🎵 AotW Supertramp - BROTHER WHERE YOU BOUND (SP-5014)

[LPJim]

Supertramp
BROTHER WHERE YOU BOUND
A&M SP-5014

A1 Cannonball 7:42
A2 Still In Love 4:18
A3 No Inbetween 4:26
A4 Better Days 6:02
B1 Brother Where You Bound 16:27
B2 Ever Open Door 3:05

• Copyright (c) – A&M Records, Inc.
• Phonographic Copyright (p) – A&M Records, Inc.
• Copyright (c) – Silver Cab Music
• Published By – Silver Cab Music

• Art Direction, Design – Norman Moore
• Backing Vocals – Cha Cha (2) (tracks: A2)
• Bass – Dougie Thomson
• Drums – Bob Siebenberg
• Engineer – Norman Hall
• Engineer [Backing Track Assistant] – Steve Crimmel
• Engineer [Backing Track] – Allan Sides*
• Engineer [Mixing Assistant] – Steve McMillan*
• Engineer [Mixing] – Mark Ettel
• Flute – Scott Page (tracks: A4, B1)
• Guitar – Marty Walsh (tracks: A1, A2, A4, B1), Scott Gorham (tracks: B1)
• Guitar [Solos] – David Gilmour (tracks: B1)
• Mastered By – Bob Ludwig
• Photography By [Inner Sleeve] – Tom Gibson (4)
• Producer – David Kershenbaum, Supertramp
• Programmed By [Fairlight And Ppg] – Gary Chang
• Programmed By [Synclavier] – Anthony Marinelli, Brian Banks
• Saxophone – John A. Helliwell*
• Trombone – Doug Wintz (tracks: A1)
• Vocals, Keyboards, Music By, Lyrics By – Rick Davies

All lyrics and music © 1985 Silver Cab Music. Administered by Almo Music Corp. (ASCAP). A&M SP-5014 © 1985 A&M Records, Inc.

Also released as CD 5014.
Entered the Billboard Top 200 on June 1, 1985
Peaked at # 21 and charted for 22 weeks

JB

 

[Mike Blakesley]

The departure of Roger Hodgson really damaged Supertramp, IMHO. This album would stand as their least memorable in my book -- to me they peaked with Crime of the Century (I was never as much of a fan of their ultra-poppy later material, as I was of the earlier stuff that had a pop slant, songs such as "Bloody Well Right," "Lady," "Dreamer," "Hide in Your Shell," "Travelled" or "School.") They needed that variety of sound that having two vocalists provided. Losing Hodgson left them with the lesser-appealing of the two vocalists, so they never really recovered, at least to me.

 

[Rudy]

Funny how that works. I'm the opposite there. Hodgson's voice gets on my nerves after a few songs, although it's more in those later Supertramp albums than the earlier ones. Having said that, I probably wouldn't listen to a full album of either vocalist. Nothing personal, just that the two played well off of each other, and created that balance on an album.

Agreed--they needed that dual vocal lineup for the variety. I think that's why Breakfast in America works for me--the lead vocals trade off one after the other. And for that matter, it seems as though Crime also trades them off every other song also. This is definitely one of their high points in their catalog--every track is a good one. I can't really name a favorite, as I'd probably name half the album if that were the case.

Nice of them to name a song after me too.

Best sounding versions I've heard so far of Crime were the Mobile Fidelity half-speed vinyl from the late 70s, and the MoFi gold CD. Worst two I've heard were the original dull and thuddy sounding A&M CD release, and the Japan SHM remaster, which has all of the dynamics sucked out of it. There was an A&M Audiophile release of this title (I've never heard it), and I know Speakers Corner had a vinyl reissue several years back. I'd like to see MoFi revisit this title on vinyl.

As for the AOTW, I do own a cheap vinyl copy I picked up somewhere, but heck if I remember which storage box it's in... I do owe it another listen. One song (can't remember which) did get some minor airplay locally, but I barely remember it.

 

[Rudy]

OK, I forgot I had it on the music server. Just flipping through tracks. "Cannonball" was the minor hit from the album. Can't say anything really jumps out at me at the moment, although "No Inbetween" is a nice slow track. It does have a slick production to it, very "80s" sounding.

 

[AM Matt]

I do have the "remastered" (24 bit) CD!! I bought that CD because it had David Gilmour on the title track. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Dave]

"Cannonball" seems to be epic w/ the streaming synths & ethereal rhythm--and these guys sure put each to much mire intelligent use than most...! I remember both the video and radio play attracting me enough, that I loved to watch & listen... The "Dreamer"/"Hide In Your Shell" ennui woven into that track is the real grabber...

Borrowing David Gilmour for "Brother..." was a great idea... Adds a dimension to the Pink Floyd feel Supertramp ably latched onto for this, still-enduring concept... So even with NO Roger Hodgson, there is much to be made up for...



-- Dave

 

[Steven J. Gross]

The piano solo on "School" from the COTC album is still one of rock's greatest moments...also Scott Gorham was a founding member and writer in Thin Lizzy...

