Supertramp, Crime of the Century
A&M, 1974: Roger Hodgson (vocals and guitars), Rick Davies (keyboards), John Helliwell (woodwinds), Dougie Thompson (bass), Bob Siebenberg (drums)

Notable songs (the entire album)

• School
• Bloody Well Right
• Hide in Your Shell
• Asylum
• Dreamer
• Rudy
• If Everyone Was Listening
• Crime of the Century

This is the third album of seven with both Hodgson and Davies, the real creative forces of the group, in the band. While the songs are usually credited to Hodgson/Davis, most of the songs were written by one or the other. I think that only "School" and "Crime of the Century" were actual collaborations.

It was a UK top 10 album and top 40 in the U.S. The record became an even bigger seller after Even in the Quietest Moments (1977). I first heard the Quietest Moments album from my friend Glen, not sure of the exact circumstances anymore, and then I worked backwards discovering the other Supertramp albums. Must have been around 1979 that some of my friends and I at college tried to go to a Supertramp concert in Chicago at the old Chicago Stadium. No lies, but we were next up at the ticket booth when the concert sold out, and so there went my chance to see Supertramp live in concert.

Crime of the Century deals with themes of loneliness, outsiders, social status, conformity and mental stability in many of the songs, but it was never intended to be heard as a concept album. Lyrics throughout are fantastic.

"Dreamer" was Hodgson's song about himself.

Genesis, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Jethro Tull, as I've mentioned elsewhere, these were the giants of what is now called the classic progressive rock era of the 1970s. Lot of unfounded criticism of them all in the 1980s and 90s.