The 10 solo albums made by Gerry Rafferty during his lifetime form a distinguished legacy, from 1971's cult favourite Can I Have My Money Back, through the platinum-selling years of City to. His remains were then cremated at the Woodside Crematorium in Paisley[72] and his ashes scattered on Iona. Right down the line: Remembering Gerry Rafferty By using this site, you agree that we may store and access cookies on your device. "Days Gone Down" reached No. More likely, he has simply mellowed with age. [15] Twenty years later, the song was used prominently in the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs; Rafferty refused to grant permission for its re-release. Alan Rafferty 1.92K subscribers 106K views 10 years ago Promo video for the "On A Wing and A Prayer" album from 1992/3. Scottish singer/songwriter Gerry Rafferty, best known for his solo hit "Baker Street" and "Stuck In The . For me, singing and writing is very therapeutic. Thats the price I paid for being Gerry Raffertys manager.. They got married and ran off together. Rafferty offered to buy himself out of his contract and Brewer turned him down. Listen to Positive Charge, The Gaslight Anthem's first single in nine years, Eddie Van Halen was planning a farewell tour with the original Van Halen lineup, Coke! Breaks Down His Killer White House Correspondents Dinner Set [18] The album sold over 5.5million copies, toppling the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in the US on 8 July 1978. There was change too in the songs. He had been signed to A&M. [63], On 17 February 2009, The Guardian reported that Rafferty was in hiding in the south of England, being cared for by a friend. Baker Street Singer Gerry Rafferty Dead At 63 - Rolling Stone Artists write the best songs when theyre hungry., "Anyway, they gave him five million and he pissed off and bought a house in the Caribbean. And theres still another wrinkle on the other side of the pond. I regard it as a great good fortune that I was able to meet and contribute something to Gerrys music, he told me over the phone from England. In 2012, Cuillin Recordings issued Paisley Spin, a remix of three tracks from Can I Have My Money Back? [65] Subsequently, Rafferty's spokesperson Paul Charles told The Independent that he had been in touch with Rafferty a fortnight previously and that he was alive and well but had no plans to either record or tour. [24] No such missing persons report existed. Instead he quickly re-recorded it with Joe Boyd and released that version. Gerry Rafferty: A Brilliant Tortured Soul - YouTube So theyd ship them, get big warehouses, put them in there. Barbara Dickson released a tribute album of 13 Rafferty songs, To Each and Everyone: The Songs of Gerry Rafferty, in September 2013, including cover versions of "Baker Street", "The Ark", and "Steamboat Row". With due respect, theres only 13 chromatic notes, he said. And yet when it comes to writing tasteful pop songs - songs that you remember long after they've dropped out of the Top Twenty or whatever - he's just about the best and consequently the most underrated in Britain. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Well do 4-3-2. They said, What? I said, 4% from the first album, 3% from the next album and 2% from the album after that, I wont disclose how much I earned, but it was a substantial amount of money.. [19] Rafferty considered this his first proper taste of success, as he told Melody Maker the following year: "all the records I've ever done before have been flops. Gerry Rafferty: A Brilliant Tortured Soul 29,019 views Mar 11, 2018 The late great Gerry Rafferty succumbed to alcoholism back in 2011. [13], In September 2011, EMI issued a remastered collector's edition of City to City featuring previously unheard demo versions of "Baker Street", "Mattie's Rag", "City to City", and other tracks from the album. His girlfriend Enzina Fuschini said she "felt that he was under some sort of evil spell. Brewer was a big fan of Stealers Wheel and met Rafferty in London. "[23][24], Ravenscroft, a session musician, was in the studio to record a brief soprano saxophone part and suggested that he record the now famous break using the alto saxophone he had in his car. If I dont, Ill give you 75. Im like, You cant sign an artist of mine and not listen to the record! He says, Thats the deal. Jerry Gilbert, The singer was wary of the media and disliked being asked to analyse his songs, particularly to those outwith his creative circle. Perhaps I was on the edge of a nervous break-down thats how it felt, anyway. Stream the album here: https://lnk.to/GerryR. Baker Street has been covered by a wildly diverse set of outfits, most virtuously by Waylon Jennings and the London Symphony Orchestra, most sentimentally by Lisa Simpson, and most blandly by the Foo Fighters and Rick Springfield. "And that's