Supertramp - Roger Hodgson - In The Studio With Redbeard Interview

Supertramp - Roger Hodgson - In The Studio With Redbeard Interview
Breakfast In America 30th Anniversary Special (2009)

[Roger on "Breakfast In America":]
"I always saw the song a little ambiguous. It's on two levels. I see 'home' as being internal and external. It's kind of a play on words. Definitely part of the song is about the shallowness of success and getting caught up in a world and success and chasing, being popular, or whatever, is taking 'the long way home'. Because I think 'home' in its deepest sense is inside, is being at peace with oneself. Again it's ambiguous - 'if you're not around' means… you're dead or you couldn't settle down - you couldn't take it and you're off looking for things that are more important. It's a fun song! I remember having a lot of fun writing it but never really having a clear picture of it. It was more… often when I write songs, I go by gut instinct... the best lines come to me rather than me trying to think them up consciously and I just feel they're right and I go with them whether I totally understand the meaning or not.
—Roger Hodgson, In the Studio with Redbeard for the making of Breakfast in America