Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger Meaning
Song Released: 1979
Goodbye Stranger Lyrics
I was up before the dawn
And I really have enjoyed my stay
But I must be moving on
Like a king without a castle
Like a queen without a throne
I'm an early morning lover
And I must be moving on
Oh...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:Folks, this is Supertramp! This most definitely is NOT a song about crass subjects like one-night stands or weed, a la Motley Crue. The man who wrote this, Rick Davies, married in ‘77, two years before the song came out, and has been married to the same woman ever since, ffs!
So, what’s it about? To me, it’s a tragi-comic song about how people delude themselves into believing they don’t need connection, that they are “free” and must keep moving, when the sad truth is they’re really just too scared of the pain and anxiety that come with love and caring about others. To avoid that anxiety and possible loss, they make a decision “every day” to run rather than stay. The poignancy in the question “will we ever meet again?” - he wants to meet again, but quickly abolishes the thought “nope, that’s not me! I’m a rolling stone gathering no moss!” If it weren’t meant to be sad self-sabotage, why not write the lyric as an affirmative “We will never meet again.”
The song starts with bravado and rehearsed excuses: “I had an early day yesterday, I’m a busy guy, this is how I roll, I’m like a king or a queen who are seeking what’s rightly theirs - power, freedom, self-determination!”
Yeah, right, sure buddy. Because what’s closer to the truth comes out just a few lines later. No longer a brave king or queen, he’s really a ship without an anchor (drifting, aimless, possibly at risk of running aground?) or a slave without a chain (desperate, frantically searching for escape from pain and the vulnerability/powerlessness that inherently come with loving another.)
Finally, notice how the lyrics, what the man tells himself, are always aspirational, always hopeful of what his way of life will lead to. He doesn’t say “this is how I have lived and by never attaching to anyone, I’ve never felt pain, loss, growing older, etc.” Looking closely, he’s saying “I’ve known sweet devotion (how else would he know it’s sweet?) and I’ve known pain it causes. If I can just get connection in short spurts with “those sweet ladies” and then leave right away, I bet that in the future and “come tomorrow” my troubles will be few and I will feel no pain.
He’s adopted a sad theory of how to avoid the anxiety of love. He hasn’t learned yet that he won’t stay young and shiny snd brand new, he won’t avoid pain and loss; in fact he’ll experience it continually, “every day” while wondering “will we ever meet again.” -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:Double-entendre! Written for popular culture as a rockstar bangin groupies; but for those who read between the lines, it is as the original poster said, it is really about his love afair with weed. If you ever had a lifelong weed habit and quit the lyrics match perfectly with original poster's description.
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3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:My 18 year old daughter nailed it.
“ So I was listening to Goodbye Stranger this morning and I think I just figured out what it’s about. So I think it’s about a relationship ending because the person he loved has changed and he doesn’t recognize them or love them anymore. Like pretty much saying that they are now a stranger to him. “But I must be moving on”. He says goodbye and that he hopes their dreams come true and then asks if they will ever meet again. He makes it seem like he’s come to terms with the fact that it is time to move on but wonders if someday they will meet again and they will be the person that he loved in the beginning.” -
I always interpreted this as someone who relies on marijuana for the positive medical benefits. They are saying "goodbye" because they are smoking it.
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THIS SONG IS NOT ABOUT WEED!
This song is about a free spirit a perosn who cannot be tied down it has nothing to do with pot. "I must be moving on." is lovers want more a long term commitment he does not. He wants to be free. I know this because it is how i live my life. I have been to more than 60 countries since i was 19 years old. I broke off engagements because i do not want to be a mother i want to LIVE my life. And I do and I have I have seen so many gorgeous places and I am just getting started. Men always wanted me to marry them but I am happy being alone. NAture sustains me. I feel love and peace there i did not need to live in one place with a house and 2 kids-that is death to me. I love my life I go where i want when I want and I regret nothing. Life is not what they tell you on TV it is not about having a bunch of kids and "family" It is about pursuing who you are developing yourself spiritually whatever that means for you and for me it has been travelling to beautiful Natural places. -
OK. I KNOW what this song is about because I LIVE this song and I am 50 and a woman. I am Very lucky I look so young and not my age. LOL!
So basically, this person is a free spirit. Nothing is going to settle him down. He does not want a family. He does not want a mundane life with a wife and two kids and a mortgage.
