A Prime 20 hit in quite a few territories, Supertramp’s fourth album Disaster? What Disaster? succeeded in constructing upon the positive factors made by 1974’s lauded Crime Of The Century. Nevertheless, the chaotic nature of the L.A.-based studio periods nonetheless rankled with the English quintet who returned to the U.S. to document the follow-up Even In The Quietest Moments… in much less tense circumstances.
“I think it was Roger [Hodgson] who wanted to get out of Los Angeles to do a record,” co-frontman Rick Davies wrote within the sleeve notes for 2005’s Retrospectacle – The Supertramp Anthology. “At the time, the sky was the limit, so we decided to record at the Caribou Ranch, on a mountaintop outside of Denver. What we didn’t realize was that the thin air in the mountains makes your voice go weird. It also made it hard for John [Helliwell] to play the sax. So we ended up finishing it back in L.A. at the Record Plant.”
All involved had been proper to persevere, for Even In The Quietest Moments… stays considered one of Supertramp’s most satisfying inventive statements. First launched in April 1977, it went Prime 20 on either side of the Atlantic and rewarded the band with its first gold-selling U.S. album. Its chart stats had been spectacular contemplating it got here out when each punk and disco had been in vogue, however then fads and fashions largely handed Supertramp by. As a substitute, Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson simply carried on doing what they did greatest – writing songs stamped with the hallmark of timelessness.
Accordingly, Even In The Quietest Moments… contained a clutch of Supertramp’s most affecting moments. Davies, to start with, weighed in with two glorious tunes in “Downstream” and “Lover Boy.” The primary, a sparse and tender piano ballad, was successfully a solo efficiency, although the entire band excelled on “Lover Boy”: a deceptively jaunty ode to would-be Casanovas in all places (“He’s gonna love ‘em and leave ‘em/Cheat ‘em and deceive ‘em”) concluding with an prolonged “Hey Jude”-style coda.
To not be outdone, Roger Hodgson responded with three of his best. Initially written in the course of the soundtrack for a present at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens, the album’s haunting titular track performed out over a mood-shifting six minutes, with its craving lyric (“Don’t you let the sun disappear”) reflecting the transience of human life. A basic tear-jerker, it nonetheless ranks amongst Supertramp’s greatest, as does the closing “Fool’s Overture.” Hodgson later instructed Traditional Rock that it was “one of my favorite pieces” and this formidable, suite-like monitor, which included excerpts from considered one of Winston Churchill’s speeches, is now rightly thought to be considered one of Hodgson’s most epic compositions.
Against this, although, Hodgson’s innate versatility additionally enabled him to jot down “Give A Little Bit.” Pushed by strident 12-string guitar, this uplifting, Beatles-esque pop track was a research in economic system and it quickly turned Even In The Quietest Moments…’ signature hit, reaching the U.S. Prime 20 on the best way to turning into considered one of Supertramp’s most recognizable songs. Then once more, its optimistic, pro-love and unity message has by no means actually gone out of fashion.
“[Give A Little Bit] really has taken on a life of its own and I think it’s even more relevant than when I wrote it,” Hodgson instructed Traditional Rock in 2023. “Because we really are needing to value love in a much deeper way, and also we’re needing to care. There’s a spirit in the song that touches people and a magic that comes out in myself and in people around the world when I sing it.”
Store for Supertramp’s music on vinyl or CD now.
