Supertramp - Breakfast in America (1979)

Dan: 

Breakfast in America took America by storm in 1979. To get the inconsequential bits out of the way first, the cover was designed by Mike Doud, and the waitress is named Kate Murtagh. Manhattan (with twin towers intact) is reimagined as stacks of kitchen and dining artifacts, complete with silverware settings as the piers. The view is from an aircraft window. I've never seen an album cover more appropriate for reaching a mass US audience. It's not cynical, irreverent, or tasteless. It's just sincere, cheerful fun!

"Yes," you might say, "but an album cover such as this must surely be masking highly superficial music. You know, the kind of pop drivel found in America!" Sorry people, you'd be completely wrong. Breakfast in America delivers one of Supertramp's best albums - certainly their best seller - that could only be maligned by the most mean-spirited of critics. 

The album's title is an acknowledgement of the band's recording venue - The Village Recorder in Los Angeles. This accounts for much of the acclaim bestowed upon on the album by the audiophile press. It's a sonic gem. Detailed comments online about the microphone placement on the drum kit are a tribute to its audiophile reputation. Hundreds of other reviewers simply rave about the music and how it brings them back to their formative years - a soundtrack for fondly remembered times. 

I had my ears open to a lot of rock music in 1979 as I built my hi fi system gradually. My records had grown into a legitimate collection, as Steely Dan, Camel, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, and Supertramp nestled together on the shelf. As stated in an earlier post, a colleague and I incorporated "The Logical Song" from Breakfast in America into a course we were teaching together. I was pleased to overlap my professional and personal interests as I hit an especially happy period in my career.

Beyond these purely personal reasons, Breakfast in America succeeds on the strengths of both the compositions and the performances, as perfected in the recording studio. The opener "Gone Hollywood," relates a tale of despair that eventually turns into fortune:

It was heartbreakin'

Now I ride in the big fine car

It was mind-achin'

I'm the talk of the Boulevard

So keep your chin up boy, forget the pain

I know you'll make it if you try again

There's no use in quitting

When the world is waiting for you

Other songs provide vignettes suggesting doubt and search. "Goodbye Stranger" deals with one-night relationships; "Take the Long Way Home" offers a temporary solution to the pain and strife of touring. And the closing "Child of Vision" (my favorite track) offers solace to those who are losing their way in the world:

There must be more to this life

It's time we did something right

Child of Vision, won't you listen

Find yourself a new ambition

By the end of the album, we come to realize that the happy face of the cover masks a deeply felt set of challenges not only affecting rock stars climbing to the top but also ordinary people. In a sense, we're all children of vision struggling to find peace and happiness amidst the dangerous distractions of the world.

Steve:

In the summer of 1979, when I turned 10 years old, Breakfast in America was arguably one of the dominant forces in popular culture, at least from my youthful perspective. To help occupy my time, my parents enrolled me in a YMCA day camp that summer, during which we did only three things I can recall: a) played ping pong, b) played "Nok-Hockey", and most importantly, c) played music on the jukebox. For the latter, three songs come to mind as the defining songs of that summer, all of which I enjoyed fully: Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing", Styx's "Renegade", and Supertramp's "The Logical Song". The Supertramp song had the added benefit of providing me with a lot of new big words I could try out. But I was already quite familiar with "The Logical Song" because Dan played it at home a lot. Little did I know he was building an entire college-level course inspired by it.

In fact, the entire Breakfast in America album was full of tracks that wove relentlessly into my thoughts and experiences during this time, and thanks to my ongoing interest in Supertramp (not just this album), they have never been far from my consciousness. Even a deep cut B-side such as "Just Another Nervous Wreck" has a way of entering my head with no provocation and staying there for an entire day or more. 

Recently, my wife was nearly driven to madness by Clear Channel's playlist, on which she would hear within any given two-hour period at least two of the same four songs from Breakfast in America ("Logical Song", "Goodbye Stranger", "Take the Long Way Home", and "Breakfast in America"). Thankfully, I avoid Clear Channel and choose my own music, but Supertramp is nevertheless always nearby - and always welcome.

All of this is a lighthearted way of poking fun at Breakfast in America for being so darn omnipresent and enjoyable throughout my life. Each generation has its defining albums, and this just may be one of those albums for my youth, maybe in the same way A Hard Day's Night was for a generation before me. 

Now that I'm taking the time to write about it, it occurs to me that I probably had taken Breakfast in America for granted, but now that I put quill to parchment, I recognize how important this album has been in my life, even if I wasn't aware of it at the time.

Supertramp - Even in the Quietest Moments (1977)

Dan:

I recall asking some of my Danish colleagues in 1982 if they liked Supertramp, and they wrinkled up their noses at me. Apparently, they did not regard the British band as serious progressive rock artists. By 1982, of course, Supertramp had struck it rich with Breakfast in America and perhaps alienated purists who believed that the best bands are those that labor in obscurity. Seems I've heard that vacuous argument in the jazz world many times before. I try not to begrudge any band's success because I know that all bands work hard and that none of them are overnight sensations.

Supertramp's songs were heard often on FM radio, which also aired a 1976 recorded live performance, released on CD in 2001 as Is Everybody Listening? I had taped part of the live performance off the radio broadcast. I also worked with a colleague in Florida who discovered "The Logical Song" from Breakfast and thought it was great because it challenged conventional learning. That's probably why I bought the album. Bill and I then worked to develop alternative teaching/learning methods and actually won a national innovation award for designing our college course. Bill's son Kevin was one of Steve's music buddies for a while back in the early 1980s. 

So, I had a lot of exposure to Supertramp, which prompted me to disregard the cynics who considered them mainly to be pop artists. Even in the Quietest Moments may be the best evidence of a highly skilled band writing and playing difficult music that sounds easy. The last two numbers, "From Now On" and "Fool's Overture" make the best case for prog respectability. 

"From Now On" is about burnout and escapism, as the song's protagonist fantasizes about a different, more exciting and adventurous life away from his boring job. It's a great song about real things, and it resonates with me, not because my job was ever boring but because I know so many people whose jobs are. I played this song to my class once so they might understand what job stress feels like (as opposed to a purely academic understanding). 

"Fool's Overture" is more like classic prog, written over different sections and mirroring symphonic form. Co-written by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, the song is about the end of civilization and the fall of mankind. Heavy stuff. Later in his career, Hodgson played the song backed by a true symphony orchestra, as he imagined it when he wrote the song.

The remaining tracks range from sweet ("Downstream") to complex (the title track) to self-indulgent ("Babaji"). None appear to be written to score a top-10 hit, but all are worth hearing, both musically and lyrically. That makes Even in the Quietest Moments a strong contender to be Supertramp's best album. 

Steve:

I definitely heard a lot of Supertramp around the house as a kid. I also remember hearing them a lot on the radio. Although I don't recall hearing "Give a Little Bit" on the radio back then, apparently it hit #15 on the singles chart, a statistic that is consistent with Dan's assertion that nothing was designed to hit the top 10. From my perspective, this song gained much more popularity years after the fact, being used in movies and in for TV commercials for The Gap clothing store. It's a lovely, uplifting song that's so shiny and happy it can actually be annoying when you're in a bad mood. I kid of course... I give a little bit of levity to you.

My favorite Supertramp songs are usually the ones featuring pianist Rick Davies on vocals. Both the aforementioned "From Now On" and the pensive piano ballad "Downstream" are career highlights from a band at or near its peak. It was clear to me even back in the day that Dan was a big fan of "From Now On", as it played in the house an awful lot - and I loved every minute of it. I wasn't aware he'd designed a course with Bill inspired by "The Logical Song" though... how cool is that?