TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME
SUPERTRAMP
SONGWRITERS: RICK DAVIES & ROGER HODGSON
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: BREAKFAST IN AMERICA
LABEL: A&M
GENRE: CLASSIC ROCK
YEAR: 1979
Supertramp were a British rock band formed in London in 1969. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and Rick Davies (vocals, keyboards), they are distinguished for blending progressive rock and pop styles and for their use of Wurlitzer electric piano and saxophone. The group's line-up changed numerous times throughout
their career, with Davies the only consistent member. Other longtime members
included bassist Dougie Thomson,
drummer Bob Siebenberg,
and saxophonist John Helliwell.
The band were initially a full-fledged
prog-rock group, but starting with their third álbum Crime of the Century (1974), they
maintained a more pop-oriented sound. They reached their commercial peak with
1979's Breakfast
in America, which yielded the international
top 10 singles "The Logical Song",
"Breakfast in America", "Goodbye Stranger"
and "Take the Long Way Home".
Their other top 40
hits included "Dreamer" (1974), "Give
a Little Bit" (1977) and "It's Raining Again" (1982).
As of 2007, Supertramp album sales exceeded
60 million. They attained significant popularity in North America, Europe,
South Africa and Australia.
Their highest sales
levels were in Canada, where they had two diamond-certified (ten-times
platinum) albums (Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America). In
1983, Hodgson left the group to pursue a solo career. Davies took over as the
band's sole leader until 1988, after which they disbanded and periodically
reformed in various configurations.
"Take the Long Way Home" is the
fourth single and sixth track of Supertramp's
1979 album Breakfast
in America. It was the last song written
for the album, being penned during the nine-month recording cycle. According to
its composer Roger Hodgson,
the song deals with how the desire to go home can go both ways:
I'm
talking about not wanting to go home to the wife, take the long way home to the
wife because she treats you like part of the furniture, but there's a deeper
level to the song, too. I really believe we all want to
find our home, find that place in us where we feel at home, and to me, home is
in the heart and that is really, when we are in touch with our heart and we're
living our life from our heart, then we do feel like we found our home."
Billboard
Magazine contributor David Farrell praised
the "convincing melody with a crafty hook" although he felt the music
contrasted with the "pessimistic lyric about man's loss of identity in an
increasingly complex world."
The single reached number 10 on the U.S. charts.
So you think you're a
Romeo
Playing a part in a picture-show
Take the long way home
Take the long way home
Cos you're the joke
of the neighborhood
Why should you care if you're feeling good
Take the long way home
Take the long way home
But there are times
that you feel you're part of the scenery
All the greenery is comin' down, boy
And then your wife seems to think you're part of the furniture
Oh, it's peculiar, she used to be so nice
When lonely days turn
to lonely nights
You take a trip to the city lights
And take the long way home
Take the long way home
You never see what
you want to see
Forever playing to the gallery
You take the long way home
Take the long way home
And when you're up on
the stage, it's so unbelievable
Unforgettable, how they adore you
But then your wife seems to think you're losing your sanity
Oh, calamity, is there no way out?
Althought you feel that you life's become a catástrofe
Oh, it has to be for you to grow, boy
When you look through the years and see what you could have been
Oh, what you might have been
If you'd had more time
So, when the day
comes to settle down
Who's to blame if you're not around?
You took the long way home
You took the long way home.
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