Deep Cuts: Supertramp, “Sister Moonshine” (1975)

by S. Victor Aaron

Not long ago I took a look at a side of Roger Hodgson that he doesn’t often reveal. But in contrast to that straight-up rocker, Hodgson’s bread and butter has always been the cheery, melodic folk-ish tunes, and anyone with just a passing knowledge about Supertramp knows that the band’s success was built nearly entirely on that one particular talent of his. Sure, “The Logical Song,” “Dreamer” and “Take The Long Way Home” became some irresistible pop anthems, but whenever Roger pulls out his 12-string guitar, there’s no chance he’s going to play a bad tune. He’s just got an innate ability to coax the sweetest melodies from that instrument and sings with some genuine, heartfelt singing that with that high pitch just soars above the song.

That’s a winning formula he performed to perfection with 1977′s “Give A Little Bit,” still my favorite Supertramp song among the hit songs, but two years earlier, he recorded what I consider a pretty fine dry run for that classic, “Sister Moonshine.”

[SOMETHING ELSE! INTERVIEW: Roger Hodgson talks about his long-awaited return to U.S. concert venues, writing with the Wurlitzer and how he willed himself back from a catastrophic injury.]

An elfin, silvery tune as there ever was one in rock, Hodgson starts off with that twelve-string, and augments it with an electric sitar as he sings with a forlorn tone about the childhood innocence he misses:

Ooo-when I was a small boy,
Well, I could see the magic in a day,
But, now I’m just a poor boy,
Well, maybe it’s the price you have to pay,
If you lock your dreams away
If no one wants to listen.

Even as this song is Hodgson’s all the way, one of overlooked things about Supertramp is how everyone on the band could take a good song and make it better. Co-leader Rick Davies adds his usual counterpoint vocals in the refrain and a harmonica in the second chorus practically mimics his harmonica lines on “School” from the prior Crime Of The Century. Dougie Thomson’s lilting bass lines are, as usual, bang on. And Bob Siebenberg’s cascading drums fill out the sound without getting in the way.

John Helliwell’s whimsical flageolet jousting with Davies’ harmonica at the fadeout even adds to the fairy tale imagery. On “Sister Moonshine” Hodgson sounds more like a minstrel he sings he wish he could have been, than just merely a musician.

“Sister Moonshine” never became the hit its close cousin “Give A Little Bit” later became, but it’s hard not to like this song.

“One Track Mind” is a more-or-less weekly drool over a single song selected on a whim and a short thesis on why you should be drooling over it, too.