History Music / Supertramp

* WeUsedToBeFriends: "It's Raining Again" from "Famous Last Words". "Oh no, I'm losing a friend" indeed.

* EpicInstrumentalOpener: Their album closers usually contain one of these. In many cases, the ending or the opener lasts ''half the song''.

* OneWordTitle: Multiple songs:
** "School": About a AssimilationAcademy.
** "Dreamer": About a MadDreamer.
** "Downstream"

* SexyPackaging: ''Indelibly Stamped'' uses a photo of a topless woman's heavily-tattooed upper body as its cover photo.

* TheMan: A common theme in their music, especially their more cynical songs, such as "School", and "The Logical Song".

* ContemptibleCover: ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indelibly_Stamped Indelibly Stamped]]''. For those who don't want to look ([[{{NSFW}} or are at work]]), it's the heavily-tattooed upper body of a naked woman.

* SopranoAndGravel: Hodgson is a tenor, while Davies has a deep voice.

* Mark Hart – Vocals, keyboards, guitar

* PluckyComicRelief: John Helliwell often serves as this during their concerts. For example in the ''Paris'' album, he was talking about enjoying some French cuisine, before listing off some Italian dishes instead and realizing the mix-up.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Their 1970 self-titled debut album, featuring guitarist Richard Palmer writing all the lyrics and handling most of the vocals, [[LeadBassist Roger Hodgson playing bass]], and no woodwinds.

* LeadBassist: Roger Hodgson started as the band's bassist.

%%* SillyLoveSongs: A couple, such as "Oh! Darling!", "Give A Little Bit", and "Downstream".

* ''Crime of the Century'' (1974)

* AssimilationAcademy: "School", which is the trope's page quote.
-->''"I can see you in the morning when you go to school\\
Don't forget your books, you know you've got to learn the golden rule\\
Teacher tells you stop your play and get on with your work\\
and be like Johnny -- too good, don't you know he never shirks\\
He's coming along."''
* BecauseISaidSo: "School" even provides the page quote.
-->''"Don't do this, and don't Do that\\
What are they trying to do?\\
Make a good boy of you\\
Do they know where it's at?\\
Don't criticize, they're old and wise\\
Do as they tell you to\\
Don't want the devil to\\
Come and put out your eyes"''
* BookEnds: ''Crime of the Century'' opens and ends with the harmonica solo of "School", and their debut album features one version of the song "Surely" at each end.
* BrilliantButLazy: Deconstructed with "Dreamer", as the person in the song continues to dream on instead on acting on his thoughts. Thus wasting his life while doing nothing noteworthy.

* CaptivityHarmonica: The intro to "School" invokes this.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: On the original Lyrics sheet insert for ''Crime of the Century'' (the album), Roger Hodgson's vocals are colored white, and Rick Davies' yellow.
* ConceptAlbum: ''Crime of the Century''. Its uniting theme being insanity, or the dark side of society. However, Roger Hodgson says that other than a deliberate connection between "School" and the first line of "Bloody Well Right", there was never any intention to link any of the songs, and any reading of it as a concept album is strictly the listener's.

%%* GoAmongMadPeople: "Asylum"

* HumansAreBastards: The song "Crime Of The Century" is either this or a group jumping the MoralEventHorizon (Raping the universe besides being difficult, would obviously cross that line) depending on how you interpret the fact that behind the masks "there's you and there's me".

%%* MadDreamer: "Dreamer", obviously

%%* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: "Dreamer"

* TrainSong: "Rudy". ''Rudy's on a train to nowhere, ...''

* YouAreNotAlone: "Hide In Your Shell."

* MotifMerger: Of a sort; the cover of their compilation album ''The Very Best of Supertramp'' features items from three of their most famous albums: the grate from the cover of ''Crime of the Century'', from which emerges the hand carrying a glass of an orange-colored drink from the cover of ''Breakfast in America'', with the glass adorned with the orange umbrella from ''Crisis? What Crisis?''.

* ''Breakfast in America'' (1979)

* BigApplesauce: The cover for ''Breakfast in America'' is NYC with boxes as buildings and a waitress as the Statue of Liberty.

* GreasySpoon: The diner in the back cover of ''Breakfast in America'', based on a real life diner the band ate at across the street from the studio where they recorded the album.

