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  1. Tracks
  2. Supertramp
  3. School

SINGLE

Supertramp

School

Release date: 1983

Spotify More on Supertramp

About This Track

'School' opens Supertramp's breakthrough album, a song about the weight of conformity and the voices that insist you fit their mould. Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson wrote it as a direct challenge to the machinery of education and parental expectation, the kind that tells you not to question, not to linger, not to work things out for yourself. The song moves between scenes of everyday control, each one tightening the net a little more. What makes it work is the tension between the music's propulsive energy and the lyrical unease. Hodgson and Davies don't preach; they let the accumulated weight of "don't do this and don't do that" speak for itself, then offer something quieter and more uncertain in response. The narrator admits he might be mistaken, might be crazy, but insists that the choice to resist or comply has to remain yours. It's a song about adolescence that doesn't condescend to it, and about authority that doesn't pretend to have all the answers.

"School" is a single by Supertramp, released 1983. Full lyrics are available below.

About the Artist

Supertramp

Supertramp

Lyrics

School

I can see you in the morning when you go to school
Don't forget your books, you know you've got to learn the golden rule
Teacher tells you stop your play and get on with your work
And be like Johnnie-Too-Good, don't you know he never shirks?
He's comin' along

After school is over, you're playing in the park
Don't be out too late, don't let it get too dark
They tell you not to hang around and learn what life's about
And grow up just like them, won't let you work it out
And you're full of doubt

Don't do this and don't do that
What are they tryna do? (Make a good boy of you)
Do they know where it's at?
Don't criticise, they're old and wise
Do as they tell you to, don't want the devil to
Come and put out your eyes

Maybe I'm mistaken, expecting you to fight
Or maybe I'm just crazy, I don't know wrong from right
But while I am still livin', I've just got this to say
It's always up to you if you wanna be that
Wanna see that, wanna see it that way

You're comin' along

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →

Track details

School

1983Single
Listen
Release year
1983

More from Supertramp

Albums & EPs

Big Crimes In Inglewood
2024
Live At BBC Studios: Archive Radio Sessions 1972-1974
2012
Live In Germany
2012
King Biscuit Flower Hour Archives: Live in London 1977
2010

Explore

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  • 1972 Sessions:Live At BBC Studios: Archive Radio Sessions 1972-1974
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  • Dreamer (1972 Demo)Live At BBC Studios: Archive Radio Sessions 1972-1974
  • View all tracks by Supertramp →

    Credits

    Production & Engineering

    Writer
    Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson
    Producer
    Ken Scott, Supertramp
    Bass
    Dougie Thomson
    Drums
    Bob Siebenberg
    Alto Saxophone
    John Anthony Helliwell
    Electric Guitar
    Roger Hodgson
    Hammond Organ
    Rick Davies
    Harmonica
    Rick Davies
    Lead Vocals
    Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson
    Moog Synthesizer
    Rick Davies
    Piano
    Rick Davies
    Tenor Saxophone
    John Anthony Helliwell
    Twelve-String Acoustic Guitar
    Roger Hodgson
    Vibraslap
    Bob Siebenberg
    Xylophone
    Bob Siebenberg
    READ MORE ABOUT SUPERTRAMPREAD MORE ABOUT SUPERTRAMP
    READ MORE ABOUT SUPERTRAMPREAD MORE ABOUT SUPERTRAMP

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