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IanB wrote:
Even in the early/mid 70s Supertramp were never really considered cool were they?
Well I seem to remember COTC getting rave reviews. And the NME, the 'coolest' of the lot, certainly liked it. Fred Dellar review below. (On a personal note, I've got more of a soft spot for them than I have for Yes or Genesis, but then I thought COTC was closer to 10cc's Sheet Music (or The Beatles even) than some proggy wankfest!
Supertramp: Crime Of The Century (A&M)
Fred Dellar, NME, 26 October 1974
Own up – you’d written Supertramp off, hadn’t you?
To tell the truth, so had I. Their first album, which appeared in 1970, was a good enough effort though I doubt if, saleswise, it did enough to keep Herb Alpert in bedsocks for a week. And the band’s drummer had a breakdown about that time – which really didn’t help much.
Between then and now there’s been just one album and a few changes in personnel.
And that, my friends, is the history of Supertramp. Not impressive huh?
But now they’ve come up with Crime Of The Century which, whisper it not, has the makings of a monster.
I suppose a lot of the credit for the band’s apparent transformation must go to producer Ken Scott who (Bowie fans please note) has surpassed himself on this occasion and shaped an album that grips you right from the first eerie sound of Richard Davies’ mouth-harp.
But the more I play Crime – and that’s pretty often – the more I appreciate the strength of Supertramp’s writing and playing abilities.
The band – Davies (keyboards, vocals), Roger Hodgson (guitars, keyboards, vocals), John Helliwell (reeds and vocals), Dougie Thomson (bass), Bob Bemberg (drums) have at last come up with something they can justifiably call Supertramp music – seventies rock that stems from many sources but funnels down to an almost orchestral sound that’s impressive, though not pretentious.
Among the high-grade tracks are ‘Bloody Well Right’, which moves from a meditative piano lead-in, punctuated by ‘heavy’ blasts, into a solid little bouncer, basically simple but schemed in diverting manner; ‘Rudy’ a song about a guy who’s on a figurative train to nowhere, which comes replete with some Paddington sounds that would have pleased Izzy Brunei mightily; and ‘If Everyone Was Listening’, a pretty ballad and Beatle-ish in so far as Helliwell’s clarinet gives it that kind of aura.
Right then – fair dues to all those involved in Crime Of The Century – to Ken Scott a mention in the New Year’s Honours List, to Richard Davies a gold-plated Steinway…and a fair share of the spoils to A & M, who have for so long placed confidence in the band.
© Fred Dellar, 1974
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