Supertramp sold 60 million albums, as of 2007.
Roger Hodgson won the Ivor Novello Award in 1980 for “The Logical Song.” This is the equivalent of being elected to the British Songwriters’ Hall of Fame.
So why is Supertramp one of the more forgotten bands of the seventies and eighties? In a world where Queen and Pink Floyd still sell reliably, it seems like Roger Hodgson and the boys get overlooked – almost ignored. This is a damned shame.
While here at the DV we have spent a lot of inches on Supertramp, there’s only one Roger Hodgson CD on here – so I have decided to fix this oversight by taking a trip back to the years I was in high school with 1984’s “In The Eye Of The Storm”.
I first got hooked on this CD after seeing the absolutely bonkers video for “Had a Dream (Sleeping With The Enemy)” on one of the non-cable video shows of the time. It is a serious example of eighties video excess – a running naked guy, fast-forwarded storm front, Roger Hodgson looking like Satan in warpaint, and SPACE FETUSES! (?) – but damned if the song doesn’t lope along joyfully like a rabbit on speed and has some serious lyric hooks to boot.
“Had a dream, it was war
And they couldn’t tell us what it was for
But it was something they could lie about
Something we could die about…”
Add in Hodgson’s trademark Wurlitzer electric piano and some churning, driving guitar and it’s a damn fine time.
From there, we go blues (“In Jeopardy” with its tight echoing snare line and organ); ballad (“Lovers In The Wind”); transcendent piano that almost seems hymn-like (“Give Me Love, Give Me Life”), and something that’s almost funky (“I’m Not Afraid”) – all of which are delightful. There are some miscues – “Hooked on A Problem” is thin as a promise, and “Only Because Of You” is a bit much on the close, with synthesizers that border on dysfunctionally eighties. Mostly, though, this is music that manages to be both fun and complex.
Is it a bit dated? Well, in places, yes. But if you like Supertramp, you like intelligent eighties pop-rock, or you just feel like taking a chance, you should head into the eye of the storm.