According to Rafferty's daughter Martha, it was around this time that her father discovered, by chance, Colin Wilson's classic book The Outsider, about alienation and creativity, which became a huge influence both on his songwriting and his outlook on the world: "The ideas and references contained in that one book were to sustain and inspire him for the rest of his life. December 17, 2015. So I picked up and moved [from London] back to Scotland to sort myself out., Eventually Rafferty was prevailed upon to rejoin Stealers Wheel, and he resumed writing songs that conveyed pretty scary kinds of feelings and condemned managers, record companies, the whole thing. (When I asked what he felt was the persistent theme of his music, Rafferty replied tersely and without hesitation, Alienation.) Though he and Egan sugarcoated their bitter pills with sweet melodies and glossy pop arrangements, they were unable to repeat the success of Stuck in the Middle., Editors picks I thought the contract had finished but it turned out it hadnt. [citation needed], Subsequent albums, such as Snakes and Ladders (1980), Sleepwalking (1982), and North and South (1988), fared less well, perhaps due partly to Rafferty's longstanding reluctance to perform live, with which he felt uncomfortable. All his friends were kind of wishing him well.. Mainly philosophy, art, religion, psychology and many a biography."). "[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. Words and phrases he used years ago crop up in similar contexts on City to City. 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. CIA Director, Noam Chomsky Named in Epstein's Private Calendar: Report In 1965, 18-year-old Rafferty met 15-year-old Carla Ventilla, an apprentice hairdresser from an Italian family in Clydebank, at a dancehalla story he later recounted in the song "Shipyard Town" on North and South. If I have to listen to the album, Ill give you 50 thousand. He then worked in a butcher's shop, as a civil service clerk, and in a shoe shop. In an interview that year with Colin Irwin to promote the album, Rafferty mentioned that he was interested in doing more production work and writing film soundtracks, and even floated the idea of writing a musical about the life of Robert Louis Stevenson. And he now had more of what he didn't like. Byrne was also responsible for one of Rafferty's most prized possessions: a hand-painted Martin acoustic guitar bearing his portrait and the name 'Gerry Rafferty', which features in many photographs of the singer. [70][71], A requiem mass was held for Rafferty at St Mirin's Cathedral in his native town of Paisley on 21 January 2011. Curiously though, the composition of Half a Heart is credited to Gary Burton, a vibraphonist and composer, who went to Berklee College of Music with Marcus in the early 1960s and lived down the block from him when the two moved from Boston to New York to start their music careers. Stealers Wheel was a flop. the Amazon Associates Program via amazon.com. 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". There was change too in the songs. Has he undergone, by any chance, a religious experience? Its important to say that in the case of that particular instrumental opening to Baker Street, it was entirely Gerrys line, said Burns. Its important to understand that. "[38] His next album, North and South, was released in 1988. But depending on whom you ask, the intrigue doesnt quite end there. In 2000, he told the Paisley Daily Express that the second Stealers Wheel album, released in 1974, had been named Ferguslie Park, after a deprived[56] area of Paisley, "to get as far away as possible from all the bullshit of the music industry in London. It's not for me there are too many inherent contradictions. At eleven, he started to play. And he played City To City and Baker Street a demo without the sax part. We may never know if one influenced the other or it was just the alchemy of two different studios coming up with something unmistakably great. Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Three acoustic guitars, layers and layers of backing vocals, very lush, very evened out sound., (You must log in or sign up to reply here. Stream the album here: https://lnk.to/GerryR. Singer/songwriter Gerry Rafferty was born on April 16, 1947 in Paisley, Scotland. Individuals can subscribe to Rocks Backpages for three, six and twelve months to get unlimited access to the complete Rocks Backpages archive. [26] In a 2003 interview with The Sun (Scotland), Rafferty commented on how profitable his biggest song had been: "Baker Street still makes me about 80,000 a year. "Gerry Rafferty: Right Down the Line". "You were very lucky to get that interview because he didn't do many. Theres no question about that either. He had been signed to A&M. [3], In October 2011, newspapers reported that Rafferty's immediate family were the