The Supertramp album Roger Hodgson said is his favorite

Formed in London, England back in 1970 by Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, who were the band’s main songwriters and singers, Supertramp became one of the most influential Progressive Rock bands of all time. Hodgson was in the band for almost 14 years and was part of their seven most successful albums.

Those records were full of hits and really were the ones that made them sell an estimated amount of more than 60 million records worldwide. But what is Hodgson’s favorite Supertramp album?

The Supertramp album Roger Hodgson said is his favorite

The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Roger Hodgson revealed in an interview with Rock Antenne in 2015 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), that his favorite Supertramp album is “Crisis? What Crisis?” released in 1975.

“‘Crisis? What Crisis?’ funny enough is my favorite album (by Supertramp). It didn’t do as well because it did not have a hit single. But as a collection of songs, I love it. It is my (favorite album of Supertramp today). I listen to (that album but) to tracks. Not very often but I’d sometimes have put a track or two on,” Roger Hodgson said.

Like Hodgson said, that album didn’t perform so well, selling an estimated amount of more than 480.000 copies. It was much less than records released after Roger quit the band in the early 80s.

“Crisis? What Crisis? was the band’s fourth album and at the time the band was also formed by Rick Davies (Vocals, keyboards), John Anthony Helliwell (Saxophones and more), Dougie Thomson (Bass) and Bob Siebenberg (Drums). It has famous tracks like “Easy Does It”, “Sister Moonshine”, “A Soapbox Opera” and “Lady”. Hodgson often performs those tracks on his solo concerts.

“Crisis? What Crisis?” tracklist

All the songs are credited to Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson

Side one

1. “Easy Does It” (Roger Hodgson on lead vocals)
2. “Sister Moonshine” (Roger Hodgson on lead vocals)
3. “Ain’t Nobody but Me” (Rick Davies on lead vocals)
4. “A Soapbox Opera” (Roger Hodgson on lead vocals)
5. “Another Man’s Woman” (Rick Davies on lead vocals)

Side two

1. “Lady” (Roger Hodgson on lead vocals)
2. “Poor Boy” (Rick Davies on lead vocals)
3. “Just a Normal Day” (Rick and Roger on lead vocals)
4. “The Meaning” (Roger Hodgson on lead vocals)
5. “Two of Us” (Roger Hodgson on lead vocals)

They didn’t really made any money until “Breakfast in America”

Released in 1979, “Breakfast in America” is Supertramp’s best-selling album by far, with an estimated amount of more than 19 million copies sold. Their second most successful one, for example, is “Crime of The Century” with more than 2.4 million copies sold.

So as Hodgson told Süddeustche Zeitung in 2015, the group didn’t really make a lot of money until “Breakfast in America” came out. “At all times, artists were in need of patrons. And for us in the 70s, the record companies were the patrons. Our first records earned no money, not even ‘Crisis? What Crisis?'”.

“It was just with ‘Breakfast in America’, that the investment began to pay off – because they believed in us. That is what is missing today. The record companies are struggling to survive and the people no longer want to pay for music,” Roger Hodgson said.

After leaving Supertramp, Roger Hodgson released two solo studio albums in the 80s “In The Eye of the Storm” (1984) and “Hai Hai” (1987). Then he went on a hiatus for more than a decade to be with his family. He returned to music in the mid-90s performing live and released his third and most recent solo album “Open The Door”, released in 2000. But he never reunited with Supertramp and he often blames Rick Davies for that.

After he left the group they had a verbal agreement that Rick could continue with the name as long as they didn’t play Hodgson’s compositions. That deal was honored for a while but when the ticket sales to see the band were dropping, Davies started playing Hodgson’s songs again. It was one of the main reasons for the feud between the two over the decades.

Although Supertramp released four more studio albums without Hodgson, it were his songs that stood the test of time. So they used to play many of them during their live performances, even in the reunion with Roger which happened from 2010 to 2012.