Line #70 Music/Supertramp


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Supertramp_7154.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:The classic lineup, circa 1979.[[note]]'''L-to-R:''' Bob Siebenberg, Rick Davies, John Helliwell, Dougie Thomson, and Roger Hodgson.[[/note]]]]
3	->''When I was young it seemed that life was so wonderful,\
4	A miracle,\
5	Oh it was beautiful, magical,\
6	And all the birds in the trees well they'd be singing so happily,\
7	Oh joyfully,\
8	Oh playfully watching me.''
9	-->-- "The Logical Song"
10
11	Supertramp was a British ProgressiveRock band that was big in the TheSeventies and [[TheEighties '80s]], with such songs as "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", and "Take the Long Way Home", all three of which appeared on what is considered their greatest album, ''Music/BreakfastInAmerica''.[[note]]However, Bob Siebenberg, the drummer in the group's classic lineup, considered the band to have peaked artistically with the earlier ''Music/CrimeOfTheCentury''.[[/note]] Their most well-known members are singers and multi-instrumentalists Roger Hodgson, who left in 1983, and Rick Davies, who remained with the band until cancer treatment forced him to put the band on hiatus in 2015. Although Davies' treatment was successful and he started performing again in 2018, he stated that Supertramp was unlikely to return as a structured band.
12
13	!! Principal members (classic lineup in bold, founding members in ''italic'')
14	[[AC:Most recent members:]]
15	* '''''Rick Davies''''' -- Vocals, keyboards, harmonica, composition, saxophone
16	* '''John Helliwell''' -- Vocals, woodwinds, keyboards, synthesisers
17	* '''Bob Siebenberg''' -- Drums, percussion
18	* Carl Verheyen -- Guitars, percussion, backing vocals
19	* Cliff Hugo -- Bass
20	* Lee Thornburg -- Trombone, trumpet, keyboards, backing vocals
21	* Jesse Siebenberg -- Percussion, vocals, guitar, keyboards
22	* Gabe Dixon -- Keyboards, tambourine, vocals
23	* Cassie Miller -- Background vocals
24
25	[[AC:Other former members:]]
26	* '''''Roger Hodgson''''' -- Vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, cello, flute, composition
27	* '''Dougie Thomson''' -- Bass, backing vocals
28	* Mark Hart[[note]]Later a member of ''Music/CrowdedHouse''[[/note]] -- Vocals, keyboards, guitar
29	* Tom Walsh -- Percussion
30	* Kevin Currie -- Percussion
31	* ''Richard Palmer-James'' -- Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, balalaika
32	* Robert Millar -- Percussion, harmonica
33	* Dave Winthrop -- Woodwinds, vocals
34	* Frank Farrell -- bass, keyboards, backing vocals
35	* ''Keith Baker'' – Drums, percussion (did not perform on any albums)
36
37	!! Album discography
38	[[AC:Studio albums:]]
39	* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Supertramp]]'' (1970)
40	* ''Indelibly Stamped'' (1971)
41	* ''Music/CrimeOfTheCentury'' (1974)
42	* ''Crisis? What Crisis?'' (1975)
43	* ''Even in the Quietest Moments...'' (1977)
44	* ''Music/BreakfastInAmerica'' (1979)
45	* ''...Famous Last Words...'' (1982)
46	* ''Brother Where You Bound'' (1985)
47	* ''Free as a Bird'' (1987)
48	* ''Some Things Never Change'' (1997)
49	* ''Slow Motion'' (2002)
50
51	[[AC:Live albums:]]
52	* ''Paris'' (1980)
53	* ''Live '88'' (1988)
54	* ''It Was the Best of Times'' (1999)
55	* ''Is Everybody Listening?'' (2001)
56	* ''70-10 Tour'' (2010)
57
58	[[AC:Compilation albums:]]
59	* ''The Autobiography'' (1986)[[note]]Released in the U.S. in 1987 as ''Classics Volume 9'' as part of a series of compilations [[MilestoneCelebration celebrating A&M's 25th anniversary that year]].[[/note]]
60	* ''The Very Best of Supertramp'' (1990)
61	* ''The Very Best of Supertramp 2'' (1992)
62	* ''Retrospectacle'' (2005)
63	----
64	!!Give a little bit of your tropes to me:
65	* AndThatsTerrible: From "Crime of the Century"
66	-->''So roll up and see\
67	How they rape the universe\
68	[[AndThatsTerrible Now they've gone from bad to worse.]]''
