Yes, it's this 1999 clip. All three 1999 clips of the band promoting It Was The Best of Times are mimed to the live recordings from the Royal Albert Hall.
Take the Long Way Home—Live in Montreal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Video by Roger Hodgson Released August 28, 2006 (Canada) Recorded June 6, 2006 Genre Rock Label DEP/Universal Canada (Canada) Eagle Vision (rest of world) Take the Long Way Home—Live in Montreal is Roger Hodgson's first DVD. It was released in Canada on August 28, 2006 and went platinum in only seven weeks. The DVD hit #1 in Quebec for three months, went to #1 in all of Canada and reached double platinum status. The DVD includes a 75-minute solo concert filmed live at Place des Arts in Montreal, Quebec on June 6, 2006. In addition to the concert, it contains over 90 minutes of bonus features with previously unreleased solo and orchestra performance footage, exclusive interviews, behind the scenes footage, film from sound check, fan interviews, photo gallery, and various song clips from Hodgson's repertoire. The DVD was given a worldwide release in September 2007 on Eagle Vision with a new cover and additional material. Track listing "Take the Long Way Home" "Give a Little Bit" "Lovers in the Wind" "Hide in Your Shell" "Oh Brother" "The Logical Song" "Easy Does It" "Sister Moonshine" "Love Is a Thousand Times" "Breakfast in America" "Don't Leave me Now" "Dreamer" "It's Raining Again" "School" "Two of Us" "Give a Little Bit" "Sister Moonshine (Credits)" Bonus material "Even in the Quietest Moments" "Dreamer w/Orchestra" Extra sneak previews "The Logical Song w/Orchestra" "Fool's Overture w/Orchestra" Musicians Roger Hodgson: lead vocals, piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar Aaron MacDonald: saxophone, keyboards, melodica, backing vocals Trivia Reached #1 in Quebec and #5 in Canada on the DVD charts. This was part of Hodgson's first Canadian tour in 23 years. External links DVD entry at www.rogerhodgson.com Roger's Official MySpace presence DVD info various reviews
I’m rather familiar with some of these performances, since radio stations used to play tracks off this DVD when they advertised Roger’s concerts or celebrated his birthday (which is today). But I haven’t watched the entire thing until now. This is almost a solo gig. The only other musician on this live set is Aaron MacDonald, who’s mainly there for saxophones and the odd vocal. That makes it something different from a mere reproduction of the classic Supertramp arrangements. A self-serving intro and we're off. Take The Long Way Home: There's a grand piano on stage but Roger plays on a keyboard. Probably because this has the string synth extension fattening the sound up a bit. There's a voice harmonizing but we're not seeing anyone until Aaron plays the soprano sax solo in the middle. Without the harmonica, the middle sounds very empty. Ending confirms that Aaron does vocal harmonies. Give a Little Bit: Roger only needs to put on his 12-string to get people standing up. Unlike the opener, this song works well even without a rhythm section, and Roger's singing is spot on. Decent rendition. Lovers in the Wind: Now the grand piano gets used. This was almost a solo performance anyway, so there's barely anything missing. Very nice version. Hide In Your Shell: Back to the keyboard, which now sounds like a Wurlitzer. This is much harder to pull off without a full band, but somehow it works, although some instrumental parts were excised and Roger has to add an echo to his voice in the climactic part. Aaron plays sax and adds counterpart vocals. Oh Brother (Keep the Pigeons Warm): Roger introduces this as a song that has not been recorded but it will get recorded if people like it. I guess that didn't work out! It's another grand piano song - reminds me of "Lord Is It Mine" a bit. I don't really like how he squeezes the high vocal parts out. The Logical Song: Back to the keyboard, duh. People are standing up and clapping. You can tell that they have no real understanding of music by the fact that their clapping follows Roger's beat - instead of being half-time like Bob's original drum part. Aaron's solo is smooth as sandpaper, oops. Not such a great version. Easy Does It/Sister Moonshine: Where we get to learn that Roger is terrible at whistling! So he gets the audience to whistle, which sounds a bit frightening, to be honest. (I guess it was John on the original) I like that he's playing these two songs in sequence. And of course his qualities on the twelve-string guitar are undeniable. He's also excelling at the vocals. But leaving space for the audience to sing the low parts doesn't work and the song finishes in the middle. Love Is A Thousand Times: More 12-string and thankfully he doesn't ignore his solo catalogue. I don't really remember this one too well. Looking back, I gave it an ok rating; not a high point on Open the Door. Breakfast in America: Played on the keyboard, as the string synth once again adds some colour to the basic piano sound. As with The Logical Song, all the counterpoint vocals are missing. Aaron does his best on the soprano sax but it isn't much. Frankly, I've heard better renditions. Don't Leave Me Now: Here's a song that doesn't exist in a live recording by Supertramp (as far as I know), which makes it interesting, although I wish I could press a button to add some goddamn drums! And Aaron is still no match for John. The last verse and guitar solo are not appearing, but we get some canned drum effects on the atmospheric outro. Decent, but missing too many fundamental