Ticket 2 Ride

Writing about Supertramp is great anytime, but with Rick Davies’ passing this week, let’s look at five Supertramp songs primarily written and sung by him.

For me, the classic Supertramp period was from 1974 to 1980, and it’s from this period that I selected most of my five songs. I went to the period after Roger Hodgson left to pick the final song.

Davies and Hodgson had an uneasy partnership in the band. Although songs were credited to both, they only sometimes wrote or collaborated together. The best years of the band, in my opinion, were the years the two of them performed together. There was magic in that partnership, and the lineup that included John Helliwell, Bob Siebenberg and Dougie Thompson.

Each Friday I select five songs from an artist, not necessarily their five greatest songs or even my five favorite songs – rather, five important or noteworthy songs and why.

These are all links to live performances, four of them from Paris, the wonderful live album capturing there 1979 Breakfast in America tour.

“Bloody Well Right” – From Crime of the Century (1974). The first Supertramp song I remember hearing on the radio. I found it a charming and totally English song. There was something about this band, their songs were impressive in so many ways. I came to realize that was an understatement. A verse from the song:

So you think your schooling’s phony
I guess it’s hard not to agree
You say it all depends on money
And who is in your family tree

There’s a cutting British attitude about society that Supertramp wrote into their songs. They weren’t as flip and wacky as 10cc, or as esoteric and conceptual as Pink Floyd, Supertramp was right in the middle – great observers and recorders.

“Rudy” – Also from Crime of the Century. Davies and Supertramp pull off something difficult to do here: both a gentle, winsome story, and an intense, rocking epic. There are two distinctive songs welded together seamlessly to produce both a lyrical and musical triumph.

“Downstream” – From Even in the Quietest Moments (1977). During this period, Roger Hodgeson was writing more of the music that was getting played on the radio and pushing the creative boundaries, it’s true with this album and with Breakfast in America. Davies’ songs were more personal and didn’t need to be lush and operatic to make a point. “Downstream” is lovely and gentle, quietly moving.

“Goodbye Stranger” – From Breakfast in America (1979). I didn’t pick this song because I like it, actually it’s one of my least liked Supertramp songs. It’s still overplayed, but deserving of the continued success. The song is too pop and cute, although it has a great instrumental section in the latter half. A better Rick Davies song on the album is The album, Breakfast in America was too successful and spelled the end of the band as we knew it. They set the bar too high for themselves and creative tensions would fracture the band in the next couple of years. Supertramp would release a beautiful live album, Paris, in 1980.

“Cannonball” From Brother Where You Bound (1985). The departure of Hodgeson placed sole songwriting responsibility on Davies. Instead of filling the songwriting and musical void left by Hodgeson, Supertramp soldiered on. “Cannonball” is not a great song, but it’s a good one. It’s not complicated or terribly deep, but it does have a very solid groove.