Old Enough to Forget

I remember when this came out in 1982. It was just in time for Christmas and I bought two copies. One for me, and one for my best friend Mike. At the time I didn't know the album would be a mostly forgettable collection of songs, with one really annoying "hit" with an S song in "It's Raining Again".  There was a certain degree of pent up excitement at the thought of a new album and the stop gap release of the obligatory live album certainly didn't count, at least to me. Heck, let's be honest, the live version of "Dreamer" got a second life no one saw coming, or wanted ... again, just me. Breakfast in America was huge in Canada going Diamond, with over 1.5 million copies out there. I suppose the pressure to try and have lightning strike twice was enormous. With the benefit of hindsight, and the internet there's a lot of information out there about the tumultuous gestation period that birthed "...famous last words..." The delic...

Supertramp ruled the world with Breakfast in America , but for me it was, and will always be Even in the Quietest Moments that holds a special place in my heart. There are a few indelible memories that are forever tied to this album, and for that alone the album carried more emotional weight than it should. It's always been weird to me how some songs, and bands got to me in a way that really didn't make sense. My earliest memories are tied to music, and even at a young age it was the harder driving songs that got me excited. It's funny I never really got into metal, but hard rock certainly floated my boat. Then there was Supertramp. They weren't rock ... they were and they weren't. They were though accepted in rock circles, and they pop, and progressive to a point, but they were their own thing. Through my older cousins I had heard Crime of the Century so I was aware of the band ... but it was one of those ubiquitous Friday night music shows where I first saw a st...

I still recall hearing "Had a Dream (Sleeping with the Enemy)" on the radio a lot back in the fall of '84. This wasn't the radio edit, it was the full song and thankfully FM radio was still a thing of wonder back in the day. Considering much of 1983 was spent with Supertramp on their farewell tour I wonder where Roger found the time to write and record the album. It's a strange thing going back now and realizing the guys in Supertramp were still young men when they were saying their good-byes. Roger was in his early thirties and was still pretty much in his prime. The notching of decades in music is a weird phenomena. You can't really feel it in real time, although you get the sense changes are often afoot. The transition out of the '70s was pretty pronounced but there was still that fuzzy time where things were the same but they weren't. Supertramp were at their biggest until suddenly they weren't anymore. You knew the writing was on the wall when...

Supertramp was one of those bands who could meld pop with elements of progressive rock and make it seem like a marriage of equals. My love of their earlier songs "Crime of the Century" and "Fool's Overture" was only surpassed by my obsession with how to play "Give a Little Bit" on my 12 string. Like their previous releases, Breakfast in America featured Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies handling lead vocals and songwriting. The pair would alternate songs and often trade lead vocals within each others songs. It created a nifty tension and dynamic in their work. Roger has the sweet voice, and Rick the deeper growl - it was magic. The band released several albums, a couple of them were really successful in Canada, but their crowning achievement was the release of Breakfast in America in 1979. This album became part of the soundtrack that defined my youth. It stayed popular among my friends throughout my last couple of years in school. I'm still kind of...