BREAKFAST IN AMERICA
Roger Hodgson, Rick Davies
The second single from the album Breakfast in America. Chart: #62. Time - 2:38.
Flip Side: "Gone Hollywood". Released in U.S.A. June 1979.
Recorded at The Village Recorder, Studio B, Los Angeles, California, USA, 1978. Produced by Supertramp and Peter Henderson. Engineered by Peter Henderson .
Written by Hodgson after watching The Beatles land in America. He wrote it at age 19, putting it as written in 1969. He must have been watching old film as the Beatles came to America in 1964 and were breaking up in 1969. After watching this, Hodgson dreamed of doing the same, inspiring the song. Years later, he would move to California permanently, 1973. Davies, who had no hand in writing it, did not like the song, and this seems to be the reason why it took so many years to get it on an album. - Larry -
Roger Hodgson - lead vocals, piano, harmonium, electric guitar |
ROGER HODGESON - 2012:Songfacts
""The line 'playing my jokes upon you,' I think that kind of sums up the song. It was just mind chatter. Just writing down ideas as they came - fun thoughts all strung together. And I do remember the Beatles had just gone to America, and I was pretty impressed with that. That definitely stimulated my dream of wanting to go to America. And obviously seeing all those gorgeous California girls on the TV and thinking, Wow. That's the place I want to go. ..... I don't believe I had a girlfriend at that time, and if I did it wouldn't have lasted much longer after that."
ROGER HODGESON Classid Rock Revisited - 2012?
(The line 'What’s she got? Not a lot?') "That was Rick’s contribution. I wrote that song in my mum’s living room; I was either eighteen or nineteen years old and I had just bought a pump organ. I found one in the English countryside in a church. When the churches went to electric organs they put all of the pump organs in the back room. I scoured the churches for a pump organ. I don’t remember why I wanted a pump organ so badly but I finally found one and I bought it for twenty six pounds. I took it home and “Breakfast in America” was the first thing I wrote on it."
ROGER HODGESON - 1979:Melody Maker
"He never liked the lyric to 'Breakfast.' It's so trite: 'Take a look at my girlfriend.' He's much more into crafting a song. He would have been happier if I'd changed the lyric to either something funnier or more relevant. I tried, but it didn't work out, so I was stuck with the original."
YOU TUBE STUDIO TRACK VIDEO YOU TUBE LYRIC VIDEO YOU TUBE ROGER HODGESON LIVE Take a look at my girlfriend She's the only one I got Not much of a girlfriend Never seem to get a lot Take a jumbo across the water Like to see America See the girls in California I'm hoping it's going to come true But there's not a lot I can do Could we have kippers for breakfast Mummy dear, Mummy dear They got to have 'em in Texas Cos everyone's a millionaire I'm a winner, I'm a sinner Do you want my autograph I'm a loser, what a joker I'm playing my jokes upon you While there's nothing better to do Don't you look at my girlfriend She's the only one I got Not much of a girlfriend Never seem to get a lot Take a jumbo cross the water Like to see America See the girls in California I'm hoping it's going to come true But there's not a lot I can do