🎵 AotW Supertramp - CRIME OF THE CENTURY (SP-3647)

[LPJim]

Supertramp
CRIME OF THE CENTURY
A&M SP-3647

With two successful singles, "Dreamer" (#15) and "Bloody Well Right" (#35) along with wide critical acclaim for musical and recording quality, CRIME OF THE CENTURY is justifiably considered a breakthrough album for Supertramp.

SIDE ONE
School 5:35/ Bloody Well Right 4:26/ Hide in Your Shell 6:52/ Asylum 6:30.

SIDE TWO
Dreamer 3:33/ Rudy 6:38 & Rudy-Ending 0:50/ If Everyone Was Listening 4:01/ Crime of the Century 5:30.

All songs written by Richard Davies and Roger Hodgson and published by Rondor Music (London) Ltd. and Delicate Music Ltd.
Controlled in the U.S. and Canada by Almo Music Corp. (ASCAP)

Recorded at Trident, Ramport Studios and Scorpio Sound, London, between February and June 1974.

Engineered by Ken Scott and John Jansen/ Strings arranged by Richard Hewson/ Produced by Ken Scott and Supertramp.

Photography and sleeve design by Paul Wakefield/ Art Direction by Fabio Nicoli.

Thanks to Russ for his dedication and Dave Margereson for services beyond the call of duty.

SUPERTRAMP:
Bob C. Benberg - drums, percussion/ Roger Hodgson - vocals, guitar, pianos/ John Anthony Helliwell - saxophones, clarinets. vocals/ Dougie Thompson - bass/ Richard Davies - vocals, keyboards, harmonica.

Available on CD

CRIME was Supertramp's first album to enter the Billboard Top 200, on December 7, 1974. It charted for 76 weeks and peaked at #38, according to Whitburn's "Top Pop Album" guidebook.

JB


This site is among the A&M Corner 'web links:'

www.supertramp.com

 

[AM Matt]

Seven letters: C-L-A-S-S-I-C!! (Must have) Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Mike Blakesley]

A very good, yet somewhat uneven, album. It contains some of their very best work and some uhhhh, not so great. The 1-2-3 punch of the first three songs just can't be beat, and "Dreamer" is right up there too. Agreed, a must-have. The good spots more than make up for the few forgettable tracks.

I still remember this album as a tribute to the effort A&M would put into an artist. Here was a band which had never even made the charts -- yet A&M bought a double-page, full color spread in Billboard to promote this album. We all know the result, which took a few MORE albums to come to complete fruition, but it really shows the effectiveness of nurturing an artist over several albums.

 

[Rudy]

As a testament to the recording quality, it was one of the early albums that Mobile Fidelity gave its half-speed mastering treatment to, and it makes a huge difference. Even A&M's original CD of it sounded worse! (Something the later Mobile Fidelity CD corrected. ) The MoFi version really has a lot of impact and dynamics to it, which suits the music.

 

[Mr Bill]

Nah! You just like it 'cuz there's a tune called "Rudy" on it...

--Mr Bill

 

[Rudy]

I'm on a train to nowhere, halfway down the line.

 

[jfiedler17]

Ah, what a classic!! Breakfast in America may be the far more famous and successful album, but Crime is the Supertramp album I listen to the most, if just for that 1-2-3 knockout punch that kicks off the first side and "Dreamer" on the other. I can't really say I listen to the rest of the album all that much, but those four songs alone make it my fave album of the band. (And what an amazing leap forward from their two previous albums, too!)

My fave moment of the album is, without a doubt, "Hide in Your Shell." (Heck, it might be my favorite Supertramp song, period!) I'd say they should have put it out as a single, but you'd likely have had to edit it down, and it would probably lose some impact in the process. It's one of the band's most gorgeous melodies, and I love the way the tension just keeps building and building over the latter half of the track. For all the times I've listened to it, that final chorus never fails to give me goosebumps. Definitely one of their more underrated songs, IMO.

- Jeff

 

[Andrew T.]

Boy, we're up to this one already! I remember back when the AOTW was "Indelibly Stamped."

