Forty years ago Supertramp created their most accessible work to date with "Breakfast In America". It meant for the British formation not only the breakthrough in the USA. It is also the record that sold best by far from their catalogue, the record that made them world stars and a stadium band. What you don't listen to is the arduous, sometimes agonizingly slow process of creation - at a time when the two songwriters Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson were already avoiding each other as much as possible. For the fortieth anniversary of the release of the record we go on a search for clues and talk to Hodgson and John A. Helliwell about their biggest litter.
"Breakfast In America" is an album which is the subject of numerous rumours and misunderstandings. Roger Hodgson is settling these accounts on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the success record - and doing what he does best: He's going on tour.
Thursday morning in Northern California: Roger Hodgson is at home and preparing for his upcoming European tour. Between suitcase packing, breakfast and yoga he takes time to chat with eclipsed. Occasion: the 40th anniversary of the milestone "Breakfast In America" - with over 20 million copies sold the most successful album Supertramps and an evergreen of rock music. What the 69-year-old Englishman is mighty proud of.
eclipsed: As an election Californian: What is Roger Hodgson having for breakfast - a sumptuous American breakfast or something light, European?
SUPERTRAMP - 40 years "Crime Of The Century"
Actually they were already dead. Even dead as a doornail. After two albums that sold as well as soap-flavoured chocolate and, according to guitarist/singer Roger Hodgson, didn't sound much better, the chapter Supertramp seemed to be over in 1971 - because everything really went wrong. The band, which at that time consisted of Kevin Currie, Frank Farrell, Dave Winthrop, Rick Davies and Hodgson, fell apart after a disastrous Scandinavian tour.
AC/DC - Temporary power outage
Actually, they were already dead. Even dead as a doornail. After two albums that sold as well as soap-flavoured chocolate and, according to guitarist/singer Roger Hodgson, didn't sound much better, the chapter Supertramp seemed to be over in 1971 - because everything really went wrong. The band, which at that time consisted of Kevin Currie, Frank Farrell, Dave Winthrop, Rick Davies and Hodgson, fell apart after a disastrous Scandinavian tour. Their financier, a Dutch multimillionaire named Stanley August Miesegaes, retired from the music business and the latest album "Indelibly Stamped" lay like lead on the shelves. Not least because of a creepy artwork that showed a tattooed female breast and Hodgson is still embarrassing today. "I don't know what we were thinking," says the man who now lives near Sacramento, in northern California, and is the only one still holding up the Supertramp flag.
JIMI HENDRIX
I don't live today
When Jimi Hendrix left the stage in Woodstock, he had 397 days left. The period after 18 August 1969 was marked by personal problems and attempts at musical reorientation. Protocol of a year that ended on 18 September 1970 in London with the tragic death of the guitar revolutionary.
THE FLAMING LIPS
Pink Floyd 2.0
DEEP PURPLE IN ROCK
The Rebirth of a Band
An album carved in stone! 40 years ago the English band Deep Purple erected their own monument. Even considering the fact that the former hard rock heroes around Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord ruined their reputation in the middle of the eighties, the LP is still one of the top monuments in rock history. An album as massive and monumental as the Mount Rushmore to which the cover refers.
SUPERTRAMP
Crisis! Hard Crisis!
PORCUPINE TREE
The next big thing
The new album is here! It's called "The Incident." As with every new recording of Porcupine Tree, the expectations of fans and critics are enormous: The band has long since earned a reputation as an innovator of art rock. Will the album be the next big thing? Or is it a lot of smoke for nothing? According to bandleader Steven Wilson, "The Incident" is one of the best things he has ever created.
FLEETWOOD MAC
Metamorphosis of a Band
