Supertramp - Breakfast In America

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
It's a pretty good song, isn't it? Tell me about it.

Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:52 (eighteen years ago) link

Sorry T, I was 15 when it came out and slap bang in the middle of Death Disco, Tusk and 2-Tone and I thought it was the Antichrist and I haven't rehabilitated it. "Not much of a girlfriend"?? Christ, Hodgson, you weren't exactly an oil painting yourself IIRC. The cheesy Dixieland horns at the fadeout. TERRIBLE!!

Oh yes, and Logical Song is rub except when done by Scooter.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:58 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, I kind of felt the same about Supertramp, they were a band liked by the uncool sixth formers when I was in the fourth form (& also very uncool but I knew who not to emulate), but it just came on my iPod and I thought, you know, if this was some throwaway bit of Britgum I'd really like it. (Obviously the desire to rehabilitate was strong or it wouldn't have been on the iPod). It's no "Give A Little Bit" but it's growing on me.

You're right about the Logical Song though.

Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 11:02 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm still a sucker for that big instrumental thing on "even in the quietest moments". is it part of the title track? i can't remember ... it's a long time since i heard it. i have odd memories of a school trip to france in 1989 where i listened to nothing but that and "architecture and morality". and started smoking.

grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 11:22 (eighteen years ago) link

Despite being diametrically opposed to most of the bands I hold feverishly dear, I have to say that I adore Breakfast in America (the whole album, not just the song). Yes, it's invariably the uncoolest of possible albums, but I first heard it upon its release (my sister brought it home in much the same way your cat might bring a dead field mouse into your house), pre-dating my awareness of the boundaries of 'cool' (I was otherwise enamored with Kiss, Queen and Boston at the time anyway). In my case, Breakfast in America is inexorably entwined with happier memories of my childhood that regardless of the band's utterly abject indefensibily, you won't hear me say a bad thing about it.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 11:57 (eighteen years ago) link

It has a place in my heart, filed under 'goofy mid-late 70's rock with most of the rock taken out'. This is transatlantic genre and features the likes of Andrew Gold (Lonely Boy) and 10cc. It is not worthless. The Logical Song and Dreamer are better than BIA.

Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:37 (eighteen years ago) link

The unnacceptable end of this genre : Defend The Indefensible : John Miles - "Music"

Did you ever download 'Sebastian', Tom?

Also related - I have a soft spot for Billy Joel's 'It's Still Rock And Roll To me'.

Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:40 (eighteen years ago) link

goofy mid-late 70's rock with most of the rock taken out

Strikingly accurate. Cheers, Doc!

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:43 (eighteen years ago) link

Laura and I were watching TOTP2 one Saturday afternoon. There was "Dreamer" by Supertramp, followed by "Evil Woman" by ELO. Then the Jam came on with "In The City" and L exclaimed: "THAT'S why they were needed!" The difference really was akin to the difference between black & white and colour.

Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:50 (eighteen years ago) link

"goofy mid-late 70's rock with most of the rock taken out"

Also: goofy mid-late 70's prog with most of the progressiveness taken out.

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 12:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Nothing is wrong with Breakfast in America except maybe being too good at what it is trying to do. "The Logical Song" isn't all that bad, either, it sounded great on our smurf-blue transistor radio when we played kickball in the street, we all went 'one two three FIVE'

The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 13:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Always liked it for using one of these as an instrument:

http://www.handhelden.com/mattel/Football.jpg

Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 17:07 (eighteen years ago) link

>Laura and I were watching TOTP2 one Saturday afternoon. There was "Dreamer" by Supertramp, followed by "Evil Woman" by ELO. Then the Jam came on with "In The City" and L exclaimed: "THAT'S why they were needed!" The difference really was akin to the difference between black & white and colour.<

I honestly thought this was going to say that the Jam were basically not all that much different from Supertramp and ELO. Which seems more accurate to me that black & white vs. color (though okay, "Dreamer" is a bit, shall we say, TWEE even as S-tramp goes). I mean, they all basically sound *British*, right? And I disagree that the Jam were ever "needed" for anything. But I do like "In the City," regardless.

xhuxk, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...
I am really done with that Gym Class Heroes song

A B C, Friday, 2 March 2007 06:58 (seventeen years ago) link

"I mean, they all basically sound *British*, right?"

