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Hodgson, Roger – Famous Last Words - It’s raining again
Identifier
027542
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The last album Hodgson recorded with Supertramp was, prophetically, titled … Famous Last Words ... . His departure from the group, he said, came with an agreement: Davies would keep the name and Hodgson would keep his songs – mega-hits like Give a Little Bit, The Logical Song and Dreamer – for his own use.
Hodgson has said a number of times in interviews that Davies did not hold up his end of the bargain. The Hodgson-less Supertramp continued to perform his songs. “That’s my only grievance over the years,” Hodgson said. “That was a broken promise by Rick. When I left, he agreed that that wouldn’t happen. That hurt; that was hard.”
Hodgson had actually decided to retire from Supertramp after the band's strenuous Breakfast In America tour in 1979, which he says, nearly destroyed the band mentally and physically.
"Up until Breakfast In America, there really were magical feelings when writing and recording Supertramp material,… we had a very close kind of family feeling for a long, long time really, up until Breakfast In America. Breakfast is really where it started diverging and everyone started looking outside the Supertramp music for their personal happiness and fulfillment.”
In one interview Roger was asked whether the break-up of the band wouldn't have happened had Supertramp not recorded Breakfast in America. Roger was quick to reply:
'No, I am very, very happy that it did happen. It is a great album. It wasn't really so much the album; it was the nine-month marathon tour that followed it. We did 120 shows in nine months and almost killed ourselves and killed the band as well.
It was during that tour really that the songs began to sound very, very tired and very, very old. I felt like I needed to do something else and probably should have gone and made the decision to leave straight after that tour at the end of '79. However, it wasn't the time to talk after the tour, so we took two years off and got back together again, did another album….Famous Last Words, to see if it would work again. It didn't."
…Famous Last Words was a last ditch attempt by Hodgson to regain the magical feelings the Breakfast In America tour had destroyed. Unfortunately, the magic turned into a bit of horror, and even though the album did spawn a couple of hit singles, "It's Raining Again," and "Crazy," overall, the making of …Famous Last Words was regarded by Hodgson as something of a nightmare experience.
…Famous Last Words ended up being the group’s last and seventh album with the Hodgson/Davies/Helliwell/Thomson/Siebenberg line-up. It was released in October 1982. The album reached number 5 on the Billboard Pop Albums Charts in 1982 and was certified Gold for sales in excess of 500,000 copies there. It also peaked at number 6 in the UK where it was certified Gold for 100,000 copies sold
Side one
No. Title Writer(s)
1."Crazy" Roger Hodgson
2."Put On Your Old Brown Shoes" Rick Davies
3. "It's Raining Again" Hodgson
4. "Bonnie" Davies
5. "Know Who You Are" Hodgson
Side two
6. "My Kind of Lady" Davies
7. "C'est le bon" Hodgson
8. "Waiting So Long" Davies
9. "Don't Leave Me Now" Hodgson
"Really, it comes down to what is happening in one's life at the time an album is recorded as to whether a project is magical or it's not. Breakfast was magical, Crime of the Century, was magical”
But despite the success Roger it seems does not view this album in the same light
"You're right, I wasn't happy with our last album. From what I knew it would have been, it falls way short. I don't think that it is progression of anything that we have done in the past, and I don't think that it really hangs together. As far as running order goes,…Famous Last Words is a prime example of wrong sequence. You have got "Crazy," you've got "Old Brown Shoe," which is a nice transition there, and then should go somewhere else, but it doesn't. It kind of goes back to a track that probably should have opened the side, "It's Raining Again."
A description of the experience
It's Raining Again
It's raining again
Oh no, my love's at an end
Oh no, it's raining again
And you know it's hard to pretend
Oh no, it's raining again
Too bad I'm losing a friend
Oh no, it's raining again
Oh, will my heart ever mend
You're old enough some people say
To read the signs and walk away
It's only time that heals the pain
And makes the sun come out again
It's raining again
Oh no, my love's at an end
Oh no, it's raining again
Too bad I'm losing a friend
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
Come on, you little fighter
No need to get up-tighter
Come on, you little fighter
And get back up again
It's raining again
Oh no, my love's at an end
Oh no, it's raining again
Too bad I'm losing a friend, oh
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
Come on, you little fighter
No need to get up-tighter
Come on, you little fighter
And get back up again
Oh, get back up again
Oh, fill your heart again
Personnel
· Roger Hodgson – grand piano, lead and backing vocals
· Dougie Thomson – bass guitar
· Bob Siebenberg – drums
· Rick Davies – additional synthesizers, melodica solo
· John Helliwell – baritone (middle of song) and tenor saxophones, synthesizers