Supertramp were an English rock band that formed in London in 1969. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards, and guitars) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboards), they are distinguished for blending progressive rock and pop styles as well as for a sound that relied heavily on Wurlitzer electric piano.
The group’s line-up changed numerous times throughout their career, with Davies being the only consistent member throughout the decades.
Other longtime members included bassist Dougie Thomson, drummer Bob Siebenberg, and saxophonist John Helliwell.
Supertramp, 1971
From left: Roger Hodgson, Frank Farrell, Rick Davies, Kevin Currie, Dave Winthrop:
The band were initially a prog-rock group, but starting with their third album, Crime of the Century (1974), they began moving towards a more pop-oriented sound.[5] They reached their commercial peak with 1979’s Breakfast in America, which yielded the international top 10 singles “The Logical Song”, “Breakfast in America”, “Goodbye Stranger”, and “Take the Long Way Home”. Their other top 40 hits included “Dreamer” (1974), “Give a Little Bit”, (1977) and “It’s Raining Again” (1982). In 1983, Hodgson left the group to pursue a solo career. Davies took over as the band’s sole leader until 1988, after which they disbanded and periodically reformed in various configurations.
As of 2007, Supertramp album sales exceeded 60 million. They attained significant popularity in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. Their highest sales levels were in Canada, where they had two diamond-certified (ten-times platinum) albums (Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America), and their only number 1 singles anywhere (“The Logical Song” and “Dreamer”). (wikipedia)
Breakfast in America is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Supertramp, released by A&M Records on 29 March 1979. It was recorded in 1978 at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles. It spawned four US Billboard hit singles: “The Logical Song” (No. 6), “Goodbye Stranger” (No. 15), “Take the Long Way Home” (No. 10) and “Breakfast in America” (No. 62).[A] In the UK, “The Logical Song” and the title track were both top 10 hits, the only two the group had in their native country.
At the 22nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1980, Breakfast in America won two awards for Best Album Package and Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording, as well as nominations for Album of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. It holds an RIAA certification of quadruple platinum and became Supertramp’s biggest-selling album, with more than 4 million copies sold in the US and more than 3 million in France (the fourth ever best-selling album). It was No. 1 on Billboard Pop Albums Chart for six weeks, until 30 June 1979. The album also hit No. 1 in Norway, Austria, West Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Australia and France.
As with Even in the Quietest Moments…, Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson wrote most of their songs separately but conceived the theme for the album jointly. Their original concept was for an album of songs about the relationship and conflicting ideals between Davies and Hodgson themselves, to be titled Hello Stranger. Hodgson explained: “We realized that a few of the songs really lent themselves to two people talking to each other and at each other. I could be putting down his way of thinking and he could be challenging my way of seeing life […] Our ways of life are so different, but I love him. That contrast is what makes the world go ’round and what makes Supertramp go ’round. His beliefs are a challenge to mine and my beliefs are a challenge to his.”
This idea was eventually scrapped in favour of an album of “fun” songs, and though Davies initially wanted to keep the title Hello Stranger, he was convinced by Hodgson to change it to Breakfast in America. Hodgson commented later: “We chose the title because it was a fun title. It suited the fun feeling of the album.” Due to the title and the explicit satirising of American culture in the cover and three of the songs (“Gone Hollywood”, “Breakfast in America” and “Child of Vision”), many listeners interpreted the album as a satire of the United States. Supertramp’s members have all insisted that the repeated references to US culture are purely coincidental and that no such thematic satire was intended. Hodgson has described the misconception as a parallel to how Crime of the Century (1974) is often misinterpreted as being a concept album.
“Gone Hollywood” is the opening track of Breakfast in America. Written by Rick Davies, the song tells about a person who moves to Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a movie star, but finds it far more difficult than he imagined. He struggles and becomes frustrated, until he ultimately gets his break and becomes “the talk of the Boulevard”. The lyrics were originally more bleak, but under pressure from the other band members, Davies rewrote them to be more optimistic and commercially appealing. Billboard writer David Farrell felt that, other than Davies’ lead vocal, the song sounds like a Queen song.
“Child of Vision” is the closing track. Much like “The Logical Song”, it uses a Wurlitzer electric piano as the main instrument. After the lyrical part, the song goes into a long solo played on the grand piano alongside the original melody on the Wurlitzer. The track fades out with a short saxophone solo by John Helliwell. Roger Hodgson has said that the song was written to be an equivalent to “Gone Hollywood”, looking at how Americans live, though he confessed that he had only a limited familiarity with US culture at the time of writing. He also said there is a slight possibility that he subconsciously had Rick Davies in mind while writing the lyrics.
