PDA

View Full Version : RIP Gerry Rafferty



EagleLady
01-04-2011, 06:35 PM
He died of Liver Failure today. He was 63

tequila girl
01-04-2011, 06:56 PM
Oh, I hadn't heard this - how Sad........he was one of my favourites in the 70's

R.I.P Gerry

tequila girl
01-04-2011, 07:27 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkS169P_Eeo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSfOB8ANdWU

Prettymaid
01-04-2011, 07:29 PM
Oh how sad! But he left us with some beautiful music.
Thanks for the videos Carole.

tequila girl
01-04-2011, 08:48 PM
I like Stuck in the Middle with You - in fact there weren't many (any?) of his songs that I didn't like...

whitcap
01-05-2011, 12:11 AM
R.I.P. Gerry :(

Koala
01-05-2011, 03:09 AM
How sad! I liked some of his songs very much!

TimothyBFan
01-05-2011, 10:25 AM
OMG---I hadn't heard this. So sad. My husband will be devastated. He loved his music. RIP Gerry.

GlennLover
01-05-2011, 10:30 AM
RIP. Stuck In the Middle was a song I particularly liked.

Ive always been a dreamer
01-05-2011, 12:20 PM
Wow - this is terribly sad. I loved Stuck In the Middle With You and Right Down the Line. But, for me, Baker Street was one of my alltime favorite songs. It is probably the most recognizable sax solo in a pop/rock song ever. I often wondered if Glenn modeled You Belong To the City after this song.

R.I.P. Gerry

Annabel
01-05-2011, 02:02 PM
I heard about Gerry Rafferty this morning on my local radio station. Such a shame. :sad: I really liked some of his songs and have a few on 45's in the attic still.

Freypower
01-05-2011, 04:59 PM
When I heard this yesterday I was quite upset. Baker Street is one of the greatest songs ever written (for those of us who love London it has a special meaning). Not only that but the entire City To City album which includes such gems as the title track, Right Down The Line & The Ark, is perfect folk rock. The following album, Night Owl, while not as well known, is another classic collection. Before he disappeared from view he even wrote another Baker Street type song in The Royal Mile (Sweet Darlin') which is set in Edinburgh.

When I was first in England in 1972-73 Stuck In The Middle With You was one of the first pop songs I heard that I instantly love & I still love it today.

R.I.P. Gerry.

(Dreamer, I think your comment about YBTTC is entirely possible given that the Baker Street sax riff is so utterly memorable, to use a phrase from 1066 & All That).

thelongrun
01-05-2011, 10:04 PM
And they keep fallin' Dear God!

One of my huge fav Artists. By listening to him I used to close my eyes and bam! I am Seventeen again.

Great great 70's iconic Songs. This hurts guys I mean it. RIP the man long live his works. :brickwall:

sodascouts
01-06-2011, 01:26 AM
You know, I didn't recognize the name or even the song titles (except for "stuck in the middle with you") but I looked up Baker Street and I had indeed heard it before and that distinctive sax line. What a talent and what a shame.

AzEaglesFan
01-06-2011, 01:38 AM
I can't believe that I had never heard of this guy. I love the videos. There was a article about him in the paper saying what a great singer he was.

TimothyBFan
01-06-2011, 08:53 AM
Like I said earlier, he is one of my hubby's faves. He was telling me last night that he heard that Baker Street was written by Gerry to basically be his obituary when he died and someone talked him in to releasing it on the album because they felt it would be a huge hit for him.

Troubadour
01-06-2011, 11:24 AM
Incredibly sad. He was a great artist and will be missed.

Willie - interesting tidbit. Kind of gives you shivers, doesn't it? I heard that song on the radio yesterday, obviously in tribute to Gerry.

Freypower
01-06-2011, 06:24 PM
If Baker Street was indeed written as an obituary, those poignant final lines:

But you know he'll always keep movin'
You know he's never gonna stop movin'
'Cause he's rolliln', he's the rollin' stone
When you wake up it's a new mornin'
The sun is shinin', it's a new mornin'
You're goin', you're goin' home.....

sound even more so.

A few hours after I posted here I heard Why Won't You Talk To Me from the Night Owl album. :weep:

tequila girl
01-06-2011, 06:30 PM
If Baker Street was indeed written as an obituary, those poignant final lines:

But you know he'll always keep movin'
You know he's never gonna stop movin'
'Cause he's rolliln', he's the rollin' stone
When you wake up it's a new mornin'
The sun is shinin', it's a new mornin'
You're goin', you're goin' home.....

sound even more so.

A few hours after I posted here I heard Why Won't You Talk To Me from the Night Owl album. :weep:
I've not been able to get that song out of my head for 2 days now!

Ive always been a dreamer
01-07-2011, 12:08 PM
I've been exactly the same way, tg. Ever since I read this thread and listened to the Baker Street video three days ago, the song just keeps replaying in my head. I'm not complaining though because as I said earlier, it is one of my very favorite songs. To me, it has everything a great song should have and then some - great lyrics, great vocals, great music (you get incredible guitar AND sax solos).

Freypower
01-08-2011, 01:54 AM
I don't know where to start with this alleged obituary by Rolling Stone, which claims amongst other things that Baker Street gave birth to more sax solos, good like Urgent and 'bad' - likeYou Belong To The City.

What exactly does that mean? Why was the sax solo in YBTTC 'BAD'? You can dislike the song if you wish to be a pretentious snob, I guess, but why diss the solo?

As for this:

Like so many pop hits of that era, "Baker Street" has a woozy alcoholic-stepmom flavor to it, an overripe sense of too many instruments overdubbed on top of each other in a blowsy attempt to recapture the lost spark of youth. (Jefferson Starship's "Miracles," John Stewart's "Gold," Steely Dan's "Dr. Wu" — they're all coming from the same dark place.)

That is just stupid. So the song is not by Bruce Springsteen so it can't be any good.

Then the writer kindly tells us what the song is about & goes on to put down some of Rafferty's other songs.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/pop-life/rip-gerry-rafferty-whose-baker-street-changed-the-sax-solo-20110105

sodascouts
01-08-2011, 02:19 AM
YBTTC bad? WHATEVER. He's entitled to his opinion, but I resent the fact that he presents it as fact.

YBTTC was not only Glenn's biggest hit (along with "The Heat Is On") but it was the biggest hit of any solo Eagle, hitting #2. I'm not saying commercial success = quality because that's not necessarily true, but YBTTC is an amazing, sophisticated, compelling song. I think the majority of listeners would agree, whatever this elitist says.

But getting back to the topic... I didn't recognize Rafferty's name, but when I went to YouTube and heard the songs listed, I said "Oh yeah - I know that song, and it's magnificent." I love "Baker Street" and I love YBTTC even more. This writer is a dick to use his obituary to diss Glenn. Screw you, Rob Sheffield.

And RIP, Gerry Rafferty.