nd wedding back in Southern Ontario back in the early 70’s. Charlie was an AR guy for A & M records and I remember as a snot nosed kid we heard an early sampling of their music on an old reel to reel tape player. He told my father that he wanted to or was offered to manage the band and he ended up doing exactly that. I had the privilege of seeing the Crisis What Crisis tour when the played at the fabulous Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver BC when I was about 12 years old with both my parents. Amazing show where they played both albums seamlessly intertwined. It still brings a tear to my eye remembering the magic, joy and how their music really impacted my life. To this day I am forever thankful that my father, along with people like Mr. Prevost, taught me about what real and meaningful music is all about. Years later both my parents went to a Summer Sunday show at the old Empire stadium by the PNE fair grounds in Burnaby BC for the Breakfast in America tour as guest of Charlies and it was shortly after that he left as their manager and Roger Hodgson quit the band. The rest, as we know, is now history.
Thanks for sharing your story and sending us a reminders of the greats in a time where music was had a soul and not cold, technical and digital as we know today.
Mission Mike
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I grew up in Fresno. To pay for my drone-flying and skiing habits, I got a paper route in 1969.
A guy on my route lived with his mother in a triplex apartment. Unlike my friends and I, this older kid had really long hair. When I went to collect, he would often answer the door. These were bohemian types, which I never saw as a kid.
A couple of years later, music migrated to KFIG, and this kid was now a DJ on it. The top DJ in Fresno – Ray Appleton. He also had a band that opened for Montrose, Slade, etc. in town.
A few years after that, Crime of the Century came out. I’m pretty sure it was Ray that barricaded himself in the studio and played it repeatedly for a day, letting his bosses’ calls to shut it down ring off the hook. This generated a ton of good PR in California.
The band hired him as a road manager and promoter, so effective was he at getting this band widely known and played, he left town for a while to work for them.
I left Fresno in 1976, but I heard that when Supertramp band members would come to town, he would be invited to play with them. It’s often said – no Fresno, no Supertramp success. Who knows?
BTW, Ray has been a right-wing talk show host for decades. MAGA these days, etc. But one of those that seems to still have hippie ethics.
Gary Lang
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I saw Supertramp at the Technical High School in Ottawa (about a 300 cap pocket theatre) on the Crime of the Century tour in the spring of 1975. I’d owned the album since the previous fall when it came out and listened to it incessantly. I even hand-painted the cover on t-shirts and sold dozen of them to friends. Sic months or so later, the album had hit in Canada and I saw them again, this time at the city’s largest venue, the Civic Centre with about 13,000 other people. They were fantastic live.
Also managed to see Split Enz in a smallish venue in Toronto on the tour for the Dyzrythmia album in 1979 and a couple more times when they opened for Tom Petty’s Damn The Torpedoes tour when True Colours was a hit.They gave Petty a run for his money. Neil. And Tim Finn were a great team until young Neil emerged as obviously the best singer and songwriter in the group.
I was working for MuchMusic in the mid 80s when Neil’s new band, Crowded House, found themselves stuck in Toronto when Bruce Hornsby, who they were opening for at the time, got sick and had to postpone some shows. The band came to the station every day just to hang around because they had nothing to do. Much was a live service and one day we just just gave drummer Paul Hester a microphone and had a cameraman follow him as he roamed the building, talking to anyone and everyone. One of the funniest days of television in our history I’d say. A more personable, talented bunch of guys as you’d ever care to meet.
Canada loved and embraced all those bands.
Mike Campbell
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Growing up in Montreal in the 70’s, Supertramp, Genesis and Styx were my salvation.
Every week my best pal Micheal Korman would escape to his basement and play that Supertramp record over and over at the highest possible volume in his really superior Technics stereo system and Boston speakers.
We didn’t know anything about music but somehow we appreciated the complex orchestration and brilliant layering of vocals and music. The record spoke to us and took us somewhere else than a faux wood paneled office.
I was fortunate that my parents had a very solid and eclectic record collection so I appreciated everything from Latin to jazz but somehow Supertramp was something completely different, elevated rock music as brilliant as opera and defined as classical music.
Barry Avrich
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Great read, Bob. So many of Supertramp’s songs are part of the soundtrack to my life. I remember when MTV got behind them in 1985 after Hodgson left, a full special for Brother Where You Bound in a longform video with sax player John Helliwell. ‘Cannonball” was an MTV exclusive, heavy rotation, followed by the superior “Better Days”, their political statement at the time (still holds up), but this effort should have been poured into Hodgson’s solo album the year prior. “Had A Dream (Sleeping With The Enemy)” quietly entered medium rotation, but the follow up “In Jeopardy” was relegated to “request” status on Nickelodeon’s Nick Rocks, a program we were led to believe was youngsters writing in requesting such good music. On occasion, Sirius plays tracks from both of these albums, but I credit KCDX 103 out of Phoenix for having “In Jeopardy” as a cut in rotation as recent as 2015.