%%* GrowingUpSucks: "The Logical Song"
%%* HatesSmallTalk: "Casual Conversations"

* HorribleHollywood: "Gone Hollywood".

* JadeColoredGlasses: The page quote is from "The Logical Song".

* LossOfIdentity: "The Logical Song", again.
-->Please, please tell me what we've learned\\
I know it sounds absurd\\
Please tell me who I am

%%* NotStayingForBreakfast: "Goodbye Stranger"

* PackagedAsOtherMedium: The inner sleeve of ''Breakfast in America'' is designed to look like a diner menu, in keeping with the theme of the cover.
* ParodyOfEvolution: * The Music/{{Supertramp}} album cover for ''Brother Where You Bound'' is a multi-colored straight example, but the inside artwork shows an AbbeyRoadCrossing pose by the members of the band, all not too dissimilar to how the "man" figure is walking.

* RefrainFromAssuming: "Breakfast In America" is not "Take a Look at My Girlfriend".
%%* RhymesOnADime: "The Logical Song," again.
* RhymingWithItself: "Breakfast In America" rhymes girlfriend with girlfriend.
%%* RockstarSong: "Take the Long Way Home"

* TakeThat: WordOfGod says that "Casual Conversations" and "Child of Vision" are take thats to Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies respectively (and written by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, respectively).

* TheSomethingSong: "The Logical Song"

* Bob Siebenberg – Drums, percussion

* Richard Palmer-James – Vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, balalaika[[note]]If you're wondering what a balalaika is, it's a kind of Russian stringed instrument with a triangular body and three strings.[[/note]]

->''When I was young it seemed that life was so wonderful,\\

Oh playfully watching me.''
-->"The Logical Song"

!!They provide examples of:

* SpokenWordInMusic: "Fool's Overture" has a short clip of Winston Churchill's famous "We shall fight on the beaches" speech.

%%* AssimilationAcademy: "School", which is the trope's page quote.
%%* BecauseISaidSo: "School" even provides the page quote.

%%* ButNowIMustGo: "Goodbye Stranger".

%%* ParodyOfEvolution: ''Brother Where You Bound''

%%* SanitySlippageSong: Asylum

%%* CaptivityHarmonica: "School".

* AssimilationAcademy: "School", which is the trope's page quote.
* BecauseISaidSo: "School" even provides the page quote.

* ButNowIMustGo: "Goodbye Stranger".
* CaptivityHarmonica: "School".
* TheCasanova: "Lover Boy".

* GoAmongMadPeople: "Asylum"

* GrowingUpSucks: "The Logical Song"
* HatesSmallTalk: "Casual Conversations"
* HereWeGoAgain: Hey, hey, hah-oh, lah-la, hey-hey. Give a little bit. Give a little bit of your love to me...

* MadDreamer: "Dreamer", obviously
* NonAppearingTitle: "The Logical Song", "Breakfast In America", "Gone Hollywood", "A Soapbox Opera", "Fool's Overture", "Downstream", "Just Another Nervous Wreck".
* NotStayingForBreakfast: "Goodbye Stranger"

* ParodyOfEvolution: ''Brother Where You Bound''
* PerpetualPoverty: "Poor Boy"
* PleaseDontLeaveMe: "Don't Leave Me Now"

* RhymesOnADime: "The Logical Song," again.

* RockstarSong: "Take the Long Way Home"
* SanitySlippageSong: Asylum

* SillyLoveSongs: A couple, such as "Oh! Darling!", "Give A Little Bit", and "Downstream".
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: "Dreamer"

* GreasySpoon: The diner in the back cover of ''Breakfast in America'', based on a real life diner the band ate at across the street from the studio they recorded the album at.

--> So roll up and see
--> How they rape the Universe
--> [[AndThatsTerrible Now they've gone from bad to worse.]]

-->Please, please tell me what we've learned
-->I know it sounds absurd
-->Please tell me who I am

* PluckyComicRelief: John Helliwell often serve as this during their concerts. For example in the Paris album, he was talking about enjoying some French cuisine, before listing off some Italian dishes instead and realizing the mix-up.

* ThreeChordsAndTheTruth: Nevermind three chords, Rick Davies wrote "Cannonball" on ''one'' chord, just because [[SelfImposedChallenge he wanted to see if he could.]]