Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger Lyrics Meaning

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.”