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"Highway to Hell" is the opening track of AC/DC's 1979 album Highway to Hell. It was initially released as a single in 1979. The song was written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young and Bon Scott.
Roger Hodgson sings about how after so much time on the road, you want to take the long way home, either due to homesickness or not having reasons to return (why return and feel diminished by an ignoring wife?). Supertramp mounted a tour in the fall of 1985 through early 1986 that was their first without Hodgson. The lineup included Davies, Thomson, Helliwell, Siebenberg, Scott Page, Marty Walsh , Carl Verheyen and Mark Hart . Brad Cole replaced Page during the tour's European leg in early 1986.
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Earth and Fire were a Dutch progressive and symphonic rock band who over time evolved into a pop group. "Lovely Day" is a song by American soul and R&B singer Bill Withers. Written by Withers and Skip Scarborough, it was released on December 21, 1977, and appears on Withers's 1977 album, Menagerie. The song is notable for Withers's sustained note towards the end, which, at 18 seconds long, is one of the longest ever recorded on an American pop song. It was listed at No. 402 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time" in 2021. In late August 2018, Davies gave an interview in which he expressed that, for the most part, he has overcome his health problems and enjoys playing music again, something he couldn't do in 2016, when he was under medical treatment.
A 20-minute film of the title track by Rene Daalder was used to promote the album. In 1975, the band moved to the United States. With a hit album under their belt, pressures on the band increased, and the followup Crisis? Had to be recorded in the few months between two scheduled concert tours. As a consequence, most of the material consisted of leftover songs from Crime of the Century, and decades later the band would continue to regard the album as one of their worst moments.
Take the Long Way Home (Supertramp song)
Putting the song in a commercial would greatly cheapen the song and it's message, which is loved by millions of people around the world. It would be like hanging the Mona Lisa in a used car salesman's office. Roger Hodgson's debut solo DVD was titled Take the Long Way Home, Live in Montreal.
He remembered feeling that "it could be a big album" and that he spent "days and sometimes weeks choosing the right songs and the right order of songs so one song flowed into the next". The following album, Even in the Quietest Moments..., released in April 1977, spawned a hit single with "Give a Little Bit" , first written by Hodgson at 19 or 20 years of age before he introduced it to the band for recording five to six years later. As usual, the popularity of the album itself eclipsed that of its singles, and Even in the Quietest Moments...
Take The Long Way Homeby Supertramp
The narrative of the song would by his friend who knows him well, tries to console him, as best as a guy could. Not having any real answers to his problem he gets to enjoy their moment together - in the now. Making the day go on longer, by taking the long way home. Supertramp performed their last 2011 show on 16 July at "Les Vieilles Charrues" Festival, Carhaix, France. Supertramp continued to play several Hodgson-penned songs during live shows following their reunion. Hodgson subsequently claimed that when he had left the band back in 1983, he and Davies made a verbal agreement that they would not play those songs.
In January 1970 Keith Baker left, and to avoid confusion with the similarly named Daddy Longlegs, at Palmer's suggestion, the band changed its name to "Supertramp", a moniker inspired by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William Henry Davies. In 1969 Stanley "Sam" August Miesegaes, a Dutch millionaire, ceased providing financial support to a band called The Joint, as he was disappointed with them. He offered Swindon-born keyboardist Rick Davies, a former bandmate of Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, whose talent he felt had been "bogged down" by the group, an opportunity to form his own band with Miesegaes's financial backing. Davies assembled Roger Hodgson , Richard Palmer , and Keith Baker after placing an advertisement in the weekly music newspaper Melody Maker. The men of Sparks on their album Hippopotamus, and how Morrissey handled it when they suggested he lighten up.
Supertramp (Live Tracklist
That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you. To me, those lyrics could definately be interpreted as someone who has just given up hope and just decided to "take the long way home". On a personal note...this song is about every commute you have ever taken.
Other longtime members included bassist Dougie Thomson, drummer Bob Siebenberg, and saxophonist John Helliwell. The band's switch to a more pop-oriented approach peaked with their most popular album, Breakfast in America. For the last two months of completing the album, Hodgson parked a camper outside of the studio to work diligently on mixing, with brief periods of rest in between.
The Davies-led Supertramp released Brother Where You Bound in May 1985. The album was a deliberate step away from the pop approach of their last two studio albums, and reached no. 20 in the UK charts and no. 21 in the US charts. It included the Top 30 hit single "Cannonball", along with the title track, a 16-minute exposition on Cold War themes highlighted by guitar solos from Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.
The core meaning of the song to me is that you don’t have to struggle to do or be anything. But many people, including me in many ways, don’t realize that yet. It takes until we are about 70 years old to realize that most of our struggles were pointless. We, this time in past tense, took the long way home. I can absolutely understand why he turned down the 5 mil offer.
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