69	* BookEnds: The two parts of "Surely" on their first album. ''Crime of the Century'' soon followed suit with the same harmonica solo opening "School" and closing the title track. The band has frequently used the ''Crime'' songs to bookend their concerts in the same fashion.
70	* ButNowIMustGo: "Goodbye Stranger".
71	-->''Goodbye stranger, it's been nice''\
72	''Hope you find your paradise...''
73	%%* TheCasanova: "Lover Boy".
74	* DespairEventHorizon: "If Everyone Was Listening", "Lord Is It Mine", arguably "Rudy".
75	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Their 1970 self-titled debut album, featuring guitarist Richard Palmer-James writing all the lyrics and handling most of the vocals, [[LeadBassist Roger Hodgson playing bass]], and almost no woodwinds (Hodgson plays flageolet on a few songs, but no saxophones are ever heard).
76	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: "School", "Bloody Well Right", "Take the Long Way Home", "Fool's Overture", "Child of Vision", and "Don't Leave Me Now" are the songs with the band's most prominent long intros. Also note that the last three songs were the closing numbers on their respective albums.
77	* EpicRocking: They have some roots in progressive rock, so it's not surprising. The most well-known is the 11-minute long "Fool's Overture". ''Brother Where You Bound'''s title track takes up most of side two.
78	* FakeOutFadeOut: "Lover Boy" and "Fool's Overture," which fades out right before the singing starts.
79	* GenreShift: They started out as a Prog Rock band, but as time went on, they became more [[{{Pop}} poppy]], culminating in their extremely poppy ''Breakfast in America''. And still later, "I'm Beggin' You" reached #1 on the US ''dance charts''.
80	* GratuitousPanning: Cleverly used on "Better Days", when it uses clips of speeches from the 1984 Presidential campaign; Republicans UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush George Bush]] on the right channel, Democrats UsefulNotes/WalterMondale and UsefulNotes/GeraldineFerraro on the left.
81	* GreatestHitsAlbum: They've released four of them over the years. "The Autobiography of Supertramp", "The Very Best of Supertramp", "The Very Best of Supertramp 2", and more recently, "Retrospectacle: A Supertramp Anthology."
82	* {{Homage}}: "My Kind of Lady" was done in a style of 50's rock/doo-wop bands. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0FXu6bv_8k The video really amplifies the style.]]
83	* IHaveManyNames / RealNameAsAnAlias: The American drummer Bob Siebenberg spelled his name "Bob C. Benberg" on the band's 1970s albums to avoid tipping off the U.K. immigration authorities that he'd overstayed his visa working with the band. This rendering was used even though the band had relocated to Los Angeles while recording ''Crisis? What Crisis?'', and recorded its next two albums exclusively in the States.
84	* InsecureLoveInterest: "Even In The Quietest Moments" is sung from the perspective of one who is self-conscious about his relationship with the one he's singing to. It ends with him asking to come in, in spite of the fact that he knows her door is always open.
85	* LastNoteNightmare: "If Everyone Was Listening" ends with foreboding strings. Also, the FakeOutFadeOut in "Lover Boy" is [[JumpScare very abrupt]].
86	** {{Subverted\|Trope}} with "Asylum", which ends with [[spoiler:a faint cuckoo noise]].
87	* LongRunnerLineUp: From the revamp to Hodgson's exit was eleven years with the same band.
88	* LongestSongGoesLast: "Aries", "Fool's Overture", "Child of Vision".
89	* LyricalColdOpen: Both parts of "Surely".
90	* MinisculeRocking: Most evident on their first album with the first part of "Surely" and "Home Again". ''Paris'' includes a shortened version of "Two of Us" from ''Crisis? What Crisis?'' which lasts just over a minute.
91	* MotifMerger: Of a sort; the cover of their compilation album ''The Very Best of Supertramp'' features items from three of their most famous albums: the grate from the cover of ''Crime of the Century'', from which emerges the hand carrying a glass of orange juice from the cover of ''Breakfast in America'', with the glass adorned with the orange umbrella from ''Crisis? What Crisis?''. The band's name also reuses the typeface first seen on ''Breakfast''.
92	%%* NonAppearingTitle: "The Logical Song", "Breakfast In America", "Gone Hollywood", "A Soapbox Opera", "Fool's Overture", "Downstream", "Just Another Nervous Wreck".
93	* OneWomanWail: The wordless vocal melody at the end of "Don't Leave Me Now", sung by Claire Diament. She would add a longer, more complicated line in a similar manner on Roger Hodgson's ballad "Only Because of You" from his ''In the Eye of the Storm'' solo debut two years later.