I play this song all the time and perform it in Karaoke because friends and boyfriends say this is quintessentially me. I travel the world. I have been for 31 years except for when i did my Master's and completed my bachelor's before that but I travelled in between. I broke off an engagement. I never wanted what was being forced down my throat in America because in my family it never led to happiness. I wanted to explore the world and I have been to 60 countries lived on five continents and am still exploring-despite covid. I am Happy being alone. I have lovers-men I meet but i will not marry them I see them as baggage. I have to move on. I feel that when you stop moving you die so I am constantly seeing new things and travelling. I am happy in my life. I love myself and I am so creative i am all I need and Nature which is God. So I may have dogs but i don't want to be tied down. I have to be free. People say I look like a cat and act like one which makes me angry because i am a dog lover all the way! I feel love being free, in Nature in the wind. I am peaceful I feel love just being in Nature free from baggage and negativity. I do not need to be tied down. And most guys want to be in a long term relationship marriage etc. I don't need that. I don't want that I want to be free. -
Bang'in groupies. Seem fairly ovvious. I'd think they could have collaborated on a song that dealt with the drug issues (weed) how evil(sarcasm) in a more poignant way. Just my take on it. All that aside l really like this band. Saw them on the 'Breakfast in America tour......in my youth...!
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It's about ending a weed high.
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All I know is he had a one night stand got up before her and off he went..I have done that myself.and as far as Mary and Jane..Mary is fine but Jane doe was the other...I have woke up a few mornings after a night of doing some blow and drinking and smoked a joint and when I got up there was a laying there sleeping we came from a bar to go to my house and partied and when I woke up I couldn't even remember her name it had to be a Jane doe to me...go to a supertramp concert back in early and they jammed to go by stranger and it was SUPER TRAMP...
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Life and love on the road...turn the Page...yada yada
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My god most of the interpretations of "Goodbye Stranger" are so stupid. It's so simple, so obvious. He's a rock star, and he's laying pipe to all these anonymous women. And he has no remorse for it; he's taking what is given to someone in his position. Plan and simple. If you think it is bout anything more than that you are a pretentious idiot. -
Its a masterpiece of brutal honesty and how cynicism and love affects us all. The character potrayed has an air of mastery and confidence in what he is doing which is learned perspective and behaviour by bedding multiple lovers. The line 'some they do and some they don't' is key and 'sweet devotion..not for me'. Yet i feel the writer is making a mockery of him because he is objectifying and using women and feeling like he is invincible. If only life was ever that simple.
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He had a three-way with Mary and Jane.
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I believe it has to do with a "Free" Spirit that is afraid of settling down or falling in love,Protecting himself,Having one night stands or gets what he wants then has to leave before he or the other gets to attached! Feel no shame,come tomorrow feel no pain! Getting away,just give him the land and ocean,No strings attached and he is good! Saying Goodbye Stranger,cause he was never that invested to call these women anything other than a Stranger,I don't think the Mary Jane names were a mistake in names,but maybe commen enough to get attention on or off the real meaning,but I think it has to do with being content with his own way of life and you can't talk me into changing,even though he Seen their point of view,might be true,just not enough for him to stay cause being tied down isn't in the cards for him,he is a ship without a anchor and a slave without a chain
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it's about drugs, fools. These guys are too deep to sing about one night stands. Leave that for the hair bands
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I used to be a huge Supertramp fan when this album was popular. I was a teenager and never thought about lyrics at all. Today, someone posted a picture of "Libby" (the lady on the cover), as she is today, and tagged me on FB. Realizing I hadn't listened to this album since I was a teen, I dug it out and listened from start to finish.
Wow! I never realized how much Rick Davies was pissed at Roger Hodgson. The last two tracks (Casual Conversation and Child of Vision) were dead give aways. As history recalls, Roger left Supertramp after their follow up studio album. He probably would have left sooner if "Breakfast" wasn't a mammoth success.
The album pans out like a guy dealing with a breakup. Goodbye Stranger was the 3rd track on the album, and it starts off with the sting of having his longest Supertramp partner wanting to leave. Goodbye Stranger was his first reaction to the news, i.e., "goodbye a**hole, it's been nice". Most of Rick's subsequent songs were about being stressed out (Gone Hollywood, Just Another Nervous Wreck). His last song, and the penultimate tune, "Casual Conversation", is about acceptance. The song ends with "Should be sad, but I really believe that I'm glad". -
The song is actually about being educated but not being encouraged to lexplore/learn who we are as individuals. We are socialized in an illusional facade which is school in our youth and then thrown into the world to find out own way. It speaks about soul searching and the need for it to feel complete. The life of the author is portrayed in a follow your own path, find your own worth and incorporate what knowledge you have learned through education, both instructional and social. The youth is finding out about who he is and thus "goodbye stranger" as he becomes more conscious of who he is, why he is such, what he believes, what he has experienced and realizes that those formative years were only an illusion in comparison with the immensely disillusioned adult world. The search is one each must travel alone mere interaction with others brings relief of physical needs but not spiritual as that is every humans missing piece in the search and it is much easier to look outward than in. But in the end love of self is the only way one can prevail. Calhoun,TM
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I have wondered if this song might be about me, Maryjane,I met someone in a traveling band,we were writing songs together one night or speaking about it.If this is so we met in Gering Ne.He was playing at the Oregon Trail restaurant and Lounge.
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