Supertramp - Supertramp

Released - July 1970

Genre - Progressive Rock

Producer - Supertramp

Selected Personnel - Rick Davies (Organ/Piano/Keyboards/Harmonica/Vocals); Roger Hodgson (Vocals/Bass/Guitar/Cello); Richard Palmer-James (Guitar/Vocals); Robert Millar (Drums/Percussion)

Standout Track - Try Again

Every now and again these days, usually when I haven't listened to them for a little while, I sometimes wonder whether my constant assertions that Supertramp are The Greatest Band Of All Time have become more an affectation than a genuine opinion, much like my deliberately self-imposed decision to have never heard Hotel California purely for the look on people's faces. After all, these days I know more about the musical landscape that surrounded Supertramp at the time than I did when I first discovered them, so am more aware of the music that shaped and influenced them, and sometimes it occurs to me that perhaps my initial adoration of the band has been tempered a little by the increased knowledge that they borrowed a lot from their peers rather than being true visionaries themselves. But then I go back and listen to them again and realise that, yes, Supertramp will always be the band that means more to me than any other, and that I enjoy more than any other. True, my greater awareness of the early 70s scene means I now know they're not the most pioneering or visionary prog rock band of all time, but in terms of the enormous significance their music has in my life, combined with their unparalleled ability to apply progressive styles and methods to catchy pop songs makes them stand above all other bands I've listened to. I first discovered the band when I was about 14 watching Steve Coogan's unfairly maligned comedy The Parole Officer, which opens with the doorbell chimes of Supertramp's "Dreamer," a song I fell in love with at first listen. At the time I was immersed in the music of ELO and 10cc, and my stepdad, who to this day is a big Supertramp fan, commented that I'd like Supertramp as they were "the thinking man's ELO." So commenced a five or six-year obsession with the band which, though it has lessened in recent years mainly due to my having now heard literally everything the band ever produced several times over, and their refusal to make anything new, came to be one of the most compelling musical odysseys I ever undertook, on a level only with my later Tom Waits obsession.

I came to their self-titled debut relatively late, after the likes of Crime Of The Century and Breakfast In America had wormed their way into my brain and lodged there. At uni, my friend Jack, he who first stoked the fire of my journey into prog, also facilitated my discovery of more obscure Supertramp material from outside of their more popular work, and it wasn't long before I ended up at the Supertramp album. At this stage, the band was in an awkward preliminary incarnation of itself, a world away from the pop-rock, Wurlitzer and sax-driven behemoths they would become. The band initially centred on pianist and keyboard-player Rick Davies (who, despite the legions of Hodgson fans who deride much of Davies's work, particularly with the post-Hodgson Supertramp, has always been my favourite of the two creative hubs of the band). Financed by an eccentric Dutch millionaire with an immense faith in Davies's ability, the pianist recruited Hodgson on vocals and bass and future King Crimson cohort Richard Palmer-James on guitar, plus Robert Millar on drums. This was in fact the only Supertramp album in their entire career where all the songs stemmed from collaborative songwriting rather than being composed of an equal split of Hodgson and Davies's own solo compositions, and it's pleasantly different for it. Davies was behind the chord progressions and structures of the songs, while Hodsgson composed the melodies, leaving Palmer-James to write the lyrics, a role he would again be asked to fulfil for Crimson a few years later.

The mood is fairly typical of late 60s and early 70s prog, although there's a tension at the heart of things that lends a greater sense of dynamism and originality to proceedings than some of the material produced around the same time by bands like Yes. While Hodgson was very much in favour of going down the route of psychedelia and prog, Davies was, and continues to be, a bluesman at heart, his jazzy chord progressions and keyboard solos keeping things anchored in a rootsy earthiness missing from some of the more ethereal prog of the same time. Remarkably, this stylistic tension doesn't result in an album that pulls in two different directions but, no doubt down to the collaborative songwriting, one that manages to draw influence from two very different genres and actually pull them both off masterfully. From the ethereal, floaty intro of "Surely" we have the gutsy blues rock of "It's A Long Road" which develops into a classic early 70s blues jam over Davies's jazzy organ. "Maybe I'm A Beggar" starts meditative and bleak then bursts into one of the most explosive instrumental jams of the band's career, punctuated by Palmer-James's searing guitar lines. The songs here are built much more around full-band jams and instrumental sections than they ever would be again, as the solo songwriting that would soon dominate would result in tighter, more focused pop songs rather than the more sprawling rock of this early record. The best example is the album's big standout, "Try Again," one of the band's finest prog epics, with its explosive descending bass line and elegant shifting between slow, pondering and menace and frantic volition (even with its brief foray into meandering prog nonsense near the climax); though "Nothing To Show" (featuring Davies's first vocal performance) is great fun too, featuring one of the finest organ solos in prog.

The standouts aren't just the more loose-structured hard rock jams, though - "And I Am Not Like Other Birds Of Prey" is a lovely piece of lazy, pastoral psychedelia and "Home Again," consisting only of Hodgson's plaintive vocal over his acoustic guitar, is one of the most simple and beautiful songs of the band's career, all too quickly over, a brief island of solitude and comfort in the midst of the more hard-edged rock of the majority of the album. Hodgson's vocals are, in some ways, easier on the ear than they would come to be. Here, there's none of the straining into falsetto of their later work, his naturally high voice is allowed to stay within its natural register and it sounds simpler, cleaner, if perhaps less impassioned. Hodgson himself would soon upgrade himself to guitarist and co-keyboard player, and the band would naturally evolve to be principally built around keyboards rather than guitars, as Hodgson's interest in them was far greater than in the much-overused electric guitar. Davies would also soon get an upgrade as composing his own material would give him the confidence to take on the role of co-lead vocalist, throwing his bluesy, growling baritone voice into the mix alongside Hodgson's reedy tenor.

In many ways, it was Supertramp's increasing focus on keyboards, and their pioneering use of the Wurliter in particular, that really made them stand out and begin to win a mass audience, and at this stage the one complaint you can make of them is that they weren't making much effort to sound different from what was going on around them at the time. Though the blend of Hodgson's psychedelic leanings and Davies's blues roots created a pleasing energy in the music itself, by and large it sounded a lot like most other psychedelic and prog rock of the early 70s. Its lack of true breakout potential caused it to commercially ignored, despite a strong critical response, and that Dutch millionaire soon withdrew his support for the band, resulting in the departure of both Palmer-James and Millar. Having discovered a creative partnership that created some truly great material, Davies and Hodgson would forge on to create a new incarnation of the band which, while good, would be similarly unsuccessful. It wasn't until Supertramp Version 3.0 that success finally reared its head. As such, their two early albums are lost treasures that warrant hunting down, and Supertramp is the best of the two, showcasing a more acoustic, pastoral and rustic version of the band than would ever exist again. It's also the Supertramp album you don't need to like Supertramp in order to enjoy, so even those hardcore prog fans who balk at their later pop sensibilities and sax solos can find a huge amount to enjoy here.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Roger Hodgson; Rick Davies & Richard Palmer-James

1. Surely

2. It's A Long Road

3. Aubade/And I Am Not Like Other Birds Of Prey

4. Words Unspoken

5. Maybe I'm A Beggar

6. Home Again

7. Nothing To Show

8. Shadow Song

9. Try Again

10. Surely