“Take The Long Way Home” by Supertramp

"Take the Long Way Home" was the last song Supertramp wrote for Breakfast in America, their 1979 album, penned during the nine months they spent recording it. It's a Roger Hodgson song, and he sings it, with Rick Davies on keyboards, John Helliwell on woodwinds, Dougie Thomson on bass and Bob Siebenberg on drums; the band produced with Peter Henderson, who also engineered.

On the surface it's about a man dawdling on his way back to a wife who treats him like the furniture. Hodgson said there's a deeper layer: the search for a home inside yourself, and the way grown-up disappointments sour the dreams of youth. The music matches that double life, bouncy and bright on top, rueful underneath. A live version recorded in Paris became a minor hit in parts of Europe in 1980.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.