beneficiaries of his 1.25million estate. From a Richard Thompson interview this spring, discussing the shelved Rafferty-produced 1980 sessions prior to the Shoot Out the Lights album. All content on the site is the property of Rock's Backpages and protected by copyright laws. [20][21][22] As the singer recalled in a 1988 interview with Colin Irwin: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, "When I wrote the song I saw that bit as an instrumental part but I didn't know what. For institutions, Rock's Backpages is provided as an unlimited access subscription, meaning that all staff, students and library patrons have It wasnt, yknow, playing cricket, but thats the way record companies worked. Brewer: He says, Heres the deal. Gerry became someone else, and it was alcohol that took him over. The mass was streamed live over the Internet. A subscription makes a thoughtful gift for both family and friends. In 2010, Baker Street was honored by BMI for achieving 5 million radio plays worldwide. Liner notes for the compilation album Right Down the Line (prepared with Rafferty's close co-operation[33]) confirmed this several years later, noting the singer was now "finding himself at the crossroads and looking to replace the treadmill with a new dimension in his life". What I want is just to develop in terms of my songs and also to work in other areas. 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts in the US. Gerry Rafferty, a Scottish singer and songwriter who combined a gift for melody, a distinctive voice and a fatalistic worldview to produce 1970s hits like "Stuck in the Middle With You" and. "[40], In the early 1990s, Rafferty recorded a cover version of the Bob Dylan song "The Times They Are a-Changin'" with Barbara Dickson, who had contributed backing vocals to both City to City and Night Owl. Do you remember how old ladies used to have those little baskets on wheels they used to push around the shops? The duo disbanded in 1975. Burton surmised that if the credit werent a mistake, it constituted some kind of shoutout from Marcus. Its fellow honorees that yearCome Together, Candle in the Wind, and Build Me Up Buttercupdeliver some sense of the songs real reach. [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. 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. In fact, most of what I played was an old blues riff. Gerry Rafferty signed up with Brewer and his production company funded the making of new album, City To City. "[75] Speaking after the funeral, Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers said: "I think Gerry Rafferty was one of the few people who really successfully straddled the worlds of both folk and popular music. If you are interested in the syndication of this Rock's Backpages article, please email us. Back in 1968, 10 years before Baker Street was recorded, Steve Marcus, a tenor sax player who toured with the jazz great Buddy Rich, released Tomorrow Never Knows, the first and only record under his own name. I just now went to the Internet and, sure enough, found out the history of Rafferty and Baker Street, and viewed a YouTube performance of it. Becoming a member is easy. And where does the magnificent saxophone line that everyone is humming come from? Its a topic thats since been remaindered to the small music forums at the dusty edges of the Internet. Affiliate programs and He was a very humble man. Rafferty's guitarist Hugh Burns, multi-instrumentalist Graham Preskett and saxophonist Mel Collins, were also featured. "[7] On weekends he and a classmate, future Stealers Wheel collaborator Joe Egan, played in a local group named the Maverix, mainly covering chart songs by groups such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Ghosts! After the duo separated in 1971, Transatlantic owner Nathan Joseph signed Rafferty as a solo performer. This was elaborated on by music journalist Paul Gambaccini for BBC World News:. [65] This was contradicted by a report in The Daily Telegraph on the following day, which quoted a statement his solicitors made to Channel 4 News: "Contrary to reports, Gerry is extremely well and has been living in Tuscany for the last six months he continues to compose and record new songs and music and he hopes to release a new album of his most recent work in the summer of this year [2009]. "[52] Reid believed Rafferty was fundamentally unsuited to the pressures of celebrity: "He struck me as a very, very sensitive man and for someone like that, fame was probably not appropriate. "[47] Finally, thanks to the Internet, it seemed Rafferty no longer needed the music industry: technology was allowing him to put his music directly in the hands of an appreciative audience. Burns was performing on the road with Jack Bruce in 1978 when he made arrangements to visit the London studio where Raffertys album City to City was being recorded. "They came back with