Song by Song: "The Logical Song" Quiz

Answer: Breakfast in America

Supetramp's 1979 album "Breakfast in America" was their sixth studio album. It was nominated for four Grammy awards and won two, for Best Recording Package and Best Engineered Album, Non-classical. The album peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. It also hit number one on the Dutch, Norwegian, Spanish, West German, New Zealand, French, Canadian, and Australian album charts. It ticked in at number three on the U.K. album charts.

"The Logical Song" was the lead single released from the album, in March of 1979. Three other singles followed: "Breakfast in America" in June, "Goodbye Stranger" in July, and "Take the Long Way Home" in October.

Answer: The years that Roger Hodgson spent at boarding school

Supertramp's founders, Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, wrote the band's songs, and although Davies contributed to "The Logical Song," it was primarily written by Roger Hodgson. The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters awarded Hodgson the Ivor Novello Award for "The Logical Song" in 1980.

According to Hodgson, as quoted by Paul Elliot in "Classic Rock Magazine," the song was "very autobiographical" and refers to when he was a "shy and sensitive" boy at boarding school, where he spent ten years of his youth. Hodgson attended the boarding schools Woodcote House (near Windlesham) and Stowe School (near Buckingham). Hodgson was also, in the words of Elliot, "deeply affected by his parents' divorce when he was 12." The future musician was given his first guitar as a parting gift from his father. Hodgson went on to form a band at boarding school.

Answer: magical

The song opens on a picture of youthful optimism and wonder at the beauty and joy surrounding the narrator:

"And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily
Oh joyfully, playfully watching me."

The narrator is in innocent awe of life before being sent away to be molded and forced to conform by his educational institutions.

"The Logical Song" peaked at number six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at number seven on the U.K. Singles charts. It hit number one the Canada RPM Top Singles charts.

Answer: cynical

In an interview with "Exclusive Magazine," Roger Hodgson spoke of how we transform from "the innocence and wonder of childhood to the confusion of adolescence that often ends in the cynicism and disillusionment of adulthood." He also told the interviewer, "We are taught how to function outwardly, but not guided to who we are inwardly." We are shown how to be sensible, responsible, dependable, and practical, as the song says, but we are not shown how to, in the words of Hodgson, discover "our true self." The real question on the singer's heart - the question of who he is - is not addressed in school:

"Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
Please tell me who I am."

Answer: independent

"I said, watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical
Liberal, oh fanatical, criminal."

The French jazz band Pink Turtle covered "The Logical Song" on their 2008 album "Pop in Swing." At Vance, a German neoclassical power metal band, covered it on their 1999 album "No Escape." The song has been covered by Panic on the Titanic, Caravelli, Miami Horror, and the Young Romans as well.

Answer: vegetable

These lines suggest that traditional schools do not want to produce free thinkers, but "vegetables" with little will of their own, who have learned to appear "acceptable" and "respectable" and are therefore presentable. The song continues:

"But at night, when all the world's asleep
The questions run so deep
For such a simple man."

School does not help the child to answer the more philosophical questions of life. The narrator is not content merely to conform to outward expectations but must dig inward and struggle with deep questions.

"The Logical Song," as a single, was certified platinum in Canada by Music Canada, silver in the U.K. by the British Phonographic Industry, and gold in France by The National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing.

Answer: five

"One, two, three, five
Oh, oh, oh, oh
It's getting unbelievable."

Rodger Hodgson supplies lead vocals for "The Logical Song," which makes use of saxophone and keyboards, castanets, cowbell, and Hohner Clavinet with wah-wah. Music critic Mike DeGagne wrote that "The Logical Song" revealed Supertramp's "ability to inject contemplative, insightful lyrics into scintillating rock and roll that sounded bright and dynamic while still sounding British."

Answer: A Mattel football game's fourth down sound

Richard Buskin, in "Classic Tracks: Supertramp 'The Logical Song'" writes that the song's outro "was further embellished with overdubs of Rick Davies' wah-wah Clavinet and the 'd-d-digital' sound emanating from a Mattel football game that belonged to English producer/engineer Richard Digby-Smith, who was working in the next room." The Mattel football game makes a double-tweet sound at a fourth down.

The game was a handheld electronic created in 1977 that featured simplistic LED displays.

Answer: Paul McCartney

Paul Eliot reports this bit of trivia in his December 31, 2015 article, "The Story Behind The Song: The Logical Song by Supertramp" in "Classic Rock Magazine." The article quotes Supertramp co-leader Roger Hodgson as responding, "Having been brought up on The Beatles, it was wonderful to hear Paul McCartney loved my song." Paul McCartney was the co-lead vocalist and bassist for The Beatles, and he wrote many of the band's songs, along with John Lennon.

Answer: Germany

Scooter is a German techno band. Their version of "The Logical Song" came out as a single in 2001 in Germany. It was released in June of 2002 in the U.K. and peaked at number two on the UK Singles chart. The B-Side of the single featured the song "Siberia." The single was certified platinum in the U.K. by the British Recorded Music Industry.