 

[jfiedler17]

This album can take a little bit of getting used to at first, if only because it's so different from your normal Supertramp album - the title cut takes up almost an entire side of the album; Roger Hodgson is no longer around, of course; there's longer instrumental passages within songs than normal; and most of the album's cuts also have pretty minimalist lyrics compared to the band's prior material. But with a little patience, the album definitely has its rewards. The production and engineering are both really first-rate - it's a bit slicker and glossier than normal, but somehow the sound and production fits the record perfectly; bringing in Dave Gilmour on the title cut was a brilliant move and really helps to make what might otherwise seem like an extraordinarily long cut to sit through actually quite fun to listen to (and Gilmour's trademark guitar playing adds the absolute perfect touch to the ambience of the song); "Ever Open Door" is easily one of the prettiest ballads Rick Davies ever penned for the band; and the horn-laden groove of "Cannonball" made for a pretty fun single and one I used to hear at sporting events a lot back in the day. Their next post-Hodgson album, Free As a Bird, would be a bit more traditional and commercially accessible of an album, so I tend to listen to that disc slightly more often, but considering everything they had working against them at the time, having to develop a new identity post-Hodgson, this was actually a fairly interesting album. Roger's presence is certainly missed, but the band does admittedly sound more playful and re-energized than they did on most of Famous Last Words.

 

[toeknee4bz]

The departure of Roger Hodgson really damaged Supertramp, IMHO. This album would stand as their least memorable in my book...
They needed that variety of sound that having two vocalists provided. Losing Hodgson left them with the lesser-appealing of the two vocalists, so they never really recovered, at least to me.

I will agree with you as far as Supertramp's success is concerned. Roger Hodgson's departure pretty much killed their longevity as a group, for the reasons you mentioned. One wonders why they never auditioned someone else to replace Hodgson instead of Rick Davies fronting the group on all endeavors. I also remember reading somewhere that the split was anything but amicable ("nasty" was the word I remember) and that they drew up a legal clause that they wouldn't do each other's compositions... which would certainly kill a group's popularity at concerts.

However, all of this being said, I thought that BROTHER was a great album in it's entirety. And jfiedler17 said it best: "it's so different from your normal Supertramp album". A concept album to be sure, but it grabbed me with all of the instrumental interludes and jazz passages.

 

[Rudy]

I may need to listen to it more at length--nothing really grabbed me the few times I've listened.

 

[jfiedler17]

As far as the Hodgson split, I have heard from multiple sources that it is true that Roger and Rick made an agreement - albeit a verbal one, according to all parties; nothing that was drawn up in a legal document - that they'd each keep their own material, and the band would refrain from playing Hodgson's material in concert. The band did stick to that agreement on the Brother Where You Bound tour and played only Davies' tunes, but allegedly, there was a lot of external pressure placed on the band by promoters, etc., to play "the hits," most of which Roger had penned, so from the '88 tour in support of Free As a Bird onwards, the band went back to playing Hodgson's songs, with someone else (typically, Mark Hart) handling Roger's old vocals. If you read interviews with longtime Supertramp bassist Dougie Thomson, he admits that the decision by the band to renege on the deal was one he really disagreed with and ended up being his motivation for leaving Supertramp himself after he was done honoring his commitments for the Free As a Bird tour; since he left the band, he's mostly stuck to behind-the-scenes work in the music industry, but he's resurfaced on stage a couple of times as a special guest at Roger's shows to play bass on a few old Supertramp tunes. The "feud" isn't nearly as bitter as, say, the one between Styx and Dennis DeYoung, and Hodgson has said he'd actually be quite willing to take part in a reunion show or tour with the band, and Dougie has also gone on record as saying he would take part as well if Roger was involved, but the one obstacle that's stood in the way of a reunion is the fact that Davies and the band has been managed ever since '84 by Davies' wife, which neither Roger nor Dougie has ever been particularly comfortable with - not because there's any animosity there, but simply because there's an obvious potential conflict of interest there.

I agree with toeknee4bz that, in its entirety, Brother is a cool little album piece. It lacks any truly obvious hit, yes (even the single "Cannonball," which did sneak into the Top 40, was still noticeably different from anything else on radio at the time), but it is a well-done and quite-intriguing album. It's just a bit bizarre going from Famous Last Words to Brother, because the albums are so completely different; Brother's much more experimental and jazz-oriented - it's as if Davies was trying to fuse the band's more commercially-polished sound that they'd honed over the last five years of Hodgson's tenure with the band with the more jazz-and-prog-rock-oriented leanings of the band's first two or three records. Only their self-titled debut (which finally got released in the U.S. in '77) really tops it for the title of the most unusual album in their catalogue. The next album, Free As a Bird, has its departures, too (the single "I'm Beggin' You" even became a minor dance/club hit), but it and all the subsequent studio albums retreat back to more standard pop fare than what's to be found on Brother.

 

[Rudy]

... but the one obstacle that's stood in the way of a reunion is the fact that Davies and the band has been managed ever since '84 by Davies' wife, which neither Roger nor Dougie has ever been particularly comfortable with - not because there's any animosity there, but simply because there's an obvious potential conflict of interest there.

Sharon Osbourne's meddling in Black Sabbath and solo Ozzy comes to mind...