Crime of the Century is my favorite Supertramp album, and is one of my favorite albums of all time. The song selection is quite solid, nearly forming a thematic concept, and a number of my favorites are on it. The band must have thought the same way, since the majority of tracks made their way onto the Paris live album and The Very Best of Supertramp, a compilation that was issued in the U.S. eight years late.

"School" is a great atmospheric opener. I love the way it begins with little more than a wailing harmonica, building up to a climax, before leading into...
"Bloody Well Right," yet another catchy and memorable song with a great electric piano introduction.
"Hide in Your Shell" is actually my least favorite song on the album nowadays, truth be told, although I liked it a lot at first.
"Asylum:" I like Richard Davies' vocals. The little bursts of instrumentation win the song over for me.
"Dreamer:" A catchy little ditty. I actually prefer the live version on Paris to this one.
"Rudy:" One of my favorite songs on the whole album, and not only because it was named after our webmaster. I like the way it goes from slow to fast and back again, and the instrumental break is one of the highlights of the album.
"If Everyone Was Listening:" I like the pervasiveness of mood on this cut: It manages to be quiet, dreamy, and dreary all at once.
"Crime of the Century:" A thematic coda.

I also love the cover design: A pair of hands reaching through bars in a spacefield. How abstract is that?

I believe that Rudy once described the original A&M CD as being "dull and lifeless." I have it myself, and if anything it sounds a little wonky with all treble and no bass. I find it tolerable, but there's definitely room for improvement.

 

[Rudy]

I believe that Rudy once described the original A&M CD as being "dull and lifeless." I have it myself, and if anything it sounds a little wonky with all treble and no bass. I find it tolerable, but there's definitely room for improvement.

I just think my original CD was from when A&M used to pull any old production master off the shelf and slap it onto a CD to cash in on the new format's popularity. I hadn't listened to the MoFi LP in a few years when I bought the CD, but the MoFi was all I ever had. (I didn't really know Supertramp all that much when I got the MoFi as a gift, but that was the only way I'd ever listened to it.) The CD didn't seem like it sounded as good, but I thought my ears were fooling me. Then MoFi started releasing CDs, and a couple of years later I bought it, and it sounded as good as I thought the LP had sounded.

I have not heard the recent Supertramp remasterings, but I don't really see a need to buy "Crime" in that version. If you can ever buy, beg or borrow the MoFi CD, do it!

 

[david Mendenhall]

The version of "Dreamer" that went to #15 was actually the live version from "Paris." "Hide In Your Shell" was actually slated to be a single, but the edited form was horrible and killed the spirit of the song, so the decision to put it out was vetoed. This LP gets the Deluxe treatment later this year, Producer Ken Scott already finished working on it.

 

[Rudy]

I'm on another project right now, but I'm looking at expanding this place, starting with the 70s/80s rock and pop, and continuing from there. A lot of this newer Supertramp info will come in handy.

 

[david Mendenhall]

The version of "Dreamer" that went to #15 was actually the live version from "Paris." "Hide In Your Shell" was actually slated to be a single, but the edited form was horrible and killed the spirit of the song, so the decision to put it out was vetoed. This LP gets the Deluxe treatment later this year, Producer Ken Scott already finished working on it.

December 8th 2014. Crime Of The Century Deluxe Edition Comes Out!

 

[david Mendenhall]

I'm on another project right now, but I'm looking at expanding this place, starting with the 70s/80s rock and pop, and continuing from there. A lot of this newer Supertramp info will come in handy.

The Deluxe "Crime" comes out on December 8th. 2 cD or 3 LP set.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Just re-reading this thread and reminiscing about Tramp's appearance on the Midnight Special -- which was the first time I'd ever heard the great "Hide In Your Shell." I'd already heard "Bloody Well Right" and that song convinced me to buy the album.

 

[Rudy]

I'll have to see if the mastering is any good on this upcoming deluxe edition--the MFSL version (on LP and CD) is still my go-to version for this one, even if it is a tad bright. The SHM-CD I heard had all the life sucked out of it--they squashed the dynamics. Pitiful.