C/D: Supertramp: Breakfast In America

Truer words have never been spoken. What could be possibly worse than Bee Gees eunuch falsetto shrieking? How about cocaine-laden imitations of Bee Gees eunuch falsetto shrieking? And verily, the shitpile hack group known as Supertramp had that in spades.

Loved this album when i was a kid, seeing this thread has been responsible for the songs running thru my head for the past day now.

I'd like to hear Crisis? What Crisis? again. Maybe I'll pick it up the next time it surfaces in the used bin.

i base breakfast in america as a classic POP/ROCK album of it's time. it seemed to be a clever and well-executed reaction (with tongue-and-cheek sensability) to the pop-rock and pop-culture landscape of america circa 1979. it reminded me, as an american tot, that there's this country called the UK and these bearded dudes are representing that culture. Breakfast In America brought Britain into the American suburbs.. again! Some US kid may have had the same reaction hearing The Beatles before or Blur after.

back to crime: i'm NOT an avid supertramp listener and don't know much outside the hits, but from listening, i must say that it is a magnificient piece of work. i could however see fans of earlier supertramp not liking breakfast as much- in the same way that fans of say, Rush or Styx, might as the acts slightly abandon their earlier progressive soundscapes for a more concise pop-rock approach.

i now see the sound quality argument (crime vs breakfast) and it is a valid one. i do standby breakfast as being very pleasing sonically to at least, my ears. I also still think it's worth serious weight as a classic, but if we're comparing breakfast as a classic solely within the supertramp catalog, i now understand, that's a whole different meal.

I also liked the sample from Mattel's Electronic Football in "The Logical Song"

I read something about this and could not place what sound in the song was being referenced.

Then I listened to the song and it's as clear as day.

I always thought it was Merlin.

This article, which gives you waaaaayyyyyy more information than you ever needed to know about "The Logical Song", says it was the football game.

Well, okay then.

Jesus, that is a lot of info.

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/21/how_supertramp_got_involved_in_one_of_the_weirdest_911_truther_conspiracies_ever/

...okay so my morning shock, followed by informal Facebook and Twitter posts and polls, has led me to believe that essentially half the people I know apparently didn't realize until TODAY that the cover of this album is a riff on the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan. Still honestly shocked here.

We had this album at our summer camp radio station, but I don’t think campers ever played cuts from it on the air. I always associate it with camp.

I’m kinda obsessed with this album these days, to me it’s the REAL ghastly “turning the light on the horrible 70s” album. both singers sound like nasty, mean, stuck up, bitter, narcissistic 70s burnouts, but not in a “romantic” way like Steely Dan. it sounds like a nervous breakdown or the worst breakup ever. the production is so imposing and grotesque, all those layers and big booming stabs… can’t tell what is what. not sure I hear one strummed guitar at all.. if there are guitars, then the attack is turned way down. Some music feels like it’s searching for a limit, this one sounds like it’s left the limits behind and is just painting over itself furiously. I’m also fascinated by the weird ambient intro to “long way home”. wtf?

I don't quite get the negativity from the singers that you do, except maybe on "Goodbye Stranger". The title track and "Take the Long Way Home" seem to me like character sketches a la Ray Davies or 10cc, except Supertramp's lyrics are not as skilled or subtle. If anything, I'd say they'd become more psychologically balanced since Crime of the Century, which is as angst-ridden and haunted as any Goth record.
It's definitely a product of the too-many-overdubs era, though.

xp SOLD. It is added to my list of stufd to revisit.

not sure I hear one strummed guitar at all.. if there are guitars, then the attack is turned way down. Some music feels like it’s searching for a limit, this one sounds like it’s left the limits behind and is just painting over itself furiously.

So what you're saying is it's the best thing ever.

it’s a huge bummer of an album, I’m not really happy that it’s occupied my thoughts. Really really into the verses of “child of vision”

intro has Scarface vibes

still can’t stop with this album. it really is breathtaking.

I guess “just another nervous wreck” is the spiritual/emotional apex of this album. heavy stuff.

I’m especially into the guitar solo at the end of “goodbye stranger” now. and the whole “ain’t nothing newwwwwww in my life todaaaaaay” part in “gone Hollywood” which is a fantastic song.

The waitress who appeared on the cover of Supertramp's Breakfast in America (1979) – album is 95 years old on this picture. How wonderful is this!! pic.twitter.com/qPDiwleUnW

— 𝓒𝓵𝓪𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓬 𝓐𝓵𝓫𝓾𝓶 𝓐𝓻𝓽 (@ClassicAlbumArt) January 7, 2022

For some reason I though it was the eventual exploding head woman from Total Recall, lol. Anyway, iirc she died years ago, and iirc so did this person.

First 9/11, then the cover model dying...is there any wickedness that Supertramp won't resort to?!?

"Give A Little Bit" is about 'Rona.

East Village 2002: Lydia Lunch's RETROVIRUS, featuring Bob Bert of Sonic Youth/Pussy Galore/Bewitched on drums, Weasel Walter of the Flying Lutenbachers on guitar and monster improv bassist Tim Dahl on....er....bass and the Art Gray Noizz Quintet, featuring Stuart Gray aka Art Gray aka Stu Spasm of Lubricated Goat, Skeletonboy from Woman on two-string bass, Bloody Rich Hutchins from Live Skull on drums...and a band called Skull Practitioners plug in at DROM, a basement-level venue on Avenue A that used to be called Opaline, and before that, a fetid caved of sludge-metal called Beowulf. In the crowd are various erstwhile members of bands like SWANS, Live Skull, Bush Tetras, The Carvels, Even Worse, Fractured Cylinder, King Missile and Alice Donut. The mood is heavy but jubilant. There is lots of alcohol, black leather and sneering. On the sound system between bands .... the in-house DJ is playing several high-decibel selections from .... W A I T FOR IT ..... BREAKFAST IN AMERICA by Supertramp.

whoops, 2022

I would've been there for the in-house DJ. The rest of that is fucking dreck.

so the lady on the album cover is almost 140 years old now?!

I'm glad you weren't there, paulw.

Hodgeson - "We chose the title because it was a fun title. It suited the fun feeling of the album."

“Fun” feeling? Really? Is he joking?

Maybe the key lyric to this album really is “the questions run too deep for such a simple man”