Gerry Rafferty – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Max Picks …songs from 1978

1978

I remember this year well. The Dodgers repeated a World Series trip but also repeated losing to the Yankees.

Great song by The Who on their last album with Keith Moon. Keith was not in the best shape by this time but his drumming on this is still fantastic. The song is about real events that happened to Pete Townshend down to being passed out drunk at night and asking a policeman that knew Pete’s name, Who the F**k are you? You can still hear Daltrey sing the expletive on classic radio stations.

This one was always a favorite of mine of the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards wrote this, but a lot of the lyrics were improvised in the studio. While the band played, Jagger came in with different lines to fit the music.

This song is a good example of the Rolling Stones tapestry of guitars. Keith and Ron Wood weave their guitars in and out until the two guitars are almost indistinguishable from each other.

Warren Zevon was a very clever songwriter. He went were other songwriters don’t often go. This track was produced by Jackson Browne. The songwriters were LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Warren Zevon. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood played on this song.

This song is one of the best pop singles of the 1970s. It was on the album City To City. This was Rafferty’s first release after the breakup of his former band Steeler’s Wheel. Gerry Rafferty had been unable to release any material due to disputes about the band’s remaining contractual recording obligations, and his friend’s Baker Street flat was a convenient place to stay as he tried to remove himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. It was his second solo album, the first being Can I Have My Money Back? released in 1971.

The album and song were about life on the road in all its glory and squalor. To emphasize this notion even further, Jackson Browne literally recorded the album on the road, in hotel rooms, on buses, and, in the case of “Running On Empty,” on stage.

Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street

This song is one of the best pop singles of the 1970s. It was on the album City To City. This was Rafferty’s first release after the breakup of his former band Stealer’s Wheel. Rafferty had been unable to release any material due to disputes about the band’s remaining contractual recording obligations, and his friend’s Baker Street flat was a convenient place to stay as he tried to remove himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. It was his second solo album, the first being Can I Have My Money Back? released in 1971.

Rafferty’s daughter Martha later said that the book The Outsider by Colin Wilson also heavily inspired the song. Rafferty was reading the book, which explores ideas of alienation and creativity while traveling between the two cities.

The first thing you notice about the song is the sax solo. Raphael Ravenscroft played the solo. Rafferty wrote the song with an instrumental break but didn’t have a specific instrument in mind. The producer, Hugh Murphy, suggested a saxophone, so they brought in Ravenscroft to play it. He was only paid £27 for his sax contribution. One urban legend about this is that the check bounced. Ravenscroft has confirmed that it didn’t bounce.

The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1978. It won the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. The album City to City peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #6 in New Zealand, and #6 in the UK.

In 2011, Ravenscroft said that he thought the solo was out of tune. He admitted he was “gutted” when he heard it played back. Apparently, he had not been able to re-record the take, as he was not involved when the song was mixed.

Raphael Ravenscroft: I’m irritated because it’s out of tune; yeah it’s flat; by enough of a degree that it irritates me at best.

Gerry Rafferty: Everybody was suing each other, so I spent a lot of time on the overnight train from Glasgow to London for meetings with lawyers. I knew a guy who lived in a little flat off Baker Street. We’d sit and chat or play guitar there through the night.

Studio Guitarist Jake Burns: I went to the studio after I played the gig and I think one of the first songs we played was Baker Street, and I said, ‘This is fantastic. This is a great song, quite frankly, I loved his songs. I regard it as a great good fortune that I was able to meet and contribute something to Gerry’s music.

Baker Street

Winding your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well, another crazy day
You’ll drink the night away
And forget about everything

This city desert makes you feel so cold
It’s got so many people, but it’s got no soul
And it’s taken you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it held everything

You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you’re trying, you’re trying now

Another year and then you’d be happy
Just one more year and then you’d be happy
But you’re crying, you’re crying now

Way down the street there’s a light in his place
He opens the door, he’s got that look on his face
And he asks you where you’ve been
You tell him who you’ve seen
And you talk about anything

He’s got this dream about buying some land
He’s gonna give up the booze and the one-night stands
And then he’ll settle down
In some quiet little town
And forget about everything

But you know he’ll always keep moving
You know he’s never gonna stop moving
‘Cause he’s rolling, he’s the rolling stone
And when you wake up, it’s a new morning
The sun is shining, it’s a new morning
And you’re going, you’re going home

Stealers Wheel – Stuck In The Middle With You ….One Hit Wonder Week

Raise your hand if you thought this was Bob Dylan when you first heard it. I sure did…I heard it after I had heard Knocking On Heavens Door and I would have bet it was Bob. Gerry Rafferty was the singer on this song and he wouldn’t sound like this later on with Baker Street. It was written by the group’s guitarist Gerry Rafferty and keyboard player Joe Egan.

Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan signed a contract with an American company and they threw a party in Chelsea. Gerry and Joe were sitting at a table with 50 record executives and their wives (clowns and jokers). They were seated between two rather boring label executives. A few days later they wrote this song. So it was basically a parody of Bob Dylan’s style that poked fun at an industry cocktail party.

It ended up sounding like Dylan. Rafferty said: “That happened by chance, the vocal inflections are certainly reminiscent of Bob Dylan and, if I’ve taken anything from him, it’s his phrasing. I suppose the subject matter and the rather dark humor are akin to Dylan too.”

The song peaked at #6 in the Billboard 100, #8 in the UK, and #2 in Canada. Gerry Rafferty is singing the lead vocal with bandmate Joe Egan harmonizing with him. They were produced by some huge talent.. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. They did have a song that hit #25 on the Billboard 100 called “Star” but we will count this as a one-hit wonder.

Gerry Rafferty would go on to have a huge album City To City that produced big hits Baker Street and Right Down The Line. Joe Egan would eventually have a minor hit with a song called Back on the Road…after that he left the industry. He did help out on Gerry Rafferty’s 1992 album On A Wing and a Prayer.

Quentin Tarantino used this song in a horrific torture scene in Reservoir Dogs to great effect.

Gerry Rafferty: “It was just one of those songs, maybe about how life often seems like a series of events, so everything is related to everything else, no matter how remote.”

Stuck in the Middle with You

Well I don’t know why I came here tonight,
I got the feeling that something ain’t right,
I’m so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I’m wondering how I’ll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you

Yes I’m stuck in the middle with you,
And I’m wondering what it is I should do,
It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face,
Losing control, yeah, I’m all over the place,
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you

Well you started out with nothing,
And you’re proud that you’re a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please, please

Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see that it makes no sense at all,
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor,
‘Cause I don’t think that I can take anymore
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right,
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you

Well you started out with nothing,
And you’re proud that you’re a self made man,
And your friends, they all come crawlin,
Slap you on the back and say,
Please, please

Gerry Rafferty – Right Down the Line

Right Down The Line is a beautiful song that gets lost in the large shadow cast by the preceding single “Baker Street.” It’s a rare love song that works without coming off as overly sentimental. I’m not saying it’s better than Baker Street… but it is an underappreciated gem.

This was the follow-up single to the great song Baker Street in 1978. The song peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100, #1 US Billboard Adult Contemporary and #5 in Canada. The song came off his great City to City album which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Chart.

Right Down The Line

You know I need your love
You’ve got that hold over me
Long as I’ve got your love
You know that I’ll never leave
When I wanted you to share my life
I had no doubt in my mind
And it’s been you woman
Right down the line

I know how much I lean on you
Only you can see
The changes that I’ve been through
Have left a mark on me
You’ve been as constant as a Northern Star
The brightest light that shines
It’s been you, woman, right down the line

I just want to say this is my way
Of tellin’ you everything
I could never say before
Yeah this is my way of tellin’ you
That every day I’m lovin’ you so much more
‘Cause you believed in me through my darkest night
Put somethin’ better inside of me
You brought me into the light
Threw away all those crazy dreams
I put them all behind
And it was you woman
Right down the line

I just want to say this is my way of tellin’ you everything
I could never say before
Yeah this is my way of tellin’ you
Everything I could never say before
Yeah this is my way of tellin’ you
That every day I’m lovin’ you so much more

If I should doubt myself, if I’m losing ground
I won’t turn to someone else
They’d only let me down
When I wanted you to share my life
I had no doubt in my mind
And it’s been you woman
Right down the line