Supertramp was formed in 1969 by Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, becoming in the following years one of the most successful Progressive Rock bands of all time. Hodgson was the driving force of the band as the main songwriter until 1982 when he decided to leave. One of their biggest hits was “The Logical Song”, which was featured on “Breakfast In America”, their best-selling album, in 1979.
His inspiration for writing the song is quite interesting and he also said once that it is an autobiographical track.
The meaning of “The Logical Song” according to Roger Hodgson
Roger wrote many Supertramp hits when he was really young, even before the band existed and everything started after his parents divorced, when he was about 12. As he recalled in an interview with NPO (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), his father left home after the divorce and left his guitar. Hodgson sadly didn’t see him for about 15 years, but that guitar changed his life since he learned how to play and became one of the most important musicians of the last century.
Not long after that, her mother sent him to a boarding school and it was there where Roger started to question things and try to understand what the world was about. It was the real inspiration behind “The Logical Song”.
“‘Logical Song’ is very autobiographical, because they did send me away. I mean, it was a good school, it was one of the best in England. Yet, I was really more unsure of who I was and definitely not prepared to be ‘an adult’. I think there’s a lot missing at school that is for me the loudest thing because we’re taught to function outwardly. But we are not taught who we are inwardly and what really true purpose of life is.”
He continued:
“There’s very little of this discussion even in school. I think that for me, the natural uniqueness and the natural awe and wonder, thirst, enthusiasm and joy of life that young children have get lost. It gets beaten out of them in a way. At age 12 when my parents divorced that was a big moment for me. Because two things happened, my dad left and I didn’t see him for about 15 years but also he left me his guitar.”
“I have a feeling, I don’t know, I think he knew I wanted to touch and he never used to let me touch it. I used to watch him playing these songs. But he left me his guitar and that changed my life because that guitar was mine. I took with me to the boarding school and that became my best friend,” Roger Hodgson said.
Roger still didn’t knew who he was back then
Obviously, it’s not easy to find out who you really are and what you want to do in life. It takes years or decades to find that in ourselves and during his experience at the boarding school, Hodgson was told how he should be, but he wasn’t comfortable with all those demands. He recalled that in a conversation with EPK (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). “I think when I was sent to boarding school for 10 years. It definitely emerged from that experience with a lot of questions about what the hell happened to me and what life was about. Why a lot of things that I’ve been told didn’t make any sense.”
“I think ‘Logical Song’ was really a light-hearted way of saying something pretty deep which is, you know, ‘They told me how to be, to conform, to be presentable, acceptable and everything. But they didn’t tell me who I am and why I’m here. So it’s a very profound message and I think it really resonated with a lot of people when it came out,” Roger Hodgson said.
As a single, “The Logical Song” peaked at number one in Canada, number 7 in the United Kingdom and 6 in the United States. It was a huge hit and still is one of the most famous Supertramp songs.