when the fun started," says Brewer. Contributing artists included his friend Rab Noakes, The Proclaimers, Barbara Dickson, Ron Sexsmith, Jack Bruce, Paul Brady, Emma Pollock, James Vincent McMorrow and Betsy Cook. "[35], Based at 16th-century[36] Tye Farm in Hartfield, near the Kent-Sussex border, Rafferty installed electric gates to protect his privacy, built a recording studio, and worked largely by himself[37] or with Murphy. [17] After the disputes were resolved in 1978, he recorded his second solo album, City to City, with producer Hugh Murphy, which included the song with which he remains most identified, "Baker Street". (Both of these were popular hobbies in the year 1978. Gerry had had a tough upbringing in Glasgow and the manager sensed that he carried "tremendous resentment" about it. Baker Street and Half a Heart are songs that were made that way. For decades in England, for instance, there was a widely believed urban myth that Bob Holness, the buttoned-up British gameshow host, had actually performed the saxophone solo in Baker Street.. "[7] Monsignor John Tormey, celebrating Rafferty's funeral mass, suggested the singer's attitude to fame was an indication of his spiritual integrity: "He always searched for a more authentic way to live his life, shunning the outward trappings of celebrity so that he might live as he chose to live his life."[52]. Not that it was all doom and gloom: He had this great friendship with Billy Connolly [the two men were in folk duo The Humblebums] and Billy told me this amazing story. "[53] Barbara Dickson also paid tribute to her friend, whom she described as a "luminous, glorious Scottish musician". [8] In the mid 1960s Rafferty earned money, for a time, busking on the London Underground. "It was something I was fiercely protective of in myself. Later I get a call from Martin Wyatt: I wouldnt sign that man if you gave me the record and I know its a number 1 album! I said, Why? He says, Hes the most unbelievably obnoxious person Ive ever met in my life., "What did he say to you? He said that he was never going to support the album, he was never going to play in a band, and he was never going to go on the road. These were the last two records Rafferty produced with Hugh Murphy, who died in 1998. It makes me think of home, nostalgia and happiness. [42] On a Wing and a Prayer (1992) reunited him with his Stealers Wheel partner Egan on several tracks. According to Murphy, interviewed a decade later: "Gerry had made three albums on the trot and I think he was pretty jaded at that time and feeling the pressure and he just thought, 'Well, I'll try another tack,' which is understandable". Gerry Rafferty 1 of 3 (Rare 2003 Interview) - YouTube According to his account, Baker Street had several gaps in it when he was hired to play, and he filled them. "Stuck in the Middle With You" has received over 4million plays worldwide, and "Right Down The Line" has had over 3million plays. From a Richard Thompson interview this spring, discussing the shelved Rafferty-produced 1980 sessions prior to the. As the 1980s progressed, Rafferty's growing drinking problem placed his marriage under impossible strain and his wife divorced him in 1990, though they remained close. The collection of blues, rock, and folk demos had been planned for a new album before his death. His background was soaked in Scottish socialism and poverty, his mind sharp and his personality acerbic, and he wasn't going to be dazzled by the glamour of success. After the completion of Another World in 2000, Rafferty planned to move back to Scotland and bought Eaglestone House,[57] "a substantial listed 1860s mansion" in the Highland village of Strathpeffer,[58] although he sold the property two years later and never actually moved in. To Raffertys utter disbelief, his parody of Bob Dylans paranoia, tossed off as little more than a joke, struck pay dirt in the States by which time he had already said goodbye to the band. Released as a single in July 1978, it reached #12 on the U.S. We want to hear it. We tried electric guitar but it sounded weak, and we tried other things and I think it was Hugh Murphy's suggestion that we tried saxophone."