Supertramp's breakthrough album was dedicated to "Sam.""Sam" is actually Stanley August Miesegaes, a Dutch millionaire, who was funding the goings on of the band Joint. Disappointed, he offered to support keyboardist Rick Davies' new band. That band would be Supertramp, the butt of about a trillion jokes about bad rock bands.
After a name change, several line-up shifts and two fruitless albums, the band -- and Sam -- hit it off with Crime of the Century and five years later with the ultra-hit record, Breakfast in America.
Honestly, this is the most of Supertramp I've ever listened to and in general it's not terrible. Sounds just like 1970s power-pop rock and everything that brings to mind. Of course, I'm passing judgement -- good or bad -- based on one album, which happened to be one of their earliest.
It does cheapen things knowing you had a millionaire behind you willing to front money for equipment travel and whatnot. It's stories like this that make you appreciate a band like The Beatles a lot more. No one ever supported them more than they deserved. The only professional help came from their manager, Brian Epstein, but he was by no means a millionaire and he put as much sweat and tears into the band as anyone.
Considering Supertramp seemed perpetually in doubt as far as staying together, they would never have had survived without a financier like Sam.
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