Wow, this is wrong on at least three different levels. Hopefully you weren't trying to be quite as offensive as this sounds, like all Americans you should maybe avoid generalisations about other countries as you'd get them wrong,

1. No they don't, Supertramp sound mid-atlantic. Not only do the Jam sound English, they sound like a specific part of England - London (or Woking). This was important because of the complex interaction of regions, it was important to hear regional accents as opposed to RP.

2. By the time of Breakfast in America Supertramp didn't sound British at all, much more in common with (say) the Eagles. There is a quite a hostile anti-britishness about Supertramp, playing up to the wilson quote about industrial unrest for instance.

3. They were saying different things, do two people speaking Japanese say the same thing because you can't understand them?

Sandy Blair, Friday, 2 March 2007 08:27 (seventeen years ago) link

I'll never forget being a child in the record shop with my dad and seeing the album cover for this hanging on the wall as a poster. All those kindof crazy 70's album covers really used to wig me out as a kid. I guess I didn't really understand that they were TRYING to be weird and over-the-top. I felt like there was something in them that I was supposed to be able to understand, but couldn't. Another one that comes to mind is that one by Wings for "Back To The Egg".

Bimble, Friday, 2 March 2007 09:01 (seventeen years ago) link

i think this song and record are classic. beautiful, insanely polished pop music. the eagles comment looks in the right direction. def a fusion of brit pop and california sounds. hell, this sounds great when cruising around the bay area ona nice day.

QuantumNoise, Friday, 2 March 2007 11:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Nice song, but I still find that the album was disappointing. Way too AOR, without the prog touch that made their three previous albums ("Crime Of The Century" in particular) so good.

Geir Hongro, Friday, 2 March 2007 13:02 (seventeen years ago) link

you have to admit the best thing about this group was their name...one of the better ones, as I see it...shame their music didn't support it..."Brother Where You Bound" is a criminally embarassing LP title, by the by...still, they had one of the first album covers with boobs on it, a fact not taken lightly by my 12-year old self...

henry s, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:31 (seventeen years ago) link

The best thing about Supertramp was the "Crime Of The Century", which was genius all the way.

Geir Hongro, Friday, 2 March 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

the sleeve of this album freaks me out

Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 2 March 2007 22:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, apart from the album cover, that is ;)

Geir Hongro, Friday, 2 March 2007 22:22 (seventeen years ago) link

The hook in the Gym Class Heroes alt-rap mtv hit song "Cupid's Chokehold" is taken from the Supertramp song 'Breakfast in America'.

curmudgeon, Saturday, 3 March 2007 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link

I am really done with that Gym Class Heroes song

A B C on Friday, March 2, 2007 1:58 AM (Yesterday)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Oops I missed your posting. Yea, I 'm getting tired of it now (every morning when I get up, MTV is showing it), but when I first saw it I thought, "what a nice melodic hook," and then I remembered how uncool I thought Supertramp were way back when!

curmudgeon, Saturday, 3 March 2007 18:05 (seventeen years ago) link

I like a bunch of tracks off this album, I don't really think it's completely indefensible. It isn't hip music, but it is enjoyable. My feelings about it are definitely tied to my childhood. I remember a long family car trip where it seemed like Long Way Home was on the radio every five minutes.

Moodles, Saturday, 3 March 2007 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Plus, I'm a sucker for any band that gives the electric piano such a prominent place in their songs.

Moodles, Saturday, 3 March 2007 18:14 (seventeen years ago) link

SB: While I can see your problem with xhuxk's comment, I've got to say that Supertramp have always sounded really British (though probably in a less regionally specific way than a lot of postpunk bands) to my North American ears too (voice, Queen-ish campy witty pomp-pop sensibility, lyrics about British class and school systems.) I don't really hear the Eagles (who sound super-American, as in, not even North American) thing at all.

Sundar, Saturday, 3 March 2007 22:10 (seventeen years ago) link

By the time of Breakfast in America Supertramp didn't sound British at all, much more in common with (say) the Eagles. There is a quite a hostile anti-britishness about Supertramp, playing up to the wilson quote about industrial unrest for instance.

