That's Entertainment : Supertramp
By the time I got in Supertramp, the party was over. For me, I distinctly remember flying Qantas, around March/April 1987, and listening to the inflight entertainment 'rock' channel [on those old school hollow air headsets), and every 90 minutes or so, Dreamer came on. To say I became enamoured with this song is an understatement. I sat ticking off the songs in the in-flight magazine, waiting for the next little three and half minute blast of wonder!
Funnily enough, the band had recently released their 'best of' and it was being constantly advertised on the telly [along with the AIDS grim reaper ad] at my nan's place while we stopped over before heading back overseas, travelling further afield. Anyway, I pretty much begged my mum for the cassette tape and finally she relented. With two duelling vocalists [and egos], the best of was the cream of their single releases. Not a duff track, really. And the songs I seemed to like most (and still do) was from the singer Roger Hodgson, who had departed the band a few years earlier…all classics.
And being naive, young, unknowing, I wasn't aware that Supertramp had somehow become 'naff' or 'prog rock sellouts'. I didn't know, and I didn't particularly care when I did found out either. These days…any of the songs listed below are classics, staples of the FM radio format. And despite the efforts of many to tell me Supertramp were 'crap', I have always treasured them like I did ABBA, who seemed to go through the same thing during the 1980's until the mid 1990's. These days, if Supertramp come on, people my age just instinctively hum along.
And for mine, any day of the week, give me It's Raining Again with it's positive, up-beat lyric for someone coming through a 'bad day'. The video, directed by Russell Mulcahy, is one that caught the early wave of MTV excitement when big budget video was in it's infancy and both irresistibly naff and fun. It's a song I will always love and it brought me no end of joy when Alex was 2-3 and he used to ask to have this song played repeatedly on i-tunes. In fact, it's our FOURTH highest spun track with 132 whirls in 4 years.
Yep, there will always be a special little spot in my heart and ears for a Supertramp song. Give me an i-pod, a FM station, a karaoke machine, K-mart muzak…I'll be singing along unashamedly...
Dreamer!!! You know you are a dreamer. Well can you put your hands in your head…oh no!
Ohhhh it's raining again…oh no my love's at an end…
Take a look at my girlfriend, she's the only one I got. Not much of a girlfriend, never seem to get a lot...
When I was young it seemed that life was so wonderful…a miracle…oh it was beautiful, magical…
So you think you're a Romeo, playing a part in a picture-show. Take the long way home…take the long way home…
Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me...
But always back to It's Raining Again with it's sax and bouncy piano and high vocal…
And because of sheer bastradry, YouTube doesn't have any decent studio clips and I'm not mining live performances, so go to I-tunes and download these songs.
You can at least watch It's Raining Again, which came right towards the end of their productive years in 1982.
It's Raining Again
Dreamer
Give A Little Bit
The Logical Song
Breakfast In America
Take The Long Way Home
Hide In Your Shell
Goodbye Stranger
Bloody Well Right
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