Kevin Andrusia
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Thank you for sharing, that is a remarkable performance…almost too good!
Supertramp songs were always packed with ironic, insightful lyrics that ring as true today as they did then — “The Logical Song”, “Bloody Well Right”, “Breakfast in America”, “Take the Long Way Home” and more. While all very agreeable FM radio sounds, they contained veiled critiques of class, culture and government rule that were (and remain) spot on.
Like Meat Loaf, Gerry Rafferty and many more, I discovered Supertramp through my sister’s 8-tracks when I was a kid. So I’ll admit there is a sentimental resonance in my Supertramp journey, but the lyrics and varied song compositions are unique and meaningful. “Take the Long Way Home” speaks to every broken marriage from “Mad Men” to “American Beauty” and beyond.
David Toner
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Long time fan of Supertramp from when “Crime of the Century” was released in 1974 during my senior year at the University of Vermont. The entire album was put into heavy rotation by the Live Earl Jive on CHOM-FM, Montreal’s legendary rock music station that we picked up a hundred miles to the south in Burlington.
In June 1977, Supertramp played a concert at Burlington’s Memorial Auditorium, a 2,500-seat venue that was more suited for basketball and wrestling than music. An unruly concert a few months prior by Styx already had the mayor and city council contemplating a ban on rock concerts. The same promoters, not taking the hint, once again elected to go with general admission tickets. As expected, there was a large surge forward when the doors were about to open. No one was hurt, but many without tickets attempted to gain access thru the windows. The mayor, Gordon Paquette, along with the police chief and fire marshal were called away from the city’s annual retirement dinner and upon inspecting the scene they concluded that the venue had been oversold by 1,000 tickets, which the local promoter, Alan Abair, vehemently denied. Wasting no time, the city’s Finance Board banned rock concerts from the auditorium a few days later.
A couple footnotes. Four years later, in March 1981, Bernie Sanders defeated Paquette, the still incumbent mayor, by ten votes in an upset no one saw coming. Rock music was subsequently restored to the Auditorium and the City of Burlington’s Youth Office, which Bernie started, opened a club called 242 Main in the building’s basement. With programming driven by teens, it became America’s longest-running all-ages punk rock venue, and a sanctuary anchored in the hearts of thousands. Unfortunately, in 2016, after decades of deferred maintenance and neglect, the city closed the doors to the auditorium and 242 Main, declaring the structure too unsafe to occupy. Redevelopment plans have since come and gone without anything yet moving forward.
Second footnote: The day after the Supertramp show, Susan Green, the Burlington Free Press’ music critic, interviewed Hodgson and asked him about the very lines from “School” that you excerpted. He thought for a moment and then replied, “There are two different types of revolutionary Iyrics. One that just incites listeners to stand up and start shouting ‘This is wrong. This is wrong.’ And one that suggests they become aware of what’s really happening and change themselves and bring about a change. The world needs that now,” he said.
That was 48 years ago. Hodgson’s words still resonate today.
Chico Lager
I remember years ago reading an interview with Paul McCartney where he was asked who he was listening to, and he said Supertramp. I thought, what? That band? Aren’t they a little fluffy? Then he said his favorite song of that year was “The Logical Song”. So this spurred me to quickly give them a deeper and broader listen, and yes, they are great. I didn’t catch it at first. What’s the theme of “Logical”, what’s the main question? “Please tell me who I am”. So, to your point, they asked, they thought, they considered how to fit, what to do about it. You described it all perfectly.
Preston Bealle
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Two of my favourite bands and ‘Message’ and ‘Hide’ are my all time favourites from each.
Supertramp used to have their ‘choir’, aka their roadies, come onstage and sing the final part refrain “So watcha gonna”…etc, onstage after the epic HIYS live performances, and it was always a hoot!
I remember the 2000 world NYE concerts and watching to see if any would be disrupted by the Y2K bug, the first was from the first nation to ring in the new millenium, New Zealand and the band was Split Enz doing ‘Message’ with the line ‘no more new year’s resolutions, it’s more than that’, the soon to shut down band were in fine form and Neil Finn was on song, after that Y2K trepidations dissolved and good cheer was here, if for a millisecond!