Wow, this is wrong on at least three different levels. Hopefully you weren't trying to be quite as offensive as this sounds, like all Americans whatevs you should maybe avoid generalisations about other countries as you'd get them wrong,

m coleman, Saturday, 3 March 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link

in retrospect Breakfast in America reminds me more of the Police more than say the Eagles, to American ears what a Londoner hears as mid-Atlantic vocalizing comes across as oh-so-Britishes on a provincial lark.

m coleman, Saturday, 3 March 2007 22:22 (seventeen years ago) link

the inclusion of two Supertramp songs on Aimee Mann's Magnolia soundtrack album made me like em better than I did when they ruled the radio. context is everything. time heals wounds, too.

m coleman, Saturday, 3 March 2007 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link

the Eagles (who sound super-American, as in, not even North American)

Latin, you mean? ;)

Geir Hongro, Saturday, 3 March 2007 22:27 (seventeen years ago) link

in retrospect Breakfast in America reminds me more of the Police more than say the Eagles

It reminds me of neither. Compared to their earlier material, it reminds me more of Boston/Journey/Foreigner/Toto and less of 10cc/ELO/Klaatu/Queen.

Which is why I prefer the earlier material.

Geir Hongro, Saturday, 3 March 2007 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link

You really hear fist-pumping guitar rock anthems on Breakfast? If anything, I think it might sound more like they were listening to some Elton John and ABBA or something. I can sort of see the Police thing.

Sundar, Saturday, 3 March 2007 23:18 (seventeen years ago) link

You really hear fist-pumping guitar rock anthems on Breakfast?

No, but I don't on Toto or Journey albums either.

Geir Hongro, Sunday, 4 March 2007 00:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Huh? You don't think "Hold the Line" or "Separate Ways" (or even "Don't Stop Believin'") are going for a more overtly anthemic rock sound than the Breakfast In America tunes?

Sundar, Sunday, 4 March 2007 02:11 (seventeen years ago) link

i kinda hear queen filtered through the Arthur theme song

QuantumNoise, Sunday, 4 March 2007 02:18 (seventeen years ago) link

plus, i also hear american 60s pop: del shannon, four seasons, beach boys

QuantumNoise, Sunday, 4 March 2007 02:20 (seventeen years ago) link

i'm really torn by that Sandy Blair post. i like an occasional chuck e. dis to counteract the fanboy worship around here, but i also find it braindead to chastise americans for making too easy assumptions about other countries by making a lazy assumption yourself :/

gershy, Sunday, 4 March 2007 02:53 (seventeen years ago) link

The braindead isn't there in the bounce of the A-O-Art, it's the way we forgot all the names we used to know, it's the jump of the snakes we pet and their bites. Tunnels. Fallung. Cholestoral Choirs.

Noodle Vague, Sunday, 4 March 2007 03:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Erm, gershy, I was kinda hoping it was obvious that I was doing that to parody Chucks own generalisation. It was a 'I've told him a million times not to exaggerate' sort of comment. Re-reading it, it was awkwardly worded. It was funnier in my head when I typed it.Sorry.

Then again, I also thought Chuck's comment was supposed to be tongue in cheek offensive.

Geir's comparison to Boston / Journey et al is a better comparison than my suggestion of The Eagles (I was thinking of the more airbrushed FM radio soft rock tunes rather that their country-ish stuff).

Earlier Supertramp stuff (Crime and Crisis albums) did have a Britishness though, a folk-rock element (cf The Strawbs) maybe a bit of Elton (though Elt has had his own journeys back and forth across the Atlantic.

m coleman's call about The Police is interesting - as I think their Americanisation was deliberate, indeed it was calculated, and also it was really obvious. I hear very little Britishness in The Police, what qualities are ther that Breakfast era supertramp have, that The POlice have, that make then soubd Brititsh?

Sandy Blair, Sunday, 4 March 2007 05:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Noodle P0wns it again. Repent now.

Bimble, Sunday, 4 March 2007 08:33 (seventeen years ago) link

terrifying album cover. can't believe others thought the same. what IS it wit that woman?

http://www.tampere.fi/kuvat/5dWeSOJM5/supertramp.jpg

pisces, Sunday, 4 March 2007 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, no kidding. Even as an American and as an adult, I find it scary. Also, looking at it again...I realize that at the time I never noticed that the city was made of cups and kitchenware. I thought it was just a city. Weird.

http://www.tampere.fi/kuvat/5dWeSOJM5/supertramp.jpg

Bimble, Sunday, 4 March 2007 17:21 (seventeen years ago) link

wow. i'm seeing things i never saw before!

