Tag: Stuck In The Middle With You

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