When Paul McCartney was asked to name his favorite song of 1979, he replied “The Logical Song”. It was high praise for the song’s writer Roger Hodgson, who grew up with the music of The Beatles. He released the catchy song with his band Supertramp on their best-selling album “Breakfast in America”. But what’s the meaning of the song? In this article, we will dive into the meaning and legacy behind Supertramp’s “The Logical Song”.
The Meaning of the Song
“The Logical Song” is a song about the loss of innocence, curiosity, and joy as a person transitions from childhood to adulthood. The song is autobiographical to writer Roger Hodgson and critiques the education system as well as societal norms.
“It’s what missing at school that is – for me – the loudest thing,” Hodgson commented. “Because we are told to function outwardly, but we’re not taught who we are inwardly and what really the true purpose of life is. For me, the natural uniqueness, awe, wonder, thirst, enthusiasm, and joy of life that young children have gets lost.”
At the beginning of the song, Hodgson reflects on his childhood, describing it as a beautiful, magical, and carefree time. “I do remember being very, very happy as a young kid, and I see 8mm movies of me and I was just a joy bubble,” he recollected.
But the tone of the song drastically shifts as Hodgson reveals ‘they send him away’ from his happy childhood. The lyric refers to Hodgson’s parents, who sent him to boarding school. In boarding school, he was taught how to ‘behave’, which came at the cost of everything that made Hodgson happy in his childhood. As a result, he left boarding school more confused than when he arrived.
“I definitely emerged from that experience with a lot of questions, like what the hell happened to me? What is life about? And why a lot of the things I had been told didn’t make any sense,” Hodgson reflected.
The chorus of the song reveals the core message of the song, as Hodgson admits he fell into an existential crisis. “The song was born out of my questions about what really mattered in life,” Hodgson told Classic Rock Magazine. “The burning question that came down to its rawest place was ‘please tell me who I am’, and that’s basically what the song is about.”
The Legacy of The Logical Song
Supertramp released “The Logical Song” as the lead single of their sixth studio album Breakfast in America in 1979. The song became the band’s biggest commercial success, topping the charts in Canada and reaching the top 10 in the United States and the United Kingdom. The album Breakfast in America was a huge success too, and has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
To Hodgson, the success of “The Logical Song” wasn’t necessarily a huge surprise. “When you’re writing a song, sometimes you feel like you’re eighty percent successful, but with ‘The Logical Song’, I felt like I’d nailed it one hundred percent,” he stated. “As a melody, a lyric, an arrangement, and a recording, it really is perfect in its completeness.”
Commercial success aside, it’s undoubtedly the most important Hodgson found some answers to the questions asked in “The Logical Song”. And even though he hasn’t found the answer to all his questions, he came closer to his true inner being as the years passed by.
“I was 29 when I wrote ‘The Logical Song’. I was searching for answers. The burning question in that song was: ‘Please tell me who I am.’ I’m 62 now and I still don’t have all the answers. But I knew there was something deeper out there – a place of peace. And in the end, I found it.”
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