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Supertramp: Supertramp

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: A&M Records
Released: 1970.04.03
Time:
 47:45
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: ***....... (3/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.supertramp.com
Appears with: Roger Hodgson
Purchase date: 2001.04.19
Price in €: 10,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Surely (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 0:31
[2] It's a Long Road (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 5:30
[3] Aubade and I Am Not Like Other Birds of Prey (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 5:15
[4] Words Unspoken (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 3:58
[5] Maybe I'm a Beggar (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 6:42
[6] Home Again (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 1:11
[7] Nothing to Show (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 4:51
[8] Shadow Song (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 4:24
[9] Try Again (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 12:03
[10] Surely (Davies/Hodgson/Palmer) - 3:09

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


ROGER HODGSON - Acoustic Guitar, Guitar, Cello, Bass Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals, Producer
RICHARD DAVIES - Organ, Harmonica, Piano, Keyboards, Electric Piano, Vocals, Producer
BOB MILLER - Drums, Producer
RICHARD PALMER - Acoustic Guitar, Guitar, Balalaika, Electric Guitar, Vocals, Producer
ROBERT MILLAR - Harmonica, Percussion, Producer

ROBIN BLACK - Engineer
BOB HOOK - Art Director, Sleeve Design

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1970 LP A&M 4665
1970 CS A&M 75021-3149-4
1977 CD A&M 75021-3149-2
1999 CD Polygram International 393149



Supertramp's debut album was by and large an undistinguished progressive rock affair, filled with long, ponderous instrumental solos.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



The band's lacklustre debut album... Have you ever wondered why none of Supertramp's greatest hit compilation CDs ever includes a track from this album? It's not the label, as Supertramp have stuck to A&M throughout their career. Have you ever wondered why this album has only ever been available in the US on import? Supertramp's debut album has never been released in the US -- not on CD, and not even on LP. There's a reason for that -- it's a really lacklustre album. And yet on Amazon it gets an average five-star rating. Having disbanded after their first two albums flopped, Supertramp only came good with their third album CRIME OF THE CENTURY, which is a classic that deservedly earned them a very loyal fan base. This fan base was prepared to buy everything that the band subsequently produced, but was tentative about delving into the band's back-catalogue. These were the impecunious 70s and we were just schoolboys then. A friend took the risk of going back one album: INDELIBLY STAMPED had a vaguely appealing pair of breasts on the cover, but the music provided convincing evidence that going back a further album would be a waste of our limited financial resources. But this album has some merit. Track #4, 'Words Unspoken', sounds much like same-period Genesis, i.e. a bit like TRESPASS. 'Home Again' could have been a Cat Stevens number. The instrumental on 'Nothing to Show' pre-dates the final track on Manfred Mann's ROARING SILENCE by five years. Elsewhere the band sounds like Yes's TIME AND A WORD. There are shades of Traffic, and even Kingdom Come's now-deleted GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER. In short, they sound like just about every other white English 'progressive' band of the era. As one of the other reviewers here notes, it is only Davies' and Hodgson's distinctive voices that tell you that it's a Supertramp album. The album disappeared without trace, and shortly afterwards, Hodgson and Davies replaced Palmer (guitar) and Miller (drums). By 1973, Supertramp had spent their time "bombing up and down the M1 -- the main North-South motorway in the UK -- in a Transit van and playing Johnny B. Goode as an encore" according to Rick Davies. Their label, A&M, was losing faith after the first two albums nosedived. Fortunately Hodgson and Davies persuaded them to let the band record just one more album, and the rest is history. Hundreds of better albums than this were released in 1970. This is for Supertramp addicts only. It's an informative historical document showing how Hodgson and Davies kept the faith, yet changed their style to create something infinitely more distinctive.

Gavin J Wilson from Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom



Not exactly like their other stuff, but still great... This is an excellent album. Admittedly, most of the songs are longer than most of the band's tunes, which were usually brief and succinct and thus easily playable on the radio. And the overall upbeat feeling of much of their later songs is not always present; often, there's a bit of melancholy within much of the songs and the way they're played. But man, could these guys play! "Nothing To Show" is a real powerhouse number in particular, incidentally revealing Roger Hodgson to be a heck of a bass guitarist (call me a nut, but later on, you never really got to hear the guy's instrumental prowess that fully; on this LP, you do, both on bass, acoustic guitar and recorder). There's no saxophone on the album, notably, which was always a hallmark of the band's sound, but there is a dash of woodwind courtesy of Hodgson's recorder. The album's opener is a brief version of the closer, "Surely," which is not only a really nice folkish number sung really well by Hodgson but creates that feel and mood the band was so well known for and appreciated for.

