Supertramp - Famous Last Words
Written by: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 06.10.1982
One morning, a man wakes up and decides he would quite like a band of his own. That is exactly what happened to Dutch entrepreneur and millionaire Stanley August Miesegaes. This is the story of "Supertramp", whose seventh studio album, "...Famous Last Words...", was released in October 6, 1982.
Miesegaes had been backing a band called "The Joint", which had not quite lived up to his expectations. He singled out their promising keyboardist Rick Davies, who had previously played in a band with Gilbert O'Sullivan, and offered to finance a new group built around him.
Davies recruited bassist and singer Roger Hodgson, guitarist Richard Palmer and percussionist Keith Baker for the band, initially called "Daddy". Baker left in early 1970 and was replaced by drummer Robert Millar, who played on their debut album.
At Palmer's suggestion, "Daddy" became "Supertramp" to avoid confusion with another band, "Daddy Longlegs". Palmer would later co-write the lyrics to Sandra's 1985 Europop hit "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena".
The band took the name "Supertramp" from William Henry Davies' book "The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp".
The band's two central figures, Davies and Hodgson, came from very different backgrounds. Davies was working class and drawn to blues and jazz. Hodgson, from a more affluent background, gravitated towards pop and rock.
"Supertramp" were among the first bands signed to the British branch of A&M Records. Their self-titled debut, "Supertramp", arrived in 1970 and leaned towards progressive rock. Despite receiving praise, it failed to attract a substantial audience.
Their second album, "Indelibly Stamped", released a year later in June 1971, also failed to make a commercial breakthrough.
The band's lineup changed frequently during those first two albums. In fact, everyone except Davies and Hodgson was eventually replaced. As if that were not enough, their Dutch millionaire benefactor decided he had taken his dream far enough and withdrew his financial support.
Davies and Hodgson refused to give up and set about rebuilding the band. They brought in bassist Dougie Thomson, whom they knew from gigs where he had filled in, followed by drummer Bob Siebenberg and saxophonist and keyboardist John Helliwell.
By the time their third album, "Crime of the Century", arrived in September 1974, "Supertramp" had assembled a lineup that would last a full decade. From 1973 to 1983, it would carry them through their most successful years.
The musical partnership between Davies and Hodgson brought John Lennon and Paul McCartney to mind. Both wrote music and lyrics, and both received joint songwriting credits, even when they wrote separately and led entirely different lives.
With their third album putting them on the right track and a tour underway, the record company wanted to strike while the iron was hot. The result was their fourth album, "Crisis? What Crisis?", much of which drew on songs left over from the previous album and even earlier periods. These were new recordings of older material, and the pressure to deliver left members of the band dissatisfied.
Conditions for recording the next album were hardly ideal either, with the musicians isolated high in the Colorado mountains. Perhaps that isolation helped their creativity flourish. Their fifth album, "Even in the Quietest Moments...", was well received and offered a preview of what was to come with their sixth, "Breakfast in America", the best-selling album of "Supertramp"'s career.
After the move towards pop and the phenomenal success that followed, Hodgson wanted to build on "Breakfast in America", while Davies preferred to look back towards the band's early days and return to prog and rock. The result was a hybrid of their competing ambitions. Unlike before, Davies and Hodgson could no longer agree on a shared musical direction.
A roughly ten-minute Davies composition called "Brother Where You Bound" eventually found its way onto the next album, their first recorded without Hodgson. By the time it appeared in 1985, it had grown to around sixteen and a half minutes.
Every song on the album officially carries a Davies/Hodgson writing credit. But anyone looking for a more precise answer need only listen to the lead vocals. A song sung by Davies was written by Davies, and the same holds true for Hodgson.
Most of the recording for their seventh album, "...Famous Last Words...", took place at Hodgson's home, at "Unicorn" studios in Nevada City, California. Hodgson did not want to leave his wife to care for their two young children alone, a two-year-old daughter and a newborn son.
Davies, meanwhile, recorded his vocal and keyboard parts at his own home studio, "The Backyard", in Encino, California. Additional overdubs were recorded at studios in the Los Angeles area.
The album's title can certainly be read as a reference to the impending separation of Davies and Hodgson. This was the swan song of their partnership and of the classic "Supertramp" lineup. Hodgson left after the 1983 tour, and the band continued without him, but to my ears they never recaptured the magic of that decade.
Mike Doud conceived the album cover and designed it with Norman Moore, with photography credited to Jules Bates and Tom Gibson. It depicts a circus tightrope walker, while a hand holding a pair of scissors threatens to cut the rope. Another hint at the final moments of "Supertramp"'s most successful lineup.
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