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Breakfast in America
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==Background== As with ''[[Even in the Quietest Moments...]]'', [[Rick Davies]] and [[Roger Hodgson]] wrote most of their songs separately but conceived the theme for the album jointly. Their original concept was for an album of songs about the relationship and conflicting ideals between Davies and Hodgson themselves, to be titled ''Hello Stranger''. Hodgson explained: "We realized that a few of the songs really lent themselves to two people talking to each other and at each other. I could be putting down his way of thinking and he could be challenging my way of seeing life [...] Our ways of life are so different, but I love him. That contrast is what makes the world go 'round and what makes Supertramp go 'round. His beliefs are a challenge to mine and my beliefs are a challenge to his."<ref name="Melhuish">{{Cite book|last=Melhuish|first=Martin|title=The Supertramp Book|place=Toronto, Canada|publisher=Omnibus Press|year=1986|isbn=0-9691272-2-7|pages=139β161}}</ref> This idea was eventually scrapped in favour of an album of "fun" songs, and though Davies initially wanted to keep the title ''Hello Stranger'', he was convinced by Hodgson to change it to ''Breakfast in America''. Hodgson commented later: "We chose the title because it was a fun title. It suited the fun feeling of the album."<ref name="Melhuish"/> Due to the title and the explicit satirising of American culture in the cover and three of the songs ("Gone Hollywood", "[[Breakfast in America (song)|Breakfast in America]]" and "Child of Vision"), many listeners interpreted the album as a whole as being a satire of the [[United States]]. Supertramp's members have all insisted that the repeated references to US culture are purely coincidental and that no such thematic satire was intended.<ref name="Melhuish"/> Hodgson has described the misconception as a parallel to how ''[[Crime of the Century (album)|Crime of the Century]]'' (1974) is often misinterpreted as being a concept album.<ref name="Melhuish"/> "Gone Hollywood" is the opening track of ''Breakfast in America''. Written by Rick Davies, the song tells about a person who moves to [[Los Angeles]] in hopes of becoming a [[movie star]], but finds it far more difficult than he imagined. He struggles and becomes frustrated, until he ultimately gets his break and becomes "the talk of the [[Hollywood Boulevard|Boulevard]]". The lyrics were originally more bleak, but under pressure from the other band members, Davies rewrote them to be more optimistic and commercially appealing.<ref name="SOS"/> ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' writer David Farrell felt that, other than Davies' lead vocal, the song sounds like a [[Queen (band)|Queen]] song.<ref name=closeup>{{cite news|title=Closeup|newspaper=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|access-date=8 July 2020|date=31 March 1979|page=166|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Billboard/70s/1979/Billboard%201979-03-31.pdf}}</ref> "Child of Vision" is the closing track. Much like "[[The Logical Song]]", it uses a [[Wurlitzer electric piano]] as the main instrument. After the lyrical part, the song goes into a long solo played on the [[grand piano]] alongside the original melody on the Wurlitzer. The track fades out with a short saxophone solo by [[John Helliwell]]. Roger Hodgson has said that the song was written to be an equivalent to "Gone Hollywood", looking at how Americans live, though he confessed that he had only a limited familiarity with US culture at the time of writing.<ref name="Redbeard"/> He also said there is a slight possibility that he subconsciously had Rick Davies in mind while writing the lyrics.<ref name="Redbeard"/> Each song was credited to a single musician on the inner sleeve, but on the central vinyl label was printed "Words and Music by Roger Hodgson & Rick Davies", combining the two and confusing the issue of composition credit. Roger Hodgson's management has described "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", "[[Take the Long Way Home (Supertramp song)|Take the Long Way Home]]", "Lord Is It Mine" and "Child of Vision" as 'Roger's songs';<ref>{{YouTube|IfB3O4eDXos|Child of Vision β Roger Hodgson, Writer and Composer}}. Retrieved 30 April 2012. See video description.</ref> however, this apparently does not mean he necessarily wrote them by himself, for Hodgson has credited Davies with writing the vocal harmony on "The Logical Song".<ref name="SOS"/> Davies has referred to "The five songs that I did on Breakfast",<ref name="Melhuish"/> but has not specified which ones.
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