gerry rafferty interview

[3] It was the third release from Rafferty's City to City LP as the follow-up to his first major hit as a solo artist, "Baker Street". (Singer/songwriters were crawling out of every apartment at that time.) But two of the initial recruits deserted before they even recorded, and as musicians came and went, Stealers Wheel deteriorated into Rafferty and Egan backed by a cast of dozens. According to Murphy, interviewed by Billboard in 1993, he and Rafferty had to beg the record label, United Artists, to release "Baker Street" as a single: "They actually said it was too good for the public. GERRY RAFFERTY Filmed Interview & tribute (2003) in HD Dave Lennon 1.35K subscribers 124K views 12 years ago From the STV programme ARTERY filmed in 2003 & with cotributions from Billy. 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. [62] While the news stories focused on Rafferty's binges, they revealed nothing of the impact on his family and friends. . What I want is just to develop in terms of my songs and also to work in other areas. "[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. "[11] It was a good call: the single reached #3 in the UK and #2 in the US. I was going through a very strange period in my life right then, he explains with a burr that is thick yet as gentle as his large gray eyes. I totally understand., The same scene play out at Island records: Gerry is left alone with owner Chris Blackwell and afterwards Blackwell collars Brewer and says, I would rather sign Gary Glitter than that man! 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. And theyd pay the radio stations to play the record. 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. As he explained in a press release heralding the new record in November 2000: "My heart and soul have gone into this album, and by releasing it in this way my creative influence has not been diluted in any way. Despite being credited with the song, at least across the Internet, Burton himself hadnt been familiar with Half a Heart. Moreover, he was baffled when I told him that he had been listed as the songs composer. 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 A heavy drinker for much of his life, Rafferty died from liver failure in January 2011 at the age of 63. August 1975. Barry Recap: A Tragic Death Shakes Up Bill Haders Dark Satire "Stuck in the Middle With You" has received over 4million plays worldwide, and "Right Down The Line" has had over 3million plays. [68] Fuschini claims she cared for the singer during 2009 and tried to help him overcome his alcoholism, and that he proposed to her at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on Christmas Eve that year. After they disbanded in 1971, he recorded his first solo album, Can I Have My Money Back? Stay up to date with in depth music reviews, exclusive interviews and widespread coverage of whats happening from your favourite music genre. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library. And for good reason. [citation needed]. [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. Musical is very cyclical. 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. When I reached out to Burton earlier this week to ask him if he or Marcus had ever made the connection to Baker Street, he was caught a little off-guard. The song made No. Its a haunting sound that drops bread crumbs from a listeners pocket for their melancholy to follow. Night Owl Gerry Rafferty Buy album Year of Release: 1979 Appears in: 30 charts Rank Score: 122 Rank in 1979: 145 Rank in 1970s: 1,467 Overall Rank: 9,694 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. [60] According to Rafferty's ex-wife Carla: "There was no hope. It's much more effective than taking Prozac!" The lyric and the melody fuse beautifully and the lyric is complemented by the melody. [38] Rafferty's lengthy commutes from London to Scotland inspired some songs on the album City to City (including the title track and "Mattie's Rag", which recounted his delight at being reunited with his daughter), while the later move south inspired "The Garden of England" (from the album Snakes and Ladders) and some songs on North and South. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Released as a single in July 1978, it reached #12 on the U.S. Right Down the Line - Wikipedia 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. "[53] Barbara Dickson also paid tribute to her friend, whom she described as a "luminous, glorious Scottish musician". The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History 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. "[25], Ravenscroft went on to play on Rafferty's next two albums. It disappeared., But when we spoke on the phone later, hed changed his mind. Gerry Rafferty: The Man Who Hated the Music Business | Louder - loudersound But 80,000? Billboard Hot 100 [2] and #8 on Cash Box. [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". [38] In the late 1980s, Rafferty had told journalist Colin Irwin: "I was always very conscious about keeping a low profile because that's the way I like to go about it. A Scotsman bred on traditional music, he was never a proper folkie - not really - and his alliance with Billy Connolly in The Humblebums at the end of the '60s always seemed a bizarre blend of opposites, though Gerry maintains it was . Rafferty offered to buy himself out of his contract and Brewer turned him down. Words and phrases he used years ago crop up in similar contexts on City to City. Joel Whitburn, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (6th Edition)", p. 493. 