[5]. The testimony of Ravenscoft, who died last year, seems to be refuted by the existence of an early demo of the song, where the guitar replaces the sax. Just graduated high school and was getting ready to head off to college. [9] In his own stand-up shows, Connolly has often recalled this period, telling how Rafferty made him laugh and describing the crazy things they did while on tour. [citation needed], Also in 1983, Rafferty announced his intention to take a break and devote more time to his family: "It dawned on me that since Baker Street I had been touring the world, travelling everywhere and seeing nowhere. Gerald Rafferty (16 April 1947 - 4 January 2011) was a Scottish singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. "[63][64], There were conflicting reports about what happened next. All his friends were kind of wishing him well.. For full terms, please click here. And the final resolution of his legal and financial hassles accounts for the understated exhilaration of the songs last verse: When you wake up its a new morning/The sun is shining, its a new morning/Youre going, youre going home., Related [51], On 3 September 2021 Parlophone UK released "Rest In Blue" an album on which Martha Rafferty completed a project started by her father from demos left by Rafferty. The next album was all organised but Gerry wanted to get rid of me.". This was again on the Hypertension music label. The group was beset by legal wranglings, but had a huge hit with "Stuck in the Middle with You", which earned critical acclaim as well as commercial success: a 1975 article in Sounds described it as "a sort of cross between white label Beatles and punk Dylan yet with a unique Celtic flavour that has marked all their work". Inside the recording of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath: only in the new issue of Classic Rock. What did you do before Baker Street? theyll ask, and as he answers politely, concealing both his boredom and bemusement, through his head may well run the lines, Fools to the left of me, jokers to the right/Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.. Christopher Neil replaced Hugh Murphy, Rafferty's usual producer, introducing synthesisers and drum machines that give the album a harder, less acoustic sound, and apparently eschewing the richly detailed arrangements notable on Rafferty's three previous records. "He said to me, I cant stand the way you live, because you drive a Rolls Royce and you have this house and this and that He hated the music business and everything in it.. It has been through some of my darkest moments that I have written some of my best songs. [citation needed]. Signing up for the RBP newsletter provides access to a limited number of free articles, as well as six new free articles every week. Isnt he afraid that once again hell be a one-hit wonder? Gerry had had a tough upbringing in Glasgow and the manager sensed that he carried tremendous resentment about it. January 4, 2011. Has he undergone, by any chance, a religious experience? Scott is the Content Director of Music at Future plc, responsible for the editorial strategy of online and print brands like Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, Guitarist, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Total Guitar etc. What was it with Gerry Rafferty that made it so hard to record with him Ravenscroft considered his contribution to Baker Street to be substantial enough to warrant a songwriting credit or a percentage of publishing money. [5] Reviews of the album were mixed. Rafferty came up with the hook. Gerry Rafferty at home. - YouTube ", Rafferty's next album, Night Owl, also did well. That means youre there dead on two oclock, you have a coffee break at exactly five oclock, and then you finish at eight oclock on the dot and you dont go over regardless of what youre doing. Billy Connolly on Gerry Rafferty (Conan O'Brien, 2012) russallert 5.31K subscribers 597K views 5 years ago Billy Connolly appears on the Conan O'Brien show in 2012 and tells a story about his. Musical is very cyclical. Billy Connolly on Gerry Rafferty (Conan O'Brien, 2012) - YouTube All content on the site is the property of Rock's Backpages and protected by copyright laws. August 1975. Stuck In The Middle With You had Joe Egan miming Gerrys lead vocal as he had left the band by the time they shot it. [48], Rafferty maintained his enthusiasm for this new approach to recording for the next three years. According to Burns, a lot of the songs that seem to have some longevity tend to feature, for the most part, real instruments. For a while, the saxophone was a key feature of that dynamic. Rafferty recorded a new version of his Humblebums song "Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway" on the album Over My Head (1994). [5][11][38] In 1987, Rafferty and Murphy co-produced The Proclaimers first UK hit single "Letter from America". Nice memories. (Thanks, Jack.). Listeners weigh in on our interview with 10-year-old Kathryn Aurora Gray, the youngest person ever to discover a Supernova; and our remembrance of singer and songwriter Gerry Rafferty, who died . The Humblebums were a flop My life doesn't stand or fall by the amount of people who buy my records. Marcus passed away in 2005 and none of the tributes to him seem to make mention of it. But 80,000? Rafferty grew up in a council house on the town's Glenburn estate and attended St. Mirin's Academy. "[66][67] The album, titled Life Goes On, was released in November 2009. The guitarist