Each song was credited to a single musician on the inner sleeve, but on the central vinyl label was printed “Words and Music by Roger Hodgson & Rick Davies”, combining the two and confusing the issue of composition credit. Roger Hodgson’s management has described “The Logical Song”, “Breakfast in America”, “Take the Long Way Home”, “Lord Is It Mine” and “Child of Vision” as ‘Roger’s songs’; however, this apparently does not mean he necessarily wrote them by himself, for Hodgson has credited Davies with writing the vocal harmony on “The Logical Song”. Davies has referred to “The five songs that I did on Breakfast”, but has not specified which ones.
The album went through two rounds of demos. The first were home demos, each of which consisted of the chief songwriter (either Rick Davies or Roger Hodgson) singing and playing either acoustic piano or Wurlitzer electric piano. The second were eight-track demos recorded at Southcombe Studios in Burbank, California during late April and early May 1978. It was in recording these demos that the band worked out the backing track arrangements for all the songs (with the exception of “Take the Long Way Home”) and determined the order in which they would appear on the album.
In order to avoid spending a lot of time on mixing, the band and their production team devoted a week to experimenting with different sound setups until they found the perfect arrangement. The effort proved to be wasted, as the engineering team would end up spending more than two extremely stressful months searching for the right mix, and were only finished after that length of time because the deadline had arrived, not because they felt at all satisfied with the results.
Tensions between Hodgson and Davies were reportedly almost non-existent on the album. Engineer Peter Henderson recalled: “They got along fantastically well and everyone was really happy. There was a very, very good vibe and I think everyone was really buoyed up by the recordings and A&M’s response to them.” Hodgson contested this, saying that he and Davies had increasingly different lifestyles, and that he felt that Davies disliked many of his songs and only kept quiet about his displeasure because he sensed that he would be voted down.[10] Melody Maker journalist Harry Doherty offered a third take on the duo’s interactions during the album sessions: “In three days with the band, I don’t think I saw Davies and Hodgson converse once, other than to exchange courteous greetings.”
The album’s front cover resembles an overlook of Manhattan through an aeroplane window. It was designed by Mike Doud and Mick Haggerty. The image depicts Kate Murtagh, dressed as a waitress named “Libby” from a diner, as a Statue of Liberty figure holding up a glass of orange juice on a small plate in one hand (in place of the torch on the Statue), and a foldable restaurant menu in the other hand, on which ‘Breakfast in America’ is written. The background features the southern tip of the New York City borough of Manhattan, with the Lower Manhattan skyline represented through a cornflake box, ashtray, cutlery (for the wharfs), pancake syrup bottles, egg crates, salt and pepper shakers, coffee mugs, ketchup and mustard bottles, etc., all spray-painted white. The twin World Trade Center towers appear as two stacks of boxes, and the plate of breakfast represents The Battery, the departure point for the Staten Island Ferry. The back cover photo, depicting the band members having breakfast while reading their respective hometown newspapers, was taken at a diner called Bert’s Mad House.
Breakfast in America won the 1980 Grammy Award for Best Recording Package, defeating albums by Talking Heads and Led Zeppelin, among others. (wikipedia)
With Breakfast in America, Supertramp had a genuine blockbuster hit, topping the charts for four weeks in the U.S. and selling millions of copies worldwide; by the 1990s, the album had sold over 18 million units across the world. Although their previous records had some popular success, they never even hinted at the massive sales of Breakfast in America. Then again, Supertramp’s earlier records weren’t as pop-oriented as Breakfast. The majority of the album consisted of tightly written, catchy, well-constructed pop songs, like the hits “The Logical Song,” “Take the Long Way Home,” and “Goodbye Stranger.” Supertramp still had a tendency to indulge themselves occasionally, but Breakfast in America had very few weak moments. It was clearly their high-water mark. (by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)
Personnel:
Rick Davies (vocals, keyboards, clavinet on 02., harmonica on 06.)
John Helliwell (saxophones, vocals, woodwinds)
Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards, guitar, vibraphon on 09.)
Bob Siebenberg (credited as Bob C. Benberg) (drums)
Dougie Thomson (bass)
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Slyde Hyde (tuba, trombone)
Gary Mielke (Oberheim programming)
Tracklist:
01. Gone Hollywood 5.19
02. The Logical Song Hodgson Hodgson 4.11
03. Goodbye Stranger 5.50
04. Breakfast In America 2.39
05. Oh Darling 3.48
06. Take The Long Way Home 5.09
07. Lord Is It Mine 4.10
08. Just Another Nervous Wreck 4.25
09. Casual Conversations 2.59
10. Child Of Vision 7.27
All songs written by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson
A real great label design:
More from Supertramp:
The official website:
Supertramp were an English rock band formed in London in 1969. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and Rick Davies (vocals, keyboards), they are distinguished for blending progressive rock and pop styles and for their use of Wurlitzer electric piano and saxophone.[5][6] The group’s line-up changed numerous times throughout their career, with Davies the only consistent member. Other longtime members included bassist Dougie Thomson, drummer Bob Siebenberg, and saxophonist John Helliwell.
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