Take the Long Way Home (Supertramp song)


"Take the Long Way Home" is the fourth single and sixth track of Supertramp's 1979 album Breakfast in America. It was the last song written for the album, being penned during the nine-month recording cycle. According to its composer Roger Hodgson, the song deals with how the desire to go home can go both ways:

I'm talking about not wanting to go home to the wife, take the long way home to the wife because she treats you like part of the furniture, but there's a deeper level to the song, too. I really believe we all want to find our home, find that place in us where we feel at home, and to me, home is in the heart and that is really, when we are in touch with our heart and we're living our life from our heart, then we do feel like we found our home."

Billboard Magazine contributor David Farrell praised the "convincing melody with a crafty hook" although he felt the music contrasted with the "pessimistic lyric about man's loss of identity in an increasingly complex world."
The single reached number 10 on the U.S. charts.

Charts

Year-end chart Rank
US Top Pop Singles 86

Personnel