Deviations from Select Albums 4: 109. Supertramp

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If one reads the date of posting and the album title first before looking at my work, s/he might get the impression that I am suggesting the sight of a huge heap
of destruction from the bombing of the World Trade Center, the 9/11 attacks, as an offering menu for "breakfast in America". Hell no, I don't make parodies of
other people's misfortunes and never of this magnitude. I was watching that event myself live on CNN as it was unfolding, and my thoughts then was that this
was a really bad day for America and I was scared that this might be the sign of things to come. And come it did. We have had our share of bombings too.
Fifteen years and counting.

My work is only a Cut-out processing of part of the original album cover art in three different versions: preserving the
glass of orange juice in the first, the face of the waitress in the second and the restaurant menu (with the album title)
in the third. One may ask, "did I do it to commemorate the events of 9/11?" My answer, In part, is yes, but if remembering
becomes too painful, I'd rather say no. This is just all about the album cover art designed by Mike Doud for Breakfast
in America, an album by Supertramp, released in March 1979. The album cover art itself has its own story to tell.

Twenty-two years before 9/11 it was just like this.

No. 85, Billboard, The 300 Best-Selling Albums of All Time; No. 294, The Virgin All-Time Album Top 1000.

No. 33, Rolling Stone, The 100 Greatest Album Covers.

Photo by Mark Hanauer, artwork & cover art concept by Mike Doud, art direction by Mike Doub & Mick Haggerty.
Album produced by Peter Henderson & Supertramp. A&M 1979.

The history of classic rock is littered with albums whose covers have been scrutinized for hidden meanings, most famously the “Paul McCartney is dead” rumor
that led fans to look for clues across three Beatles albums. A more recent conspiracy theory suggested that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were
a plot by the Freemasons, and they were hinting at it as far back as 1979 – on the cover of Supertramp’s hit Breakfast in America album.

A nearly three-and-a-half-minute video, which first came to wide notice after a 2016 report by Dangerous Minds, outlines the scenario: Supertramp’s famous
cover is a depiction of the New York City skyline as seen from an airplane, with a waitress, substituting for the Statue of Liberty, holding a glass of orange
juice instead of a torch. The juice is positioned in front of the Twin Towers and just happens to be the same color as fire. The kicker is that if you hold the
record in front of a mirror — an act required for nearly every rock conspiracy theory out there — the “u” and “p” in “Supertramp” look like a “9” and an “11.”

The band’s name could be seen as a synonym for “great whore” – as in the Great Whore of Babylon, the embodiment of sin

in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation. And even the title Breakfast in America tells everybody when the attacks would
be coming; the first plane struck One World Trade Center at 8:45AM ET. If that’s not enough evidence, a plane is seen flying
toward the skyline on the back cover. Dave Lifton for Ultimate Classic Rock

(A) Gone Hollywood - The Logical Song - Goodbye Stranger - Breakfast in America - Oh Darling

(B) Take the Long Way Home - Lord Is It Mine - Just Another Nervous Wreck - Casual Conversations - Child of Vision

"Breakfast in America" live from Roger Hodgson on YouTube.