94	* OneWordTitle: Multiple songs including: "School" (about an AssimilationAcademy), "Dreamer" (about a MadDreamer), "Downstream", "Crazy", and "Cannonball". And also two albums (their self-titled debut and the live album ''Paris'').
95	* OrWasItADream: "Even in the Quietest Moments" has the singer asking this question at the end of the song.
96	* ParodyOfEvolution: The album cover for ''Brother Where You Bound'' is a multi-colored straight example, but the inside artwork shows an AbbeyRoadCrossing pose by the members of the band, all not too dissimilar to how the "man" figure is walking.
97	%%* PerpetualPoverty: "Poor Boy"
98	%%* PleaseDontLeaveMe: "Don't Leave Me Now"
99	* PluckyComicRelief: John Helliwell often serves as this during their concerts as the master of ceremonies. For example in the ''Paris'' album, he was talking about enjoying some French cuisine, before listing off some Italian dishes instead and realizing the mix-up.
100	* PopStarComposer: Bob Siebenberg composed the soundtrack to ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIIThePiratesOfPestulon''.
101	* RedScare: "Brother Where You Bound", complete with excerpts from George Orwell's ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''.
102	* SanitySlippageSong: "Asylum"
103	-->''Don't arrange to have me sent to no asylum.''\
104	''[[BlatantLies I'm just as sane as anyone]].''\
105	''[[StatusQuoIsGod It's just a game I play for fun...]]''
106	** "Just Another Nervous Wreck" seems to play this trope [[AxCrazy much straighter]].
107	* {{Scatting}}: Roger Hodgson had a tendency to do this in many of the songs.
108	* SeventiesHair: Davies and Hodgson, to this very day.
109	* SexyPackaging:
110	** ''Indelibly Stamped'' uses a photo of a topless woman's heavily-tattooed upper body as its cover photo.
111	** {{Subverted\|Trope}} with the front cover of ''Breakfast In America''; the band originally intended for Libby the waitress to be young and sexy, but instead decided to feature a heavy-set, plain-looking middle-aged waitress (played by actress [[Film/FarewellMyLovely Kate Murtagh]]) instead, in keeping with the band's sense of humor.
112	* SignatureStyle: The band's use of Wurlitzer electric pianos is responsible for their distinctive sound.
113	* SillyLoveSongs: A couple, such as "Oh! Darling!", "Give a Little Bit", and "Downstream".
114	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: While there are some songs on the idealistic end like "Give a Little Bit" or "Hide in Your Shell", many of their songs head straight for the cynical side and never look back.
115	* SopranoAndGravel: Hodgson is a tenor, while Davies has a deep voice. This also goes down to their compositions, with Hodgson's folk and pop leanings while Davies is rooted in the blues.
116	* SplashOfColor: the cover photo of ''Crisis? What Crisis?'' features a man sitting in a beach chair under an umbrella in color, while the background (a rundown factory) is all in black and white.
117	* SpokenWordInMusic:
118	** "Rudy" includes a recording of a train operator announcing stops on the line.
119	** "Fool's Overture" has a short clip of Winston Churchill's famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech.
120	** "Better Days" ends with clips from UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, his vice-president UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush, and their Democrat opponents Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, taken from the 1984 US Presidential campaign.
121	** "Brother Where You Bound" opens with readings of news reports and passages from ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
122	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Originally Davies, as Hodgson and Palmer-James were the stronger vocalists and handled almost all the lead parts on their debut. When Palmer-James left, Davies took over the position of second vocalist, but ''Indelibly Stamped'' still features one song sung by neither (Dave Winthrop on "Potter", the last song with neither Hodgson nor Davies on lead until after Hodgson's departure).
123	* TheBandMinusTheFace: Supertramp minus Roger Hodgson after the latter's departure.
124	* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Never mind three chords, Rick Davies wrote "Cannonball" on ''one'' chord, just because he wanted to see if he could.
125	* VocalTagTeam: Originally Hodgson/Palmer-James, then Hodgson/Davies, and then Davies/Hart, and with the first two, there exist many songs where they tag in several times per song.
126	* WeUsedToBeFriends: "It's Raining Again" from "Famous Last Words". "Oh no, I'm losing a friend" indeed. [[note]] Hodgson wrote it to cheer up Rick Davies about the impending breakup of their friendship; YMMV as to whether he was successful or not. [[/note]]
127	* WhenSheSmiles: "Know Who You Are"
128	-->"When you smile we can see the sun"
129	----

Context Music / Supertramp