JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Gerry Rafferty - RIP

Was he Irish or Scottish? I think Scottish.

The Stealers Wheel song is among my small and cherished collection of original 45's from my childhood. For it to make it there (we were dirt poor) it had to hold extremely high esteem and I just saw that collection recently and thought about how Stuck in the Middle with You had made the grade. Baker Street was another song that takes me to an exact place on an exact day in my later childhood. (Actually, a bittersweet memory of doing my first self created paying job but also receiving a sad life lesson the end of that job.. so a real mixed bag that has stuck with me around that song and makes me that age instantly when hearing it in my mind.... amazing how much does that, for the better and worse and Gerry Rafferty and his music had that gift).

I haven't wondered to myself why folks like Gerry disappeared from the scene so completely after shining like a bright star and touching so many lives. I realize alchohol played a sadly stereotypical role, but he released music until 2000.. some day I want to write a book about how people lose that spark that plucks them from the masses and then deposits them back again often just as mysteriously. Anyone hear his last album in 2000? I wonder how it stacked up. Certainly Stuck in the Middle with you was his baby, but on Baker Street, the haunting sax work of the session player played the largest role.. though whoever made the decision of featuring that, perhaps Gerry or a producer, also nailed it.

He had a shorter than average life, but it had more ups than most.

Brian