♫ The Logical Song ♫

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As best I recall, I am familiar with only two songs by the English rock group Supertramp, and this is one of the two that I found bobbing about in one of the vast, empty caverns of my mind.

Released in 1979, this was the group’s biggest hit in both the U.S. and UK.  Keyboard player Roger Hodgson wrote this song and sang the lead vocals …

“I think it was very relevant when I wrote it, and actually I think it’s even more relevant today. It’s very basically saying that what they teach us in schools is all very fine, but what about what they don’t teach us in schools that creates so much confusion in our being. I mean, they don’t really prepare us for life in terms of teaching us who we are on the inside. They teach us how to function on the outside and to be very intellectual, but they don’t tell us how to act with our intuition or our heart or really give us a real plausible explanation of what life’s about. There’s a huge hole in the education. I remember leaving school at 19, I was totally confused. That song really came out of my confusion, which came down to a basic question: please tell me who I am. I felt very lost. I had to educate myself in that way, and that’s why California was very good for me to kind of re-educate myself, if you like.”

To accentuate the “d-d-digital” line in the lyrics, the band borrowed a Mattel handheld electronic football game from an engineer named Richard Digby-Smith, who was working next door. This device, which predated Nintendo, provided an unusual sounding, layered bleep. The specific byte occurs near the end of the song just after Hodgson sings the word “digital.” The sound itself indicated a player had lost control of the football.

Rolling Stone called the song a “small masterpiece” praising the “hot sax” and Hodgson’s “wry humor”.

The Logical Song
Supertramp

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily
Oh joyfully, playfully watching me
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, oh responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Oh clinical, oh intellectual, cynical

There are times when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
Please tell me who I am

I said, watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical
Liberal, oh fanatical, criminal
Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re Acceptable
Respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable!
Oh, take it take it yeah

But at night, when all the world’s asleep
The questions run so deep
For such a simple man
Won’t you please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
Please tell me who I am, who I am, who I am, who I am
‘Cause I was feeling so logical
D-d-digital
One, two, three, five
Oh, oh, oh, oh
It’s getting unbelievable

Songwriters: Richard Davies / Roger Hodgson
The Logical Song lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

27 thoughts on “♫ The Logical Song ♫”

    • Ahhhh, Thatcher … I’ve learned a lot about her since gaining so many UK friends over the years. I always thought she was well-liked, but I’ve learned differently. But wait … aren’t you in Australia?

      Liked by 1 person

      • I am in Oz, but we were English migrants, and Thatcher destroyed many of my relatives lives. She had a plan to end non competitive industry and break the power of the trade unions, but she never had a plan as to how to rebuild. The result was the largest and longest unemployment stat in Britain ever, which by the time Cameron came to power it was three generations in some families. British industry was mostly lost, agriculture diminished, and commerce wounded. Her name is still toxic in many places.

        Liked by 1 person

    • I’m glad you enjoy them … I am getting a lot of pleasure, not to mention learning a lot, from doing them. When I started the music posts, I figured it would last a month at most, but I’m having too much fun to stop!

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Roger Hodgson has been touring as himself for years now and still manages to sound exactly like the Supertramp days. Unlike Kith, any overexposure has gone away now and I just get the joy I used to get from hearing them all play together. I’m very sorry about all the health issues Davies had that caused the band to split though Hodgson had left by then to spend more time with his wife in California. Thanks for this, my feet are going ten to the dozen.
    Cwtch

    Liked by 2 people

    • Heck, I should have had you write the post, for you know far more about them than me! I am so glad you liked it, and particularly glad your feet are tapping … perhaps even doing a bit of a dance?
      Cwtch

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Jill, this is one group I have a lukewarm response to. I had a college roommate who overplayed them in our apartment. With the unusual voiced lead singer, overplaying actually was grating. So, my opinion is flavored by that overexposure. Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • I can understand that … overkill sometimes turns us off for good. The same is true for foods as for music. Sorry this one wasn’t to your liking … I shall return to the drawing board! 😉

      Like

  7. Tune in, turn on, drop out! Another brick in the wall. My mind is failing me, there were a number of songs that questioned what we were being taught in schools. But no one listens. Turn us into cogs that allow the machine to work. And let us work ourselves to death.
    Don’t give us time to question!

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