elements. Dreamer: Surprisingly, this starts too slow. It speeds up though. As empty as this version is, at least Aaron sings some of Rick's parts. And Roger's falsetto (rarely employed) is impressive. It's Raining Again: The neighbor's kid is playing sax and has been doing this song a couple of times. Why am I thinking of that? Well wouldn't you know it, the people are clapping in time! And Aaron can play a melodica (with a big hose, and some keys missing). If he had a better sax tone, this version would probably be better than the original. It isn't so sickly sweet without the synths and the kids singing. (Roger does the 'it's raining, it's pouring' part himself, which is better.) Roger introduced that as his last song but of course the audience wants encores! School: Really not a song I would have chosen for this line-up. Starts right away with the guitar part. The audience screams on cue to recreate the original atmosphere. Aaron is now at the keyboard. Roger seems to have added an effect to his guitar. Aaron plays Rick's piano solo, not badly. Roger vocalizing along is a bit annoying though. I had serious doubts two musicians could pull this song off but somehow, it works. Two of Us: Another Crisis? What Crisis? song. This is at least as good as the Paris rendition, and it's longer. Yes, there is the sax part but it's so simple even Aaron can do it justice. Give a Little Bit (2): Well, that's unexpected. I guess they really had no further encore planned. It's neither better nor worse than the first time they played it that night. Dreamer (with orchestra): It's possible to have too little (just one additional musician) as well as too much (band, orchestra and choir) on one DVD. This is from the Night of the Proms. John Miles (RIP) plays organ and sings Rick's parts - that's interesting. The Logical Song (with orchestra - excerpt): Dreadfully slow (I blame the click track), and way too short to judge. At least the sax player has a whistle! Fool's Overture (with orchestra - excerpt): Thankfully he didn't try this one at the duo gig! This song is made for the band plus orchestra format. But what a drag this is just two little bits. Even in the Quietest Moments: This seems to be from a different show. Roger's voice is shakier than in Montreal, but it's still acceptable. No clarinet. All in all, this is a good video. The duo line-up is my main gripe. I’ve already noticed how having a drummer who doesn’t anchor down Roger’s incredibly “forward” feel makes songs like “Take the Long Way Home” lose their weight. It’s far worse without a drummer. So although Roger does his best to avoid ever using the name of his old band and tries to justify that by playing the songs pretty much the same way they would’ve sounded without Rick’s input (“School” being the only exception), the performance highlights what’s missing without them - a good weight to ground his songs, and a good soloist in form of John Helliwell. Given that Aaron is still in the band and later live recordings sound far better, I’ll give him credit for improving, but in 2006 he was no match for the original. But vocally and from the point of Roger’s playing, it’s pretty much impeccable.
Since I'm listening to Rites of Passage now, celebrating Roger's birthday, I gotta rectify something I said earlier... Well wouldn't you know it, I found something. Andrew is still active under the name Millionaireplanes, and who else is involved? Why, it's Jesse Siebenberg Millionaireplanes I'll check their music out at some point. I also found an article on Roger's website saying Andrew was 27 in 2009, so he was like, what, 14?! when Rites of Passage was recorded. Now that's impressive.
"Put On Your Old Brown Shoes" -- not only are Heart's Wilson sisters singing backing vocals, but apparently Rick's harmonica and grand piano parts were overdubbed, because the Wurlitzer electric piano was the driving force on its only appearance on this album. Live performances don't have the harmonica, unless synthesized... correct me if I am wrong. ~Ben
Good points. I looked at a few videos and found that what they did live was that somebody else would play piano (Fred Mandel in 1983, Brad Cole in 1985/86) and the harmonica was replaced by John playing melodica. You can see it here: He also did it in 1983 but it's not as easy to see due to the cut, until the ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi-UM8EjfUM
My second thought: I wonder if they may hire Huey Lewis or Brendan Power to play harmonica for them, for this song, in the future? This is when you consider the fact that Lewis used to play harmonica for various other bands like Thin Lizzy (and Phil Lynott solo), and Thin Lizzy in turn had a few connections with Supertramp: its longtime guitarist Scott Gorham was/is close friends with Supertramp's drummer Bob Siebenberg (both are California boys), and Gorham's sister Vicki was married to Siebenberg from 1969-2000; and just prior to joining Thin Lizzy, Gorham also once auditioned (at Siebenberg's suggestion) to back up Roger Hodgson on rhythm guitar for Supertramp during the recording of their 1974 breakthrough, Crime of the Century (he didn't make the cut). Also, John Helliwell played saxophone for Thin Lizzy on the song "Dancing In the Moonlight (It's Caught Me In the Spotlight)." ~Ben
Well.. Huey can't play anymore (due to his ear illness), and Supertramp are pretty much done too, although Rick may do gigs as Ricky & The Rockets again. So it's rather uninteresting for me to speculate about this, and John's melodica was a very apt replacement for it anyway.
