Breakfast in America: The album that started it all

Breakfast in America: The album that started it all

“When I was young it seemed that life was so wonderful, a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical”, the iconic words that spoke so strongly to me as a two year old boy who could scarcely understand their meaning.  I grew up in a home with lots of music, but ‘The Logical Song’ captured my heart and imagination in a way that no other song had up to that point of my life. 

When my father purchased an 8-track cassette of ‘Breakfast in America’ by Supertramp in 1979, my world musically speaking was about to change after my very first listen.  From ‘Gone Hollywood’ to ‘Child of Vision’ the whole album entered my mind and heart with the fury of a runaway train.  I still remember going through my Dad’s 8-track tapes looking for ‘Breakfast in America’ and playing it over and over again.  By the time I was four years old one day I was holding the 8-track of ‘Breakfast in America’ and I accidentally dropped it on the kitchen floor.  The tape broke and the film went all over the floor.  I cried like I had been hit by a car.  I was totally and completely devastated and my mother had to spend a lot of time comforting me and helping me cope with my loss.  For the next little while I just had to be happy with hearing ‘The Logical Song’, ‘Goodbye Stranger’, ‘Breakfast in America’, and ‘Take the Long Way Home’ on the radio.  I think my father needed a break from Supertramp and he did not immediately replace ‘Breakfast in America’ in his music collection.

 A few years later when I was seven years old a big box from Columbia House arrived at the house.  Whenever my Dad got new records it was just like Christmas and I got really excited to see what he had ordered.  Lo and behold, a brand new LP of ‘Breakfast in America’.  I was so excited to see it again and my Dad immediately put the album on the record player.  It was like a joyous reunion with a long lost and cherished friend as I listened to it.  The album still sounded as amazing as it did the first time I ever listened to it.  However, because at the age of seven years old I did not have enough practice on how to properly take care of records before and after playing them, my Dad forbade me from playing any of his records without his supervision.  But the temptation of being able to listen to ‘Breakfast in America’ whenever I wanted could not be repressed.  I played that record at any given opportunity and being chewed out by my Dad, fairly often, for getting my dirty fingerprints all over the vinyl and the record jacket and for playing the record without his supervision did not stop me.  I was once again completely hooked.

Then for my eighth birthday, by parents gave me a cassette of ‘Breakfast in America’ by Supertramp (as well as ‘Paradise Theater’ and ‘The Grand Illusion’ by Styx, two other albums of my Dad’s I couldn’t leave alone).  I played this tape all the time and by 2006, prior to the purchase of my first iPod, it was getting to a point where I could almost see light through the actual tape.  Even today in 2012, this album sounds just as great to me as it did when I was a two year old boy.

In February 2011 my father and I traveled from Salt Lake City to Temecula, California, to see Roger Hodgson of Supertramp in concert and we were on row 3!  Roger opened his show with ‘Take the Long Way Home’ and it about drove me to tears.  I sang along with every single song.  Besides Roger’s amazing musical talent, he has such a kind and warm stage presence to him.  It was such a treat to hear him sing all of the Supertramp songs that I love so much.  When he sang ‘The Logical Song’ the crowd sang along with every word.  After ‘The Logical Song’ ended Roger started to perform ‘Only Because Of You’ and the gentleman in the chair next to me, who had traveled from Seattle to see the concert whispered “I still feel like we should be hearing ‘Goodbye Stranger’ right now”.  Although Roger did not perform any of the songs his former partner Rick Davies wrote and sang for Supertramp, it was one of the most amazing shows I have ever been to and very much a dream come true.

On a critical level ‘Breakfast in America’ is respected is one of the greatest rock albums of the 70’s, earned a Grammy nomination for album of the year in 1980, and is featured on a few “Greatest Albums of All Time” lists.  There has simply never been another album quite like it and many of its hit singles are still staples on classic rock radio today.  In my opinion Roger Hodgson’s guitar solo in ‘Goodbye Stranger’ is one of the best guitar solos in music history.  Although from a technical standpoint this guitar solo will never be viewed in the same light as Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)’, it’s the perfect way to complete ‘Goodbye Stranger’ and takes the song to a whole new level. 

Little did I know at age two that Supertramp’s ‘Breakfast in America’ would begin a very long and exciting musical journey.