Supertramp - Take the Long Way Home Meaning

Song Released: 1979

Take the Long Way Home Lyrics

So you think you're a Romeo, playing a part in a picture-show
We take the long way home, take the long way home
Cos you're the joke of the neighbourhood, why should you care if you're feeling good
Take the long way home, take the long way...

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   #1 top rated interpretation:
   TheGenius1234

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   Oct 12th 2016 !⃝

   This is one of the saddest songs i've recently understood. The song states to grow up, not focused on social life alone, but on the logical side of life that will get you somewhere someday. If this does happen, just "Take the long way home" or enjoy life while you can, see the world. This person, which I asume is the song writer, grew up as a "Romeo" or really social with girls. Later in his life he gets married and starts to see his life crumble but stays on the same path, his wife is very mean to him, "Then your wife thinks you're part of the furniture. Ohh it's peculiar, she used to be so nice". Your life gets worse as,"Lonely days turn to lonely nights" but you still keep ignoring your wrong path in life. Your wife then countinues to hate you and she lives life around her,"Then your wife seems to think you're losing your sanity". You finally realize your fail in life but it's too late now, "Oh, is there no way out?". You see your life is a catastrophe and you look back on what you did wrong, what you could have done and been,"Does it feel that your life has become a catastrophe? Oh, it has to be for you to grow, boy. When you look through the years and you see what you could've been, oh what you might have been, if you'd had more time". The last line means, if you'd known it would end up like this you could have fixed it with the more time you had. You finally realize to just live life and enjoy what you have. "So, when the day comes to settle down, who's to blame if you're not around. You took the long way home." This is truely a sad song when you think about it. You listen to it and dont really think what it means, when you do realize what it means you almost cry.
2. anonymous

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   Aug 31st 2022 !⃝

   It's a sad story about a guy who was once young and happy-go-lucky. He gets married and as the years go by his wife reveals her cold and stark nature. People notice the sad state he is in and the way she treats him. He is a lost soul looking back on his life and looks for the warmth and hope of days gone by. He is trapped in a painful relationship that is a lost cause. He takes the long way home,. meaning he commits suicide and never comes back home. This song came out in 1979 just before my father committed suicide late that year. Eerily, this represents his life and although I was quite young and didn't understand the lyrics, whenever I heard this song it would knock me down. Those first few bars from the harmonica and to this day I am right there looking into his sad final days. This song has, and always will, haunt me for as long as I live.
3. anonymous

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   Aug 30th 2022 !⃝

   I have gone through this experience personally. It is impossible to be popular with women and have to settle on one. If you do...you will take the long way home...many, many
   days and nights. Taking the long way home simple means... you fool around on your wife..she knows it...and keeps you around anyway...to make your life hell. By the time you realize she will never forgive or loosen up on you ...you are no Romeo anymore. It is a very sad song. Because you can’t have it all.
4. anonymous

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   May 20th 2021 !⃝

   This song hits both ends of the emotional spectrum in life both the painful experiences in life that make you grow together with the wonderful moments which are certainly a lot less painful. I think the writer takes the emotional downs harder than most because he feels the adoration of people so fully and the bliss of that and coming down from that is hard. And it cannot be sustained. He expresses this sadness in the beautiful melody and lyrics. He seems to take things harder.."seems like your life's become a catastrophe. He is definitely a sensitive soul and sentimental too probably to his own detriment. You cannot have constant highs from performing all the time. This song encapsulates this realization perfectly. And he is along way home from the adulation of the audience when he deals with the nastiness of his wife and other mundane experiences.
5. anonymous

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   Mar 1st 2021 !⃝

   Get married, wait a couple of years and you'll understand this song. Over time Marriage beats the shit out of you.
6. anonymous

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   Mar 2nd 2018 !⃝

   it's about a man who has vices... By the time he's ready to overcome his issues, it's too late. His family has given up after years of needing him with them. He took the Long Way Home too many times.
7. anonymous

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   Sep 28th 2017 !⃝

   Its about a person who likes too drive around in his black 280zx turbo listening too the song...not because it has too have a meaning!! because he can relate the lyrics to the feelings he had in his life at that exact moment in time and space..
8. anonymous

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   Jun 21st 2017 !⃝

   It's sounds like the guy is having a mid life crisis. Coupled with the fact his wife is a nag and and to her frustration sees the man she married is now in a rut and isn't leading the marriage. The guy is obviously a dreamer like most men which in and of itself is not a bad thing but this guy is just lost.
9. anonymous

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   Jun 5th 2017 !⃝

   My interpretation of the song is about a man who commits suicide. The why's are not really clear.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

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    Feb 18th 2017 !⃝

    It's a VERY sad song sounding as if it's a happy song! It somewhat reminds me of the 1999 Japanese horror film "Audition". I think the song is about where a man who thinks he can get all the girls, thinking he's a Romeo. He ends up flirting with a girl who has a bad history that she keeps a secret. They fall in love with each other and get married! The man gets bullied by everybody in the neighborhood, being the joke of the neighborhood, and being told that his wife will use him! Over the course of the marriage, the wife ends up using him which causes lots of aggressive arguments! They go to court to get a divorce, only for the man to realize that it's gonna to him a long time to escape from his wife even if they do get a divorce and go back home with his family where there's no depression! After the divorce, suicide comes into the man's head! He ends up going into a mental hospital and ends up thinking about all the other girls he knew that he could've ended up marrying!