Observations placeholder
Hodgson, Roger – Breakfast in America - The Logical Song
Identifier
027545
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Awards: “The Logical Song” named Best Song, Musically & Lyrically at the 25th Annual Ivor Novello Awards, held at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, May 9, 1980.
Jeb: “The Logical Song” is a song that shows how in tune you were with life. It can be related to young people as well as older people. How were you so in tune with human nature at such a young age?
Roger: I don’t know if I was in tune with human nature, I just had those questions going on in me and I wanted to express them. Early adulthood can be a very confusing time. You learn all of these things in school and then you are thrown out into the world and you’re expected to have all of the answers. I didn’t have any of the answers. I certainly hadn’t found the answers to the deeper questions in school.
The song was very autobiographical. I knew how to be sensible, logical and cynical but I didn’t have a clue who I was. To me, that is the life journey we are on; to find out who we are and what life is. They don’t teach you that in school.
I get a lot of emails from younger people today and they tell me that song totally captures what is going on with their lives.
A description of the experience
The Logical Song
When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily
Oh joyfully, playfully watching me
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible
Logical, oh responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable
Oh clinical, oh intellectual, cynical
There are times when all the world's asleep
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
Please tell me who I am
I said, watch what you say or they'll be calling you a radical
Liberal, oh fanatical, criminal
Won't you sign up your name, we'd like to feel you're Acceptable
Respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable!
Oh, take it take it yeah
But at night, when all the world's asleep
The questions run so deep
For such a simple man
Won't you please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
Please tell me who I am, who I am, who I am, who I am
'Cause I was feeling so logical
D-d-digital
One, two, three, five
Oh, oh, oh, oh
It's getting unbelievable