Tony Barnes
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As I wrote in a review I just did of the expanded, 3LP edition of Supertramp’s 1980 live album Paris, I probably listened to the Supertramp records in my collection growing up in the late ’70s as much as, if not more than, those I had by Led Zeppelin and Yes. And I had ’em all — even Supertramp’s 1970 self-titled “Flowerhead” debut LP, with great lost songs like “Surely,” “It’s a Long Road,” “Aubade (and I am not like other birds of prey),” and “Try Again.” Supertramp spoke directly to me for all the reasons you cited — in essence, they let you know that you — the internalized individual with the searching/questioning the status quo mind — was not alone, even if it felt that way sometimes. Crime of the Century remains one of my Top 10 albums, well, ever, and Breakfast in America continues to resonate (though its production values were a tad slicker by then). And “Fool’s Overture,” the big 11-minute epic that closed out 1977’s Even in the Quietest Moments…, was an amazing history lesson of postwar Britain — listening to it now evokes that gnawing sense of “the more things change” that we’re all going through today.
1982’s …famous last words… (don’t forget those double ellipses!) was a bit of a letdown, to say the least, but Hodgson’s 1984 solo album In the Eye of the Storm remains a favorite (the title track especially!), and I also love the Davies-led Supertramp’s 1985 LP Brother Where You Bound, with that epic 16-and-a-half-minute title track and the sniping hit “Cannonball.”
As an inveterate lover of B-sides, I knew every word of “Just Another Nervous Wreck,” the Rick Davies-penned album cut that backed Roger Hodgson’s “The Logical Song.” Speaking of “The Logical Song,” kids of that era, like me, absolutely loved that they included the double-pumped Mattel Electronics’ Electronic Football “punting” sound effect — which appears right after Hodgson stutter-sings the word “digital” — something any handheld gameplayer of that age/era knew instantly. (Still got mine, of course, even if I haven’t played it in decades.)
I’ve seen Hodgson live twice (interviewed him twice too — a lovely and thoughtful chap!) and his voice remains as sound and inspiring as ever. Saw the Davies-led Supertramp once, at the Beacon in NYC for their Slow Motion tour in September 2002, and was glad I did so that I could hear him sing many of his songs from their repertoire. Bloody well right, indeed.
I’ll leave you with these key lines from a track on Side 2 of Crime of the Century: “If everyone was listening, you know / There’d be a chance that we could save the show…”
Mike Mettler
Editor, Analog Planet
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First concert ever! Back in mid-70’s or so. Hide in You Shell always brought me to tears. Even in the Quietest Moments was another great “deep cut” (even as the title song). Another great one about alienation by Roger was Sister Moonshine from Crisis What Crisis (“I’m a stranger to everyone”). It got a fair amount of FM airplay.
I do think the band’s finest moment was Bloody Well Right from Crime. So many styles, and the buildup is great. I can listen to that song on loop.
Rick and Roger came to the band from such different tastes (Rick blues, Roger more pop), but they made it work. And sadly, they had the typical nasty band breakup involving animus and multiple lawsuits. They weren’t allowed to touch each other’s songs in performances. I’m not sure if they ever mended fences but I hope so.
Best,
Mitchell Brook
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“How Supertramp’s $100 Million Album DESTROYED The Band”
Mitchell Sussman
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Howdy Bob,
Coincidentally, Breakfast In America was released on this day (March 16) in 1979.
Your friend and mine,
West Anthony.
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You recent missive about the band brought back a memory. In 1977/78 we were touring Europe including stops in Portugal and Spain. During a press session in Madrid, the local press were on Roger’s case about what the Crime of the century was. They were convinced it was about the late Franco and nothing we said could convince them otherwise. We were the first major UK band to play Spain after Franco died. It was wild, really wild at those gigs.
I’ve got a special place in my heart for “Take the Long Way Home” because that’s the song I sang in my head after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. This was when California was still hip and natural disasters were not everyday events. Still…unless you’ve experienced an earthquake you don’t really get it. It’s so unnatural. I guess because it is natural. You count on terra firma being…firm. And when it’s not, your body is not prepared for it.
Anyway, the freeway collapsed, ergo “Take the Long Way Home.”
Now I never saw Supertramp in their heyday, even though I was a huge fan. Actually, “Breakfast in America” was the last hurrah. The audience finally caught up with the band, then again the band compromised too…gave up most of the alienation.
That’s what made “Crime of the Century” so fantastic. You could resonate with it.
Of course, of course, we can all resonate with love songs, either dreamy or breakup. But the human condition… Today people will testify they’re depressed, but not that they’re alienated, that’s taboo. You’ve got your tribe. But in reality, you may not. Certainly not in the sixties and seventies, before money was everything and income inequality was rampant.
I’m an alienated f*ck. Have been my entire life. I feel…just outside of life. I’m here, but my mind is elsewhere. Not all the time, but a lot of the time. It seems that everybody else is on a different wavelength, getting with the program, hopping through the steps, investing in a car, a spouse, a house, a retirement account… Where are my people, who are questioning everything?