Hugh Burns has scored movies like Die Another Day and The Hobbit, and played with the likes of Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Jack Bruce, and George Michael throughout his storied career. In the right music it sounds fantastic, its the only way to make certain kinds of music. Gerry Rafferty is one of the more elusive and enigmatic figures on this increasingly strange roundabout. Rafferty and Ventilla divorced in 1990. In the same interview, he said that the entire record had been made for approximately 200,000, with half spent on travel, the recording system costing 75,000, and the website and marketing adding 25,000. According to Michael Gray, the singer's personal manager in the early 1980s: "It never occurred to me in all the time I knew him that he was heading for alcoholism. Boys, girls, large packets of drugs that was payola.. [citation needed], "Baker Street" remains a mainstay of soft-rock radio airplay[24] and, in October 2010, it was recognised by the BMI for surpassing 5 million plays worldwide. Success, says Brewer, was the end of Rafferty. Remembering Gerry Rafferty, rock's most reluctant star Jon Brewer now a successful documentary maker (opens in new tab) managed Rafferty through his most successful period before their relationship ended in acrimony. In the summer of 1978, Gerry Rafferty's song "Baker Street" became a top-five hit in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Gerry Rafferty at home. then no, he didn't. [3][4] Rafferty loathed the 1992 dance music cover version of "Baker Street" by Undercover, describing it as "dreadful, totally banalit's a sad sign of the times". The music itselfthe orchestration, so to speak compliments the lyric in a perfect way. Nor have the preoccupations of Raffertys lyrics changed all that much. At eleven, he started to play. Joel Whitburn, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (6th Edition)", p. 493. I asked Burns why he thought Baker Street is still a staple nearly 40 years after its release. Theres no question about that either. I said, Youre just not the right person to do David Frost. Its almost identical, only a little bit different and that wouldnt happen by chance seeing as it was so close.. The Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, who has died aged 63 after a long illness, wrote the multimillion-selling hit Baker Street, which more than 30 years after . Its a topic thats since been remaindered to the small music forums at the dusty edges of the Internet. Gerry Rafferty - Wikipedia The group released the single "Benjamin Day"/"There's Nobody Here" (Columbia 8068), but it was not a commercial success. Well, in Glasgow it was always raining and theyd go down down Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday and play this game. I said, If you give him 5 million, youll never get another album Its the worst thing you can do. He praises Carla for helping him through all the bad times and tells her every day he loves her more and more. And he now had more of what he didn't like. He told me that he and Marcus had been best friends at a time and wanted to know what the connection to Steve Marcus was, since Ravenscroft is listed as the saxophonist on Baker Street. When I replied that Raffertys song sounded suspiciously familiar to Marcuss song Half a Heart, he didnt buy it on principle. ever-expanding collection of primary-source full-text articles from the music and mainstream press from the 1950s to the present day, along with a collection of December 17, 2015. "[53] Billy Connolly agrees that Rafferty had different priorities: "I wanted success and fame and I got it, to a degree. He was a founding member of Stealers Wheel, whose biggest hit was "Stuck in the Middle with You" in 1973. In the summer of 1978, Gerry Rafferty's song Baker Street became a top-five hit in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. . Joseph Rafferty died when Gerry was just sixteen, but if he bequeathed anything to his last-born son it was an affinity for songs in the Irish and Scottish folk tradition. The track appeared on Dickson's albums Don't Think Twice It's All Right (1992) and The Barbara Dickson Collection (2006). He said, You are not a good man! To be a star in inverted commas -that is probably the last thing I want. Gerry Rafferty - Interesting stories about famous people, biographies Gerry Rafferty - Right Down the Line (Lyric Video) 'Right Down the Line' is taken from the album 'City to City'. Gerry had a glass eye I didnt know this until Billy told me this story and theyd wait until it was really pouring and theyd go out and all the old girls would put up their umbrellas. Months later, says Brewer, I get this call from Artie Mogull to say, Congratulations you have a number one album in America! I went, Are you out of your mind? He said, No, its at number one..