The Supertramp fan community was dealt a devastating blow over the weekend when news hit that co-founder Rick Davies has died after a long battle with multiple myeloma.
“As co-writer, along with partner Roger Hodgson, he was the voice and pianist behind Supertramp’s most iconic songs, leaving an indelible mark on rock music history,” the band wrote on Facebook. “His soulful vocals and unmistakable touch on the Wurlitzer became the heartbeat of the band’s sound.”
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Supertramp enjoyed greater popularity in their native England than in America, even though hits like “Take the Long Way Home” and “The Logical Song” remain in heavy rotation on classic rock radio. Those two songs were written by Hodgson, and he sang them as well. But their 1979 classic “Goodbye Stranger” is a Davies tune, and it hit Number 15 on the Hot 100 here. (It stalled at Number 57 in the U.K.)
“Goodbye Stranger” was given new life in the season four Office finale, “Goodbye, Toby,” when Michael Scott sang a slightly modified version of the song at a farewell party for human resources rep Toby Flenderson. “The real reason we’re here is to say goodbye to a guy we’ll probably never, ever see again,” Scott says. “As a lot of you know, I’m an accomplished songwriter. I have done things like ‘Beers In Heaven’ or ‘Total Eclipse of the Fart.’ I’d love to be singing them, but I’m not going to be doing that today. I’m going to be doing something I wrote specifically for Toby.”
In truth, Rick Davies wrote “Goodbye Stranger.” The only change Michael makes is swapping out “stranger” for “Toby,” and adding in a manic “Toby’s going away!” scat section at the end. (We never got a chance to hear “Beers in Heaven” or “Total Eclipse of the Fart,” but we imagine they were a bit more inventive.)
“Goodbye, Toby” is a key Office episode since it introduces Amy Ryan’s Holly Flax character, and wraps up the strike-shortened fourth season of the show. To many fans who feel that The Office began a gradual downhill climb in the fifth season, when showrunner Greg Daniels and writer Michael Schur left to launch Parks and Rec, this episode concludes the show’s golden age. (To be fair, there are many legendary episodes in season five, six, and seven. The heights just weren’t as consistently high as two, three, and four. And the less said about seasons eight and nine, the better.)
Like every episode of The Office, “Goodbye, Toby” is always playing somewhere. It did a lot to make one of Davies’ most successful songs even more memorable. But from the perspective of Michael Scott, it was a massive failure. His nemesis Toby returned nine episodes later.
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