QuantumNoise, Sunday, 4 March 2007 17:36 (seventeen years ago) link

When I was a kid my dad got me this "100 best album covers" book from the two dollar table at Barnes and Noble and this along with just about every 70s album cover really bothered me, today I can't even think of Hipgnosis without getting the heebity jeebities

A B C, Sunday, 4 March 2007 19:08 (seventeen years ago) link

I just realized the model is posing as The Statue of Liberty and the food city is NYC, complete w/Twin Towers.

C. Grisso/McCain, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 20:59 (seventeen years ago) link

What's framing the picture? Sort of looks like a toilet.

Mark Rich@rdson, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:01 (seventeen years ago) link

you guys are slow

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:02 (seventeen years ago) link

its an airplane window!

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I like some of Hipgnosis' stuff but by this time their shit had just gotten unforgiveable

Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 21:03 (seventeen years ago) link

oh wow the statue of liberty yeah!

seriously can someone do some pop-psychology on us why do we find THAT face so frightening?

her eyes are... black in the middle.

pisces, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 01:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Logical song is great. Is Take the Long Way Home on this album? That's a great song too.

filthy dylan, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 15:47 (seventeen years ago) link

The airplane window I never got. This thing is so layered, certainly more to puzzle over than the House of the Holy cover.

Mark Rich@rdson, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 15:52 (seventeen years ago) link

(Yes it is, fd.)

Sundar, Thursday, 8 March 2007 21:08 (seventeen years ago) link

If you're just catching up on the album cover you might not have noticed her name is "Libby". Geddit?

everything, Thursday, 8 March 2007 21:31 (seventeen years ago) link

the forced jollity of her expression = Lynchian creepiness factor

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 8 March 2007 21:44 (seventeen years ago) link

My god, how many more layers are there to this fucking thing. Is there any suggestion that she might have been born in France?

Mark Rich@rdson, Thursday, 8 March 2007 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I have that same book that ABC has, I think. Apparently, "Libby" was originally going to be a "cheesecake-type model", but the band wanted someone from the Ugly Model Agency (seriously.)

There are four parts to the cover: the skyline, Libby, the glass of orange juice, and the airplane window.

Pleasant Plains, Friday, 9 March 2007 00:08 (seventeen years ago) link

then there's the back cover which I think is the band eating at the diner/eating America...?

Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 9 March 2007 00:15 (seventeen years ago) link

ten months pass...

i heart "the logical song" and "goodbye stranger" so much ...

Eisbaer, Sunday, 20 January 2008 02:48 (sixteen years ago) link

One of the best sources online for this kind of thing, and which I always criminally forget: used to be jefitoblog?

dell, Sunday, 20 January 2008 02:52 (sixteen years ago) link

"the logical song" is one of the best songs about a nervous breakdown ever written -- it's just as bleak as anything written by (to pick a famously "depressing" contemporary to supertramp) ian curtis.

Eisbaer, Sunday, 20 January 2008 02:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Trivia: In "The Creation Records Story: My Magpie Eyes are Hungry for the Prize", it's said that Alan McGee's first gig attended was a Supertramp concert. He is reported to have enjoyed it.

dell, Sunday, 20 January 2008 03:01 (sixteen years ago) link

One day in 6th grade (1981-82) my English teacher brought in some of her LPs and placed them at the front of the room. Our writing assignment was to choose one and describe its cover art. One of the LPs was BIA though I don't remember if I picked it. She also had stuff like Styx "Pieces of Eight", REO "You Can Tune a Piano" and "The Best of the Doobies". I suppose this supports the late 70s American arena pop/rock lumping-in, but on the the softer, commercial end. But who knows, maybe she decided to leave her copy of UFO's "Force It" home that day.

drench, Sunday, 20 January 2008 10:56 (sixteen years ago) link

Still adore it. Sue me.

Alex in NYC, Sunday, 20 January 2008 12:57 (sixteen years ago) link

This album is kind of nice in a good softrock way, but still a major disappointment when you know this is the band who made "Crime Of The Century" 5 years earlier. A bit like Genesis' "And Then There Were Three".

Geir Hongro, Sunday, 20 January 2008 13:17 (sixteen years ago) link

Oh yes, and Logical Song is rub except when done by Scooter.

-- Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 10:58 (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

DUDE'S STILL GOT IT

Noodle Vague, Sunday, 20 January 2008 13:19 (sixteen years ago) link

As for Scooter, check this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlPO6cGX0Ds

Geir Hongro, Sunday, 20 January 2008 13:26 (sixteen years ago) link

^^^ DUDE'S STILL GOT IT

Noodle Vague, Sunday, 20 January 2008 13:29 (sixteen years ago) link

six years pass...

finally the truth is revealed why people are so anti-prog -- supertramp are prophets of terror

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/supertramp-breakfast-america-album-cover-3040330#.Ut6cI2Qo7Zu

Album came out in 1979
9/11 reference
9/11 was served with breakfast…not to mention the everyday fight for freedom: “Breakfast In America.”
Orange juice = fireball
You are looking out of the window of a plane; she is showing the target.

reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 18:27 (ten years ago) link

Since this thread is on a six year bump, I just wanted to say I fucking LOVE Supertramp

Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:05 (ten years ago) link

Best conspiracy theory ever

Jeff W, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:19 (ten years ago) link

1, 2, 3, 5!

reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:29 (ten years ago) link

Screw that, we all know the Coup did it in collaboration with Dream Theater.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/images/coup.jpg

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/1a/87/39bb024128a09f9260d06010.L.jpg

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:40 (ten years ago) link

http://message.snopes.com/rumors/images/coup.jpg

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:40 (ten years ago) link

Fuck it, it won't let me link the Coup cover! Conspiracy!

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 20:41 (ten years ago) link

always thought this cover was kind of terrifying

Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 21 January 2014 21:41 (ten years ago) link

heard a terrifying cover of the title track in the grocery store the other day, i think there was rapping.

brimstead, Tuesday, 21 January 2014 23:20 (ten years ago) link

One of the commenters on that Mirror article pretty much summed it up:

"What a complete cockwomble"

Hideous Lump, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 02:27 (ten years ago) link

it's weird, when I was a kid I loved Supertramp from early on and when Breakfast in America broke big I was completely down for that, loved it, felt like a very elite 6th grader with my deeply held conviction that the best song on the album was Goodbye Stranger and now I'm listening on Spotify and I have no recollection whatsoever of this opening track. At all. Just gone. well that's my story hope yall enjoyed it

second set all dead boys covers (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 02:53 (ten years ago) link

yeah, i remember this band being a big deal when i was a kid, but over time, they just sounded bland and faceless.

Daniel, Esq 2, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 02:54 (ten years ago) link

yeah, they've aged much worse for me than a lot of stuff -- often, I'll hear stuff I liked when I was a kid with new ears and say, oh, this is more interesting than it seemed in ways I couldn't have noticed. I'm trying Crisis? What Crisis? on Spotify now, I remember arguing with myself over whether it was a better album than Crime of the Century - I have to say, I think Peter Gabriel was taking notes from these tunes when he put Solsbury Hill together

but this vocal style...man it is hard to feel any sympathy with it

second set all dead boys covers (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 03:02 (ten years ago) link

it's too bad the big hits off this record were roger hodgson cuts, much as I like him I find myself gravitating more and more toward the rick davies tunes as I get older, obv "goodbye stranger" is fantastic but "oh darling" is the real secret hidden gem of this record

sheesh, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 04:56 (ten years ago) link

two years pass...

someone just told me "Goodbye Stranger" is about 'marijuana addiction' (whatever that is). Maybe this was obvious (???) but the thought never occurred to me. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Wimmels, Friday, 13 January 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link

As opposed to being about a groupie? (I am addicted to pot so there ;)

Iago Galdston, Friday, 13 January 2017 18:40 (seven years ago) link

It would have to be about two groupies though - "Mary" and "Jane".

everything, Friday, 13 January 2017 18:50 (seven years ago) link

It was an early morning yesterday
I was up before the dawn
And I really have enjoyed my stay
But I must be moving on

Like a king without a castle
Like a queen without a throne
I'm an early morning lover
And I must be moving on

The song seems pretty straightforwardly to be about groupies to me, or at least about a man who has very short-term casual relationships on a serial basis. How do the lyrics support the "marijuana addiction" interpretation, aside from the fact that he cites the two names "Mary" and "Jane"?

My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Friday, 13 January 2017 19:19 (seven years ago) link

He loves early mornings but being a stoner means he always sleeps in, so he has to give it up.

everything, Friday, 13 January 2017 19:43 (seven years ago) link

1, 2, 3, 5!

reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 13 January 2017 20:26 (seven years ago) link

I never heard the marijuana thing either, that's why I asked. The person who told me was very convinced, though

btw can't ever hear this song and not think about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOKPPSJg1mk

Wimmels, Saturday, 14 January 2017 00:01 (seven years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.