"Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you"
Gerry Rafferty came in a few different versions. The Humblebums, then solo, Stealers Wheel and then another run going solo. This double vinyl album has 23 tracks covering 2 Gerry versions. The 3-CD set of the same name has 54 tracks and 3 Gerry versions. Both issues have solo work and Stealers Wheel releases, but the CD set has 6 songs he did as part of The Humblebums.
Trivia question .. who was the other Humblebum? Yes, of course, The Big Yin himself, Billy Connolly. Connolly and Tam Harvey formed the Humblebums in 1965 and Gerry joined in 1969. Harvey left soon after and Gerry and Billy continued as a duo until 1971. 'Shoeshine Boy' was one of their few single releases, well worth a listen.
After the Humblebums split, Gerry released his first solo album 'Can I Have My Money Back'. Along with the title track, which is a fun ditty, the music on the album was good but commercially it went nowhere. Luckily Gerry met Joe Egan, a Scottish singer / songwriter who did background vocals on this production. Joe made the point that perhaps Gerry's music would be better if it came from a band rather than a solo act. Gerry agreed and the two of them formed Stealers Wheel in 1972.
To say they had a turbulent line-up is a bit of an understatement. Initially Rafferty and Egan got Roger Brown, Rab Noakes and Ian Campbell to make up the 5-pce band. Before they recorded their eponymous album those 3 had left and were replaced by Paul Pilnick, Tony Williams and Rod Coombes. After the album came out, Rafferty and Williams left and were replaced by Luther Grosvenor and DeLisle Harper.
When 'Stuck in the Middle With You' became a hit, Rafferty came back and everyone else left except for Egan, so Stealers Wheel once again became a duo of just Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan. That lasted until 1975 when they disbanded for good. PHEW !!
The UK music paper described 'Stuck in the Middle ..' as "a sort of cross between white label Beatles and punk Dylan yet with a unique Celtic flavour that has marked all their work". See, I got a Dylan mention in there.
Because of legal wranglings after the break-up of Stealers Wheel, Gerry couldn't release anything for three years. Once the dust had settled he went back into the studio and recorded his second solo album 'City to City' which included the monster hit 'Baker Street'. Even then, the disputes didn't end. 'Baker Street' has one of the most recognisable distinctive riffs in music, the saxophone solo played by Raphael Ravenscroft. For years there has been disagreement about who was responsible for that. Raphael says he wasn't given a piece of music so he used an old blues riff. Gerry on the other hand says he wrote the song with that part in mind as an instrumental. He tried guitar but didn't like it so he sang it to Raphael who then played it on an alto sax.
Gerry released 8 more albums after 'City to City' but neither the albums or any of his other singles ever achieved the same as Stealers 'Stuck in the Middle ..' or his own 'Baker Street', which is a shame, there were some great songs buried in there. 'Right Down the Line' did make #1 in the US but did nothing anywhere else. 'Get It Right Next Time' didn't get into any top ten but it is a standard radio play.
In 1983 he took lead vocals on the Mark Knopfler track 'The Way It Always Starts' from the "Local Hero" soundtrack - one of my favourite soundtracks of all time.
I suppose if you wanted to be particularly critical and slightly cruel it could be said that Gerry Rafferty has the distinction of being a two-time one-hit wonder. That may or may not be accurate but it dismisses a very large and on the whole, passable and occasionally brilliant body of work. In his music he gave this advice ..
"Out on the street I was talkin' to a man
He said "there's so much of this life of mine that I don't understand"
You shouldn't worry I said that ain't no crime
Cause if you get it wrong you'll get it right next time, next time."
Sadly, after a long struggle with alcoholism and later depression, Gerry passed away from liver failure in 2011 aged 63.
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