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.. One new note does creep in: a hint of gospel music -particularly on The Ark -and with this, a sense of hard-won peace. From what shes said, I believe Linda was quite happy to have Gerrys hands on her, for a time. [17], Legal issues after the break-up of Stealers Wheel meant that, for three years, Rafferty was unable to release any material. 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). 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. This is a great song.. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). If you are interested in the syndication of this Rock's Backpages article, please email us. 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For once, Brewer and Rafferty agreed on something they refused to credit the sax player (demos of Baker Street show that Rafferty already had the melody of what would become the sax part, played on guitar). In the right music it sounds fantastic, its the only way to make certain kinds of music. [24] No such missing persons report existed. "[13] Rafferty later confirmed that alienation was the "persistent theme" of his songs;[2][14] "To Each and Everyone", from Can I Have My Money Back?, was an early example. We want to hear it. They based chart positions on what theyd shipped, not what theyd sold. Rock's Backpages is the world's most comprehensive online database of pop music writing, a unique resource unavailable elsewhere online. Gerry Rafferty at home. According to guitarist Hugh Burns, Murphy's death was "a great blow to Gerry"[42] and marked the end of a creative partnership that had lasted almost 30 years. Enter Raphael Ravenscroft, a session saxophonist who came highly recommended, and the rest is history or at least a hit single. In 2010, Baker Street was honored by BMI for achieving 5 million radio plays worldwide. "[55], Rafferty never changed his mind about the music business; if anything, his views hardened. All rights reserved. It included three tracks co-written with Rafferty's brother Jim, also a singer-songwriter, who had been signed to Decca Records in the 1970s. His next door neighbour was [Island Records owner] Chris Blackwell. By registering for free articles you will receive our weekly newsletter, you can change this preference at any time by clicking Unsubscribe in the newsletter. "[42], Generally an autobiographical writer,[7] Rafferty returned to this theme often, in the lyrics of Stealers Wheel songs such as "Stuck in the Middle With You" and "Good Businessman", and later solo tracks like "Take the Money and Run" (from Night Owl), "Welcome to Hollywood" (from Snakes and Ladders), and "Sleepwalking" (from the album of the same name). [16] Stealers Wheel also produced the lesser top 50 hits "Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine" followed by "Star", and there were further suggestions of Rafferty's growing alienation in tracks such as "Outside Looking In" and "Who Cares". [2] A son of Joseph and Mary (Skeffington) Rafferty,[3] he had two brothers, Jim and Joe (died 1988). "[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. The follow-up single "Get It Right Next Time" made the UK and US Top 40. Gerry Rafferty - Wikipedia 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". Rafferty says working with the legendary authors of Hound Dog and producers of (among others) the Coasters was trying. In conversations with both Burns and Burton, a controversy and lawsuit involving George Harrison came up. 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. Im going to steal something from you., Now, Id always said to my staff, You must never involve yourself in a relationship with any of my artists or else Ill be forced to fire you. [5][6] Heavily influenced by folk music and the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, Rafferty started to write his own material. "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.. His frustration during this period underlies Baker Street, which takes its name from the London street where he often stayed in a friends flat. [15] Twenty years later, the song was used prominently in the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs; Rafferty refused to grant permission for its re-release. He joined the folk-pop group the Humblebums (of which Billy Connolly was a member) in 1969. And Gerry would barge into their umbrella, shout Oh my god!, and as he hit the ground hed take his glass eye out and let it roll on the pavement. "[38], In 2008, Rafferty moved away from California and briefly rented a home in Ireland, where his drinking soon became a problem again. 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. When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, [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.

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