Does anyone believe there will be a Super Deluxe Edition of Famous Last Words for its 40th anniversary this year? If Davies and Hodgson wouldn't have constantly argued over the direction of this album, it may have been their first double-studio album, following the format of their first live release, Paris (1980). Quite a few songs from both Supertramp's 1985 album Brother Where You Bound and Roger Hodgson's 1984 solo debut, In the Eye of the Storm, were intended to be part of Famous Last Words before they were dropped due to the constant bickering between Davies and Hodgson. Among what I think should make it onto the Super Deluxe Edition would be: Brother Where You Bound Ever Open Door Hooked On a Problem Only Because of You ~Ben
I don't know about a double album, but they could have made a really great single album if they had been able to work cooperatively as a band and use their best material.
If they could all get along, we could have seen expanded reissues of all the classic Supertramp albums. I'd love to hear how "Brother Where You Bound" sounded in its original form (I've made an edit of the album version that probably approximates its original order of events). But I'd also love having the original mix of "Land Ho" and the studio version of "You Started Laughing" on CD, not to mention the BBC sessions and several live gigs that have circulated among fans. Alas, they can't even get the YouTube thing sorted out; all the "official" uploads (which included the post-Roger albums!) are gone again, and there is a new "Supertramp Official" channel that bluntly links to only Roger's site and Twitter as being the "official" web presence.
If anyone is interested............................ Poll--The Weakest Link: Supertramp EVEN IN THE QUIETEST MOMENTS..., Round 1 Join in for daily discussion topics, and vote towards your (consensus) favorite song.
I don't know how I missed this, since I do many routine YouTube checks, but this was uploaded 2 months ago. I haven't seen it yet. Enjoy! 1979 Supertramp Tour Documentary
I hate Hooked on A Problem. I would put Had A Dream in its place. the problem is if any complete performances by the band exist for these tracks. Throwing tracks from each album together isn’t something a fan couldn’t do. Since the majority of the tracks for both of these albums are better than Famous, if there are surviving performances it would be cool. I just don’t see Roger and Rick agreeing to anything anymore even if they can make money at it.
I'm not too fond of it either (I actually just found In the Eye of the Storm last week, so I finally have it on CD), but I'd assume the band performance sounded less stiff than Roger's eventual solo version on which he even did the drums. Agree. Great shame.
If you want a sense of the band's development (although not representing the early & late works very well), Retrospectacle - The Supertramp Anthology gives a nice impression. Paris is pretty much the best of the band's classic line-up performed live. If you want to start with studio albums, Crime of the Century (relatively dark and complex) and Breakfast in America (one of the quintessential "intelligent pop" records) are the usual two suspects.
Depends on if you want their more prog orientated or more pop orientated. For the former, Crime of the Century for the latter Breakfast is very appealing. Even in the Quietest Moments is a strong compromise between the two.
There is never too much prog, I am listening to Crime of the Century now and so far it seems very good. I will check those other albums later, thanks.
In that case you definitely ought to check out - once you've exhausted the classic line-up (from Crime of the Century to Famous Last Words) - the somewhat rough but enjoyably folk-proggish debut and the first album after Roger Hodgson's departure, the more professional but also ambitious Brother Where You Bound with its 16-minute monster of a title track.
If you're patient, I would start from beginning to end. If you can only muster three albums, go with -Crime -Crisis -Breakfast If you have a little more time, check out the song from 1977, "Babaji" The 2nd one is my least favorite, but I like "Rosie Had Everything Planned" and "Traveled". I also like "Famous Last Words" and think it's underrated... After that, I'd only recommend the songs, Brother Where You Bound?, Better Days, and Slow Motion (from 2002). "No Inbetween" is pretty decent, too. There's some good Hodgson solo, too. "Desert Rose" is cool. "Open The Door" is his "Fool's Overture" (another song I'd listen to, after reading you like prog)
I was a total newbie too a few years ago. Welcome . After you listen to the albums with the classic band lineup of Rick, Roger, John, Doug and Bob, I highly recommend to listen to two of their later albums - Some Things never Change (released 1997) and Free as a Bird (released 1987). They are not as popular as some of the earlier albums but these are the two albums I've purchased now after following this thread and listening to the songs on YouTube. Free as a Bird the band had a go at the 1980s craze of synthesizers and computerized drums. Some things Never Change has a mixture of jazz, blues, classic rock and a few ballads. They have a live album from their 1997 tour with the classic band members Rick, John and Bob along with later additional members Mark Hart, Cliff Hugo, Lee Thornburg, Carl Verheyen and touring musician at the time Jesse Siebenberg (son of Bob). The 2xCD album is called It was the best of times but is very hard to find a new copy of that album. I have the single CD Live, 1997. I love the three of them .
Me, too... not to mention if any of these '82 demos were among the masters destroyed in the Universal Records fire of 2008. ~Ben