a bigger offer," says Brewer, "and I said, I'll tell you what we'll do. First, he [Rafferty] wrote from his experience. Also, according to legend, he was only paid 27 for his contribution, while Rafferty was said to have made 80,000 in annual royalties until his death in 2011. Billboard Hot 100 [2] and #8 on Cash Box. Rafferty originally had conceived of Stealers Wheel which he formed after spending three years as the better half of a folk-rock duo, the Humblebums as a quartet of singer/songwriters, sort of a Scottish Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. He wouldnt sit in my Rolls, he wouldnt sit in my offices, we had to meet in these pubs and it all became very strange. He wanted his songs to be respected. In 1995, Rafferty was deeply affected by the death of his older brother Joseph, an event from which family and friends have said he never fully recovered. affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network, and "[78], In January 2013, BBC Radio 2 re-broadcast their 2012 programme "Bring It All Home Gerry Rafferty Remembered", which had been recorded live at Celtic Connections in Glasgow and was presented by Ricky Ross. Burns isnt ruling out its return. His frustration during this period underlies Baker Street, which takes its name from the London street where he often stayed in a friends flat. The jazz-rock fusion album was almost exclusively of cover songs such as The Beatles title track. 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And that all he wanted to do was write songs for his daughter., "I said, Right. The man behind the saxophone was Raphael Ravenscroft, who in addition to having the best-ever name for a session saxophonist, claims to have authored the riff. Jon Brewer now a successful documentary maker (opens in new tab) managed Rafferty through his most successful period before their relationship ended in acrimony. 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". 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. Some of these old ladies used to pass out. Gerry Rafferty is one of the more elusive and enigmatic figures on this increasingly strange roundabout. Jerry Gilbert, [4], Rafferty left St Mirin's Academy in 1963. I saw a man in despair". They married in 1970 and lived in Scotland with their daughter, Martha Mary, before moving to the south of England in the late 1970s,[20] where they divided their time between their farm near the KentSussex border and a home in Hampstead, London. Rafferty had apparently not changed his will after meeting Enzina Fuschini in 2008 and left her nothing. With due respect, theres only 13 chromatic notes, he said. I sang it to him. In his interview with Colin Irwin, Rafferty disputed this and said that Ravenscroft had been his second choice to play the saxophone solo, after Pete Zorn, who was unavailable: "The only confusion at the time that I didnt enjoy too much was the fact that a lot of people believed that the line was written by Raphael Ravenscroft, the sax player, but it was my line. These were the last two records Rafferty produced with Hugh Murphy, who died in 1998. "[5], In 1995, Rafferty was deeply affected by the death of his older brother Joseph, an event from which family and friends said he never fully recovered. Rafferty married his fellow Scot, hairdresser Carla Ventilla, in 1970, and here he pays tribute to how she stuck by him through thick and thin. [20], In 1980, Rafferty and Murphy produced a record for Richard and Linda Thompson; though never released, it eventually evolved into their album Shoot Out the Lights. 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. He was an artist through and though., Seemingly alone in its era, Baker Street managed to stand out at the height of punk and new wave and also shined through the summer of Grease and the twilight of discos last saccharine gleaming. GERRY RAFFERTY rarely comes up in interviews, seldom works on the road and is in London even less often. [citation needed], Other artists continue to be inspired by Rafferty's work. And I went, Ill fund the album. [1] He is survived by his daughter Martha, granddaughter Celia, and brother Jim. [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. Gerry in a very rare interview from a radio scotland programme in 2003.This is a rare insight into the world of one of the past centurys greatest songwriters. Then he tried it on guitar, and that didnt sound quite right. Enter your email address in the field below and we'll send you a password to read all free articles on RBP. [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. We didnt share a sense of humor or much of anything., Before long, Rafferty and Egan decided it was time to stop the whole fucking farce, which they did after completing a lackluster third album, Right or Wrong, with another producer. "Days Gone Down" reached No. Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. [4] His Irish-born father, an alcoholic, was a miner and lorry driver who died when Rafferty was 16. In a 2011 episode of the NBC show 30 Rock, which aired the same year that Rafferty died, Tina Feys character paces the streets faced with the prospects of losing her job as a television writer. I dont have a manager now, nor do I want one.. "[5] Two decades later, speaking to the press after Rafferty's funeral, Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers confirmed Rafferty's dislike of celebrity: "He was not entirely comfortable with fame. Fewer reservations and a bit more ebullience might be expected from a man with Americas Number Two single, Baker Street, and album, City to City (both have been Number One on some charts). Saved Stories. 17 in the US. His remains were then cremated at the Woodside Crematorium in Paisley[72] and his ashes scattered on Iona. Trending (The song spent six weeks stuck at No. " [Rafferty's] approach seemed claustrophobic. Gerry had had a tough upbringing in Glasgow and the manager sensed that he carried tremendous resentment about it. In the My Sweet Lord case, Harrison admitted he simply hadnt realized that the song so closely resembled Hes So Fine, made most famous by The Chiffons. 4: Whatever's Written In Your Heart (from 'City To City', 1978) If there's one song that proves Gerry Rafferty's peerless songwriting ability, it's Whatever's Written In Your Heart. Bonnie Raitt recorded a reggae treatment of "Right Down the Line" for her Slipstream album released 10 April 2012. Baker Street and Half a Heart are songs that were made that way. The album City to City went to No. Whatever I do in the future, it's at my own pace, on my own terms. And for good reason. The lyric and the melody fuse beautifully and the lyric is complemented by the melody. Guitarist Richard Thompson helped by performing on the track "Take The Money and Run", and the title track was a UK No. And he also seems to have overcome what he admits was a fondness for one drink too many (as we talked, he royed with a glass of water). 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 exclusive audio interviews. [77] Electropop star Elly Jackson described "Right Down the Line" as "my favourite track of all time. Joel Whitburn, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (6th Edition)", p. 493. The liner notes to the compilation album Right Down the Line, written by Jerry Gilbert with Rafferty's close co-operation, note his consistent refusal to tour the United States and "generally 'play the industry game'. So he goes on David Frost, and I think it took four minutes before hed lost his audience. Success, says Brewer, was the end of Rafferty. He really cant stand anyone in the music industry, anyone in the music publishing industry, and all he wants to do is write songs for his daughter., So I go back to Gerry," says Brewer, "and say, Youve got to stop doing this were going to run out of record companies!. He may be sitting on top of the world as he gives interviews in his rumpled room at New York Citys Plaza Hotel, yet he regards that world with a Scotsmans dour distrust. They never toured America because the band, according to Rafferty, when it existed at all, was a fucking shambles, and they wrangled angrily with their managers. tenor sax player who toured with the jazz great Buddy Rich. Once Rafferty decided to look in the Berlin telephone directory to see if any Hitlers were listed.[10]. Subscriptions to Rocks Backpages are available for institutional or personal use. [60], In the last decade of his life, having taken pains to shun the fame and celebrity that accompanied his musical achievements, Rafferty found himself making headlines once again as he struggled with alcoholism and depression and the increasingly erratic behaviour they spawned. Truthfully, I sort of doubt that a British saxophonist would have even of heard Marcuss record, since it was little publicized and truly under the radar, even in the U.S., he wrote, later explaining that he thought the record had sold maybe 1,000 copies. Please visit our Personal Subscriptions page for pricing and to place your order. Rafferty recorded a new version of his Humblebums song "Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway" on the album Over My Head (1994). Gerry Rafferty in Amsterdam, 1972. 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.. There was a generation gap and a culture gap, too. He was the third son of Irish miner and lorry driver Joseph Rafferty and Rafferty's Scottish wife Mary Skeffington. "[5] When a remastered version of City to City was released in 2011, it included the original, electric guitar version of the song, confirming Rafferty's authorship of the riff. He hated capitalism. unrestricted remote and on-site access to each text and audio file in the database. And theyd pay the radio stations to play the record. From what shes said, I believe Linda was quite happy to have Gerrys hands on her, for a time. Billy Connolly recalls his first impressions of Gerry Rafferty. Rafferty was becoming obnoxious with me. Let me meet Gerry.". 