Note: I'm not doing any full reviews here, particuarly as this album is intended to feature in my journal later in the year, so this will be another short “Love or Hate?” style.
Famous Last Words (1982)
This was the last album to feature founder member and co-creative force Roger Hodgson, and remains my all-time favourite Supertramp album. I feel that Hodgson brought the fun, lighter element to the band, and when he exited their next few albums were all notable for being much more serious and for a sort of darker tone that began with
Brother Where You Bound and more or less persisted right through to their, so far, last release. I've loads to say about the album but will reserve that for my actual review in my journal. For now, let's just get down to tracks.
1. Crazy: The classic Supertramp happy piano and a blast on the harmonica gives the song a cheerful feel, yet there's a dark tone of worry underlying it, as in much of this album, as the two friends contemplate life without each other. It's quite commercial, as is much of this album. It's almost like the guys are trying to put a brave face on things, grit their teeth and get through without getting too emotional. You'd certainly know this was a Supertramp song. Bouncy, uptempo, piano driven and a vehicle for Hodgson's higher, almost effeminate at times voice. A solo from John Helliwell on the sax completes the song and we segue directly into
2. Put on your old brown shoes: A song of letting it all go, saying to hell with it and just enjoying life. Davies sings the lead vocal and exults as he grins “Kick out the morning blues/ Who needs a job?/ Who needs the pain and the pressure?” Another uptempo one, with some great harmonica and backing vocals from Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson.
3. It's raining again: You might know this even if you're not a fan, as it was a single and relatively successful. Upbeat despite the lyric, very catchy and certainly you can read between the lines when Hodgson sings “You're old enough some people say/To read the signs and walk away.” Indeed. Another great sax solo to end.
4. Bonnie: The first time the album slows down and gets a little maudlin, and surprise surprise, it's thanks to Rick Davies. “Bonnie” is a lovely song, but it has a sort of yearning that turns into something a little darker in it, like he's stalking the titular character. The piano is, well, darker, too: whereas up to now it's been bouncing along happily, now it's taken on a moodier tone. The first song on the album that has no harmonica.
5. Know who you are: Another slow one, but this time it's Hodgson (and yes, I am a fanboy) but it's a far gentler, softer song with a really nice lyrical line that basically tells the listener not to change, and to find what is good and unique in themselves. Again, Hodgson could be giving advice to himself here. He certainly plays some truly expressive and emotional guitar on the song. Dreamy is really the only way to describe this song.
6. My kind of lady: The boys ignore the impending departure of Hodgson and just have fun on a mid-paced love song, recalling the glory days of
Breakfast in America and
Crime of the Century. Great backing vocals, lots of fun, not a whole lot else you can say really in a short note on the track.
7. C'est le bon: Beginning to get more serious now. Actually, from here the album enters much more serious, darker, mature territory as the End draws nigh. It must have been like being on a train ride you hoped would never end and then suddenly the lights of the station are coming up fast. Almost an autobiogaphical song when Roger sings “I met a man from the ministry/ He said my son, better work in a factory/ Oh there are days I can tell you quite honestly/ I saw myself winding up in the military/ So lucky to have all this music running through me.” A reflective, thankful and yet in ways perhaps bitter and sad little song.
8. Waiting so long: Davies has his final say, and it's angry and hurt: “Did you get all you want? / Did you see the whole show? /Where's all the fun that we used to know?” A powerful, snarling sound on the guitar and a morose brooding piano, as it would seem Davies digs his heels in and refuses to change: “Must be set in my old ways”, he admits. “I would rather taste the old wine /Than mess around with something new” and though it's surely not the case I see this as being the metaphor for the final argument which leads to the departure; this is Davies trying to convince his friend not to leave the band, not to leave him, which then finally plays out in the final track, the last time we ever hear Hodgson as part of Supertramp. Superb and really emotional guitar outro which segues on a dark, hollow, ominous synth sound into
9. Don't leave me now: Opening on a lonely, melancholy sax from Helliwell, it bursts to life on powerful, emotional piano before Helliwell comes back in to join the melody. This song truly breaks my heart. It's hard not to see it as a plea from Davies to Hodgson (even the other way around perhaps, and even though it's Hodgson, who, fittingly, sings their last song together) as every line in the lyric begins with the title, with lines like “Don't leave me now out in the pouring rain” and the heart-shattering final line, “Don't leave me now, when I'm old and cold and grey and time is gone.” Sensational sax solo and it ends on a lonely harmonica, kind of harking back to the opener of what many people would consider their first real album,
Crime of the Century.
So, Love or Hate? This is my favourite Supertramp album. It's stellar all the way through, it's heartbreaking and a triumph of passion and emotion, it captures them at their very best and makes you just wish that somehow, somehow they could have worked it out and stayed together, but it was not to be. An absolute
True Love, and always will be.