In a song.
So I’m watching this performance of “Take the Long Way Home” and it’s so perfect, I cannot believe it. First and foremost, Roger Hodgson still has his pipes, unlike many of the singers of his vintage. But all the flourishes in the original, they’re reproduced, with an orchestra.
These are some of my favorite finds. One of my Napster gems was Neil Finn singing “Message to My Girl” with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. You can see it on YouTube:
“No more empty self-possession
Visions swept under the mat
It’s no New Year’s resolution
It’s more than that”
“Message to My Girl” comes from the last real Split Enz album, before Tim Finn left. And I’d like to say “Conflicting Emotions” is as good as “True Colours,” the band’s best work, or even “Waiata,” but it’s not.
However, it’s got “Message to My Girl.”
He’s infatuated, but he’s having a hard time crossing the gap, telling his object of affection, but finally…
“I can’t spend the rest of my life
Buried in the sand”
These are the moments of every alienated, pessimistic life. You realize that you’ve got to stop listening to your records and take a risk.
That Neil Finn with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra track/video was recorded in 1996, when was this iteration of “Take the Long Way Home” recorded?
Well, when the camera pulls back, you can see the words “Jazz Open Stuttgart,” so I Googled and it came right up.
2013.
Okay, okay… I remember the early days of YouTube, when we’d find amazing things and send them to each other. But that era faded, just like the early days of e-mail when you forwarded jokes.
So Google told me the full show was on YouTube.
So I clicked and…
I went through the track listing and the second song was “School.”
“Don’t do this and don’t do that
What are they trying to do? (Make a good boy of you)
And do they know where it’s at?
But don’t criticize, they’re old and wise
Do as they tell you to, don’t want the devil to
Come and put out your eyes”
That’s what they teach you in school, to obey the rules. And if you continue to go to school, matriculate at a college, you ultimately realize it’s all…
B.S.
The puffed up professors. The grinding students. All for what? A grade that will mean nothing in your future life? Maybe you can trade in your grades for a good graduate school, or a job, but at some point you’re going to wake up and realize none of this make sense. Or you’re going to get fired and confront reality.
Which is why baby boomers can’t understand the techies. You dropped out of college, WHAT DIDYOUR PARENTS SAY?
The concert also includes “Hide in Your Shell,” the second longest song from “Crime of the Century,” it’s got multiple movements, it’s a tour-de-force.
“But what you see is just illusion
(What you see is just illusion)
You’re surrounded by confusion
(You’re surrounded by confusion)
Saying life’s begun to cheat you
Friends are out to beat you
Grab on to what you can scramble for”
Now ultimately “Hide in Your Shell” is akin to “Message to My Girl,” a hand extended to bring you into the world of love.
However…
“Crime of the Century” closes with the title track.
“Now they’re planning the crime of the century
Well what would it be?
Read all about their schemes and adventuring
Yes it’s well worth the fee
So roll up and see
As they rape the universe
How they’ve gone from bad to worse”
Us versus them. That’s the way we saw it back then. To sell out was anathema. Now selling out is the goal, that’s the backbone of social media influencers. Screw credibility, it’s money I want!
But the acts of yore left money on the table. Not everything felt right.
Not anymore.
Now “Crime of the Century” is not a part of the Stuttgart show, it was sung by Rick Davies.
“Crisis? What Crisis?” followed “Crime of the Century,” it was for fans only.
But after that came “In the Quietest Moments” with “Give a Little Bit.”
That’s a Hodgson song, and it’s part of this show. But also included is the title cut, my favorite from the album.
“Don’t you let the sun fade away
Don’t you let the sun fade away
Don’t you let the sun be leaving
Won’t you come to me soon?”
There’s a reaching out, an optimism.
But the pure sound of the record… It’s hermetically sealed. It’s not made for dancing, but listening. You want to sidle up to it, try to get inside it.
That’s music.
Assuming you’re a big fan from the seventies. When the charts meant nothing, even though those who were not there keep referencing said charts whilst depicting a reality that is far from the one those who were there experienced.
So I’m thinking how this music wouldn’t float today. Sure, we’ve got some introspection, but everybody’s looking for a way in, nobody is on the outside feeling that they don’t fit in and this might be their condition for the rest of their life, people with more questions than answers.
Then again, the outsiders question the status quo, whereas the insiders are invested in it.
Now punk was a reaction to corporate rock, which Supertramp was not, however Supertramp was a bunch of skilled musicians taking their time to create a seamless statement. So the punks didn’t embrace it. However, Supertramp and the punks did share a basic trait, the aforesaid ALIENATION!
So you may pooh-pooh Supertramp, not only not watch this video, but feel a need to insult it.
