After five lackluster albums, and two years in L.A., once Breakfast In America debuted, you couldn't get away from the Brits of Supertramp for the rest of 1979. This was their second Top Ten single that year. And it still holds up well after 43 years.
Goodbye Stranger is the best song on that album.
ReplyDeleteSong mashup: Take a look at my long way home.
ReplyDeleteSuperTramp is quite good, yet undefinable...so tends to be forgotten...
ReplyDeletePut the bong down, dude! Lackluster might apply to US sales before Breakfast in America, but not the music. Brilliant albums! Topped the charts in Canada.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with their early work, other than the fact than almost nobody ever heard it.
ReplyDeleteThat's lackluster.
Not bad, but undistinguished.
That’s a Logical choice.
ReplyDeleteAnother fine choice sir.
ReplyDeleteI was working at a small town radio station when this hit. Us younger DJs slipped in other cuts from the album besides this and Goodbye Stranger when we could.
Goodbye Stranger actually hits me more on the nostalgia front as I knew ladies named Mary and Jane, and we did never meet again...
Goodbye Stranger was really good and could have been GREAT with a long guitar outro; the beat and vibe was just begging for some loud fast and tasty lead guitar.
ReplyDeleteA lot of listening to this on the wrestling bus. Good times.
ReplyDeleteYouTube thinks I love it so much they put it on my playlist WHENEVER I listen to music on it.
They're not wrong.
Long Way Home is the most haunting and descriptive of the moment when one realizes what middle age and dreams of youth really mean.
ReplyDeleteA couple years after this came out I was a teenager pumping gas in a small town out west and up north. Guy comes in driving a nondescript older van and speaking in a not-from-round-these-parts accent. Made small talk, checked his oil, washed the windshield, filled the tank. He paid by check (remember those?) and only then did I realize I was waiting on Roger Hodgson. Smiled as I took it from him, said thanks and "goodbye stranger!" and he drove off with a laugh. Saw him a few more times before I moved on to bigger and better things. Nice guy, always paid by check.
ReplyDeleteGreat album and song, both still in my regular rotation. Earlier Supertramp was damn good too--Dreamer, Give A Little Bit, Bloody Well Right to name a few. Roger's one solo song that I still play often is Had A Dream / Sleeping With The Enemy. It appeared in the Amazon series Red Oaks...which, if you are a product of the 80s and haven't yet seen, you need to fix that pronto.