Supertramp. Wikipedia tells me the band name was inspired by a book, The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, by Welsh poet W. H. Davies.

I’d never wondered about the name until now. I was not even ten years old when “The Logical Song” hit the airwaves, and it quickly became a childhood favorite. The band’s name (and “The Logical Song’s” lyrics) stood out in an era laden with disco one-hit-wonders. Their sound was certainly distinctive, so I just sort of took the name “Supertramp” as a given. You hear Roger Hodgson’s vocals, you know it’s Supertramp.

“The Logical Song” doesn’t hold the same sway over me as it once did. But there is another song from Supertramp’s Breakfast in America album that gets to me, every time I hear it. Every time. That song is “Take the Long Way Home.” Maybe it’s the harmonica, maybe it’s the lyrics, maybe it’s just the way it seems to evoke a certain, specific, plaintiveness in me.

These lyrics, in particular:

Does it feel that your life’s become a catastrophe?
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

Now, friends and family, please don’t read into this. There’s nothing catastrophic in my life, nor am I mourning any lost opportunities. Quite the contrary. I don’t even regret that it took me this long to really pursue fiction writing. It had to be when I was ready, and I didn’t know when that circumstance would occur until I came to it.

Maybe, I had to take the long way home to cross that point.

And, I love certain songs. It doesn’t mean those songs are mirroring my own feelings.

To prove that I’m not feeling particularly blue, I’ll conclude with a somewhat random thought. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Steve Winwood’s “While You See a Chance,” (which would release roughly 18 months after Supertramp’s “Take the Long Way Home”). When I saw the mega-blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, it felt like Steve Winwood might be having a moment. (Or, at least, a moment with me). His vocals are featured in the opening notes of the movie, as Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” plays while Tony Stark and Nebula pass time in a spaceship.

I thought it was a great transition from the bleak way Avengers: Infinity War ended. Catch these lyrics: “Do anything, take us out of this gloom / Sing a song, play guitar, make it snappy.” Given the devastation caused by a snap of the fingers in Infinity War, I thought choosing that song was nothing short of inspired.

That’s it for now!