Roger Walker from Morrisville, PA USA
 

 L y r i c s


SURELY

Only if I lied could I love you
Nothing of our lives could we share
Only could we try to get by on a sigh
Just because, just this once, I was there


IT'S A LONG ROAD

Well the road I see before me
Threatens pain at every bend, yeah
Well my needs are mine, I understand
And hope to calling friends
Well, good company, it may comfort me
But I don't want love to distract my heart from the way

Now your love it gave me sorrow
And a broken heart to mend, yeah
So I took me to this lonely road
My sweet hopes, to defend
Oh and why pretend, I won't look back
Even though the love of a happy man waits before

Well, the winter wind blows chilly
And the road is dark and gray
So take pity on a wanderer should you pass me on the way

Oh, I'm left alone without a home
Makes a man ask why he travels on
When hope is gone

It's a long road
It's a long road
It's a long road
It's a long road


AUBADE

Morning at last
Every night is a fight till you're waking
Dreams dancing past
Through the silence of sleep
Dawn is breaking
I wake and watch them till then
And I am not like other birds of prey
And I am not like other birds of prey

Oh, night is long, you won't needing me
For a dressed up time  I am there to see
That fear holds no sway

Soft is my plan
And my eyes kill the lies that felt happy
Life is my right
And in sleep's little bed
I'll protect you
So, hear, let my presence dismay
That I am not like other birds of prey
That I am not like other birds of prey

When hopes are young and your cares are few
Then I'm sure above keeping truth in you
And my name is love


WORDS UNSPOKEN

Why sing a lonely song?
The whole world knows that love goes wrong
Why loose a heart that isn't broken?
It isn't broken, it can't be broken

Life's just a show for free
Come along and watch with me
The only sins are words unspoken
Words unspoken, never spoken

Sweet things come and go
Give me shame, I'll give you wow
To live for love isn't so easy
It isn't easy, it won't be easy!

How all good men try
Look around and wonder why
Can they shape this world to please me
Can they please me, should they please me?

I follow but maybe you'll correct me
I wish you'd never met me
For I am your gentle man
I follow and while you watch and wonder
I call my world a sundown
And show you who I am

Send me a gentle dream
Of love so strange it's never seen
And proof how such a love can happen
It can happen, make it happen

Fine things tumble down
Fade away without a sound
But hope must never end or slacken
Never slacken, never slacken

I follow but maybe you'll correct me
I wish you'd never met me
I am your gentle man
I follow and while you watch and wonder
I call my world a sundown
And show you who I am


MAYBE I'M A BEGGAR

I ain't got too much money, I ain't got too much sense
Long ago I had a dream but that's no recompense
My father was a blind man, my brother was a fool
My mother told me "God is love"
But hatred makes the rules

Teach me to fly
So I shan't drag my feet in the sand
Give me the sky
I would take the whole world in my hand

World, don't you tell me
I cannot last forever
Before you know I'll come and go
And make you if I can

Maybe I'm a beggar, just check your sympathy
They throw away their gentle love
And keep their pain for me

Can we be free, in a world where to love is to own?
Well when will we see, that a man must face life all alone?

Maybe I'm a beggar, just check your sympathy
They throw away their gentle love
and keep their pain for me

Teach me to fly
So I shan't drag my feet in the sand
Give me the sky
I would take the whole world in my hand

Can we be free, in a world where to love is to own?
Well when will we see, that a man must face life all alone?


HOME AGAIN

Many is the time that a dream has gone wrong
When you're with me
Many is the time when the blame went to you
Please forgive me
But the truth is my friend
That the world isn't quite as I thought it to be
Oh no, I wish I were back home again
Oh no, I wish I were back home again
Oh no, I wish I were back home again
La la la , I wish I were back home again


NOTHING TO SHOW

Nothing to show beyond the fear I had
Body so warm within this perfumed bed
Sleeping alone, the shadow of a man
He will entice you too, and if he can
Nothing to show for love that's never been
Nothing to show for love that's never been
Nothing to show for love that's never been

Nothing is handed, power is changing fast
Many the empty hopes his lips caress
Sorry to say his days are spent in vain
Chasing a dream of doom of nights in pain
Nothing to show for love that's never been
Nothing to show for love that's never been
Nothing to show for love that's never been

Shadowy nights of memories of the grave
Gentle my love and sweetness sometimes sick
Keep up his time while his crimes are known
Only a fool can see he's sold his love
Nothing to show for love that's never been
Nothing to show for love that's never been
Nothing to show for love that's never been

Nothing to show for love that's never been
Nothing to show for love that's never been
Nothing to show for love that's never been


SHADOW SONG

Did your shadow ever speak to you?
And did he say that something's wrong?
Only a figure on a lamplit wall
Never realized he cared at all
Did he stop you going on?

Guess my shadow spoke to me tonight
And made me throw my dreams away
Told a story of a twisted man
Who was playing with some foolish plan
'Bout a girl who had flown away

Sometimes shadows are near
I see things very clear, my life unwinds
Somewhere I'll make my stand
Look around at yesterday
And change my mind

Now your shadow isn't always there
In the light of cloudy days
Or in circles where you hide from view
All the dust that ever bothered you
And where people loose your name


TRY AGAIN

Later that evening, only a feeling
But it was there in the air that we share in the twilight
Humming a sad song, where was our day gone
But in the dark was a spark, a remark I remember
"Try again", she replied to some story I told
"Try again", yes I will if I can
Oh, all I need is somebody to hold

Learning a feeling, seeking a meaning
Finding a way, should she stay, how to say let's imagine
Maybe I'll go wrong, an evening that last long
But in the night all the light must be right for this moment
"Try again", she replied to some story I told
"Try again", yes I will if I can
Oh, all I need is somebody to hold

"Try again", she replied to some story I told
"Try again", yes I will if I can
Oh, all I need is somebody to hold

"Try again", she replied to some story I told
"Try again", yes I will if I can
Oh, all I need is somebody to hold


SURELY

Surely there's a way I could please you
Only in your past lie the tears
Surely there's a day you can say went your way
Some illusion you can keep through the years

Only if I lied could I love you
Nothing of our lives could we share
Only could we try to get by on a sigh
Just because, just this once, I was there

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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