It is at times like these that I always appreciate the ability to communicate through my blog. And so here I go with another music review, as that is what I do.
Disc 341 is...Breakfast In America
Artist: Supertramp
Year of Release: 1979
What’s Up With The Cover?: A very cool piece of art, drawn from the perspective of someone flying into New York City, if New York City were made out of giant breakfast table objects, and the Statue of Liberty were a diner waitress. This cover makes me want to have a glass of orange juice.
How I Came To Know It: This album was a massive hit when it came out back in 1979, and so I knew it from the radio when I was a kid. The CD version comes to the collection via Sheila, who also knew it from her youth. She bought it years ago, maybe even before we met, although I can't remember for sure at this point.
How It Stacks Up: We only have this one Supertramp album, although I was told last night in very passionate terms that their other big release, "Crime Of The Century" is a finer work. I can't say for sure, but plan to find out down the road.
Rating: 4 stars
"Breakfast In America" was a huge album when it came out, and I believe it remains one of the highest selling albums of all time.
Musically, this record is an odd duck among much of the stadium rock that was being made in the late seventies. Rather than guitar, the melodies are driven by piano and the distinctive falsetto vocals of Roger Hodgson. This gives the album a really fresh and unexpected sound that wears well thirty years later.
Many of the songs have strong pop licks, but Supertramp isn't afraid to trail off into long, progressive flights of fancy to end a song. Sometimes these arrangements stray dangerously close to noodling, but they stay on the side of the reasonable, and generally serve to support the emotional resonance of the song.
Lyrically, the songs are like a time capsule back to 1979, and all of the doubt and confusion of the young generation at that time. The front end of Generation X, wondering if they'd ever find our place in the world, or even if they wanted to. It is an album of lost innocence, not just for the youth at that time, but for America itself, making the cover's excessive cheeriness deeply ironic. Consider these classic lines from "The Logical Song":
"When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily
Joyfully, playfully, watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.
"There are times when all the world's asleep
The question's come too deep
For such a simple man
Won't you please, please tell me what I've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am."
When I first heard these lyrics I was nine years old, the tail end of that same Generation X, and they spoke to me even then. It was like I was being given a glimpse into the future loss of innocence. Years later, as an adult I can still listen to this song, or similar ones on the record like "Take The Long Way Home" and "Lord Is It Mine" and those same questions hit just as hard as they ever did.
"Breakfast in America" is as relevant today with its questions as it was in 1979, and there are just as many confused people out there, trying to make sense of it all, and find some meaning and attachment to the world around them. It is thoughtful stuff.
On a lighter note, this record always reminds me of a playground incident I had when I was in Grade Five. There was this older boy - Grade Seven I think - that was a big Supertramp fan. He had a nasty reputation. A year earlier, I had witness him eat a live frog simply because someone paid him $5 and dared him. I think the dare motivated him more than the money. Anyway, as twelve year olds go, he was as tough as they came.
He cornered me on the playground of our elementary school one day and put me in a headlock and demanded I tell him "who was the greatest band in the world." In 1979 this was easy, and I quickly answered "Blue Oyster Cult". All hail the cult.
It turns out this kid was a massive fan of "Breakfast In America" and my answer, though objectively correct, infuriated him no end. He began to squeeze my head until I thought it was going to crack like the bones of the frog had the year before. He acknowledged that BOC was pretty good, but demanded I amend my answer to Supertramp before I could go.
I knew I couldn't do this and expect to ever be able meet the gaze of Buck Dharma or Eric Bloom on the cover of their records again. I refused, but for all my commitment to truth, this only resulted in further twisting and squeezing. I'd like to think that the water coming out of my eyes was simply squeezed out from the pressure, but I'm pretty sure it was tears. I gave him that, I suppose, but somehow I managed to stick with my original answer.
Maybe his arm got tired. Or maybe he decided that BOC was a fair answer after all. Or it could be that he recognized a kid as crazy as him over such minor points of honour, and knew we might be there all day. Whatever the case, he let me go and wandered off, confused and disgusted, to search out a new victim. He was a tough kid, but he was fair in his way, and I like to think he admired bravery in the face of adversity.
"Breakfast in America" is an important record, an excellent one, and it has changed my life along the way for the better. That said, I still owe Supertramp for all the pain of that headlock, so I'm going to say despite the application of torture, I continue to see four stars, not five.
Best tracks: The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger, Take The Long Way Home, Lord Is It Mine, Just Another Nervous Wreck
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