Music / Breakfast in America

"Take a Jumbo 'cross the water. Like to see America!"

There are times
When all the world's asleep.
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won't you please,
Please tell me what we've learned?
I know it sounds absurd,
But please tell me who I am.

— "The Logical Song"

Breakfast in America is the sixth studio album by Supertramp, released through A&M Records on 29 March 1979. It was Supertramp's most commercially successful album, having gone quadruple platinum in the United States alone, and supported by charting singles such as "The Logical Song", "Goodbye Stranger", "Take the Long Way Home", and "Breakfast in America".

Tracklist

Side one

1. "Gone Hollywood" (5:19)
2. "The Logical Song" (4:07)
3. "Goodbye Stranger" (5:46)
4. "Breakfast in America" (2:37)
5. "Oh Darling" (3:43)

Side two

1. "Take the Long Way Home" (5:08)
2. "Lord Is It Mine" (4:08)
3. "Just Another Nervous Wreck" (4:22)
4. "Casual Conversations" (2:56)
5. "Child of Vision" (7:24)

Principal members:

• Rick Davies - vocals, piano, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, harpsichord, synthesizers, harmonica, wah-wah clavinet
• John Helliwell - saxophones, clarinets, siren whistle, whistling, backing vocals
• Roger Hodgson - vocals, guitars, piano, Wurlitzer electric piano, pump organ, vibes
• Bob Siebenberg^note (credited as Bob C. Benberg) - drums, percussion
• Dougie Thomson - bass

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I'm playing my tropes upon you, while there's nothing better to do:

• Big Applesauce: The New York skyline seen through an airplane window is emulated with an assortment of boxes and utensils, with a diner waitress carrying a menu and a glass of orange juice in a similar manner to the Statue of Liberty.
• Call-Back: A line in "Breakfast in America"'s chorus is "but there's not a lot I can do", which was also found in Supertramp's earlier song "Dreamer".
• Epic Rocking: "Child of Vision" is seven and a half minutes long, with "Goodbye Stranger" coming close to reaching six.
• Greasy Spoon: The diner in the back cover of Breakfast in America, based on a real life diner the band ate at across the street from the studio where they recorded the album.
• Growing Up Sucks: The basis of "The Logical Song", where learning more about the world makes the narrator more cynical.
• Hates Small Talk: "Casual Conversations":
  In casual conversations and how they bore me,
  Yeah, they go on and on, endlessly.
  No matter what I say, you'll ignore me anyway.
  I might as well talk in my sleep,
  I could weep.
• Horrible Hollywood: "Gone Hollywood" is about a man who moved to Hollywood and grown increasingly disenchanted with it. The final verse is more hopeful though, with the narrator making the big time after trying for some time.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: "The Logical Song" is how the narrator grew more cynical through life.
• Longest Song Goes Last: "Child of Vision", with a good chunk of it towards the end being an instrumental.
• Loss of Identity: "The Logical Song", again.
  Please, please tell me what we've learned
  I know it sounds absurd
  Please tell me who I am
• Non-Appearing Title: "The Logical Song" (the word "logical" does show up, but without "song"), "Breakfast in America" (both "breakfast" and "America" appear, but not together) and "Just Another Nervous Wreck" (the closest approach is "everyone's a nervous wreck now").
• Not Staying for Breakfast: "Goodbye Stranger" is about the narrator engaging in a one night stand then moving on very shortly afterwards.
  Goodbye stranger, it's been nice.
  Hope you'll find your paradise.
  Tried to see your point of view.
  Hope your dreams will all come true.
  Goodbye Mary, Goodbye Jane,
  Will we ever meet again?
  Feel no sorrow, feel no shame,
  Come tomorrow, feel no pain.
• Packaged as Other Medium: The inner sleeve of Breakfast in America is designed to look like a diner menu, in keeping with the theme of the cover.
• Rhyming with Itself: "Breakfast In America" rhymes girlfriend with girlfriend.
• Rock-Star Song: "Take the Long Way Home" is about how a musician would spend a lot of time on the road and would suffer from homesickness and a broken relationship with his wife.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: "The Logical Song" starts out with the narrator being young and idealistic before taking a firm cynical turn.
• The Something Song: "The Logical Song".
• Take That!: Word of God says that "Casual Conversations" and "Child of Vision" are Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson taking potshots at one another.
  • Verse three of "The Logical Song" could be taken as a knock on conservativism:
  Watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical,
  A liberal, a fanatical criminal
  Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're acceptable.
  Respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable

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