Supertramp Talks Social Media – 30 Years Before It Exists

This morning, as I was driving back from Starbucks with my morning latte, I had a vision of sorts.  I had been thinking a lot about writing another post about Social Media, and wondered where I’d draw my inspiration.  Then, it happened……..

A song came on the radio by the 70’s group Supertramp.  And then oddly,  another.  Somebody was trying to tell me something. But I couldn’t figure out what it was.

Intrigued, I arrived home and sat down at my computer and called up several more Supertramp songs.  This group had its heyday 30 years ago, but something about their songs, and the lyrics,  felt contemporary.  Then, I found it.  In the mosaic of their words they were laying out the perfect Social Media strategy!

And 30 years before the genre was even invented, no less.

And what was the strategy, you ask?

Allow me to translate the “Supertramp Strategy”:

You should use Social Media to write your problems down in detail-take them to a higher place. And right! You’re bloody well right. You know you got a right to say (Bloody Well Right). Because remember there’s so much that we need to share. So send a smile and show you care (Give a Little Bit).

But since you are a dreamer, you know you are a dreamer, well can you put your hands in your head (Dreamer), and find great things to write. But be careful, watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical, liberal, fanatical, criminal, and be mindful of those folks who like to make you feel like you’re
acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable (The Logical Song).

Just be yourself, for you’ll never see what you want to see, forever playing to the gallery. Take the long way home. (Take the Long Way Home). Live it up, rip it up, why so lazy? Give it out, dish it out, lets go crazy! (Fool’s Overture).

You have to be original – the last thing you want is to hear is “I`ve heard it all before, you`re saying nothing new- I thought I saw a rainbow, but I guess it wasn`t true” (Child of Vision). That would be a bummer.

So don’t be just another nervous wreck, even in the quietest moments while you’re having breakfast in America. Participate in this medium, because if you don’t, it would be the crime of the century!

Pretty brilliant stuff, huh?

But it makes me wonder what other buried treasures I can find in 70’s rock – did Led Zeppelin somehow foresee Facebook on the Stairway to Heaven?   Was Twitter really discovered by Genesis on “Follow You, Follow Me”?    Was “Bennie and the Jets” really Elton John’s prediction of a Web 2.0 society?

This will require much more study, I’m afraid – and a LOT more lattes.

In the meantime, I hope you found the “Supertramp Strategy”……..well, logical. 

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