Sold Date: July 25, 2020
Start Date: July 11, 2020
Final Price: $36.00 (USD)
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SUPERTRAMP - INDELIBLY STAMPED  -  A&M SP 4311  (1971)
Supertramp followed an unusual path to commercial success in the 1970s, fusing the stylistic ambition and instrumental dexterity of progressive rock with the wit and tuneful melodies of British pop, and the results made them one of the most popular British acts of the '70s and ‘80s, topping the charts and filling arenas around the world at a time when their style of music was supposed to have fallen out of fashion.
Supertramp was formed in 1969 by pianist and vocalist Rick Davies.  Davies had been a member of a group called the Joint, who had found a financial backer in Dutch millionaire Stanley August Miesegaes.  Miesegaes had grown disenchanted with the Joint, but saw promise in Davies, and he offered to bankroll a new band if Davies wanted to launch a fresh project.  Davies placed an ad in the British music weekly Melody Maker, and recruited guitarist Richard Palmer, percussionist Robert Millar, and vocalist/bassist Roger Hodgson.  Davies initially dubbed the new band Daddy, but to avoid comparison with a number of other paternally named acts, he changed their billing to Supertramp, taking the name from a book by Welsh author William Henry Davies.
In 1970, Supertramp signed a deal with A&M Records, and their debut album was released later the same year.  Dominated by extended prog-based compositions, the album didn't win a large audience, and Supertramp's lineup shifted, as Richard Palmer and Robert Millar left the group, Hodgson moved from bass to guitar, and bassist Frank Farrell, percussionist Kevin Currie, and Dave Winthrop on flute and sax joined the act.  The new edition of Supertramp released the album "Indelibly Stamped" in 1971, but it fared little better in the marketplace than the debut, and Miesegaes cut off his funding of the group.  Left to their own devices, Supertramp came close to collapse as most of the group's members moved on, but Davies and Hodgson put together a new version of the group - Davies on piano and vocals, Hodgson on guitar, electric piano, and vocals, Dougie Thomson on bass, Bob C. Benberg on drums and percussion, and John Anthony Helliwell on sax, woodwinds, and keyboards.  This edition of Supertramp boasted a more concise and pop-oriented sound than the band that recorded the first two albums, and 1974's "Crime of the Century" became Supertramp's commercial breakthrough, spawning the singles "Dreamer" and "Bloody Well Right". 1975's "Crisis? What Crisis?" didn't fare quite as well commercially, but 1977's "Even in the Quietest Moments" earned the band another hit single in "Give a Little Bit," and Supertramp's steady road work earned them a reputation as an impressive live act.