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.. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library. If youre asking me: Did Gerry hand me a piece of music to play? then no, he didnt.. 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. Thompson's usually spontaneous, no-frills attitude toward recording was at odds with Rafferty's approach. Another posting announced that Rafferty would begin to release music regularly as free downloads: "In reality, Gerry could put a new track out every two weeks or so. And I don't plan to be in the public eye too much now either. Now based in London, he employed sound engineer Giles Twigg to assemble a Digidesign mobile recording studio and, with Twigg's help, recorded the album Another World in London, Scotland, Barbados, France, and Italy with collaborators from previous albums, including Hugh Burns, Mark Knopfler, Kenny Craddock, and Mo Foster. His mother taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs when he was a boy; later, he was influenced by the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Rafferty confirms the contrast between then and now. Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty has died at the age of 63 after suffering a long illness. The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History [34], Rafferty sang the Mark Knopfler-penned song "The Way It Always Starts" (1983) on the soundtrack of the film Local Hero. The track appeared on Dickson's albums Don't Think Twice It's All Right (1992) and The Barbara Dickson Collection (2006). The Internet is a conspiracy-theory clearing house, and yet the connection between Baker Street and the opening riff of Half a Heart lives in semi-ubiquity. Thats the way I always saw it, he remembers Rafferty telling him at the time. And although he had a few more hit singles in the United States, by 1980 it was basically all over, and when I say 'it', I mean basically his career, because he just was not comfortable with this. We want to hear it. A heavy drinker for much of his life, Rafferty died from liver failure in January 2011 at the age of 63. So I took the 75., It worked. They based chart positions on what theyd shipped, not what theyd sold. A 1970 appearance at the Royal Festival Hall, supporting Fotheringay with Nick Drake, earned a positive review from critic Karl Dallas, who noted that all three acts showed "promise rather than fulfilment", and observed that "Gerry Rafferty's songs have the sweet tenderness of Paul McCartney in his 'Yesterday' mood". Gerry Raffertys promising partnership with Joe Egan as Stealers Wheel had ended after three albums and a US no.1 single in Stuck In The Middle With You. "[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]. All rights reserved. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time In the liner notes to the album, Rafferty's long-time friend and collaborator Rab Noakes commented: "Let's hope [the Baker Street demo] will, at last, silence all who keep on asserting that the saxophone player came up with the melody line. Fuschini contested the will, but it was later reported that she had lost her case and 75,000 legal costs were awarded against her. . [31], "His song "Baker Street" was about how uncomfortable he felt in the star system, and what do you know, it was a giant world hit. The Celtic thing is the drone, you know -its fifths, the same as in country music, a lot of which comes from Scotland and Ireland, anyway. The newspaper Scotland on Sunday reported that Rafferty had been asked to leave the hotel and had then checked himself into St Thomas' Hospital suffering from a chronic liver condition, brought on by heavy drinking. Nor have the preoccupations of Raffertys lyrics changed all that much. 28 in the US Top 40 in early 1979. Or as Burton put it, You hear something, your brain forgets., Musically, all the decisions on a Gerry Rafferty album, all the decisions on yes, that stays, or no, that goes were fundamentally his, said Burns. He recalled, "My father was Irish, so growing up in Paisley I was hearing all these songs when I was two or three. When he gets there, Artie Mogull is in a hurry. 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. [43][44] Through his company Icon Music, Rafferty promoted and sold the album independently on a website created specifically for the purpose. He was Editor in Chief of Classic Rock magazine for 10 years and Editor of Total Guitar for 4 years and has contributed to The Big Issue, Esquire and more. [3] Rafferty learned both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy.
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