Gerry Rafferty

Gerry Rafferty (1980)

Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty (* 16th April 1947 in Paisley , Renfrewshire , Scotland , † 4. January 2011 in Stroud , Gloucestershire , England ) was a British folk rock - singer-songwriter . Rafferty's greatest musical strength was recognized for his flair for melodies. His composition Baker Street (1978) made him world famous and wealthy, as this song is still often played by radio stations to this day .

Life

Gerry Rafferty was the third child of the Irish miner Joseph Rafferty († 1963) and his Scottish wife Mary, b. Skeffington. In his childhood and youth he suffered from the violence and disregard of his alcoholic father. His mother often went for walks with her youngest child until the father fell asleep after finishing work and going to the pub . Gerry Rafferty dropped out of school in 1963 and initially worked in a butcher's shop at the age of 16. On the weekends, he and his school friend Joe Egan played in a pop group, the Mavericks. In 1965 he met his future wife Carla Ventilla in a dance hall, a 15-year-old hairdresser apprentice of Italian origin. He had a daughter with her in 1972, who later worked for him. His wife divorced him in 1990 because Rafferty had also become addicted to alcohol. However, she stayed in contact with him until his death.

Musical career

His early musical experiences included Catholic church choirs, traditional folk music, and the popular music of the 1950s. Rafferty began writing professional songs as a singer and guitarist at the age of 21, and sought opportunities for public appearances. In his early years he earned money by performing illegal street musicians in the passages of the London Underground .

In the late 1960s he played with the beat formation Fifth Column before becoming the third member of the folk band The Humblebums along with Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey . Their live performances were quite popular thanks to Connolly's comedic talent and Rafferty's pop-rock compositions, but their albums were commercially unsuccessful. Together with his school friend Joe Egan and others, the folk rock band Stealers Wheel formed in 1972 , which was considered the UK's answer to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young . After all, they achieved a top ten hit in 1973 with Stuck in the Middle with You , which in 1992 in Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs reached a second larger audience. Some other titles could not build on this commercial success despite top 200 placements, and in 1975 the group broke up. Litigation between the musicians lasted until 1978.

Solo career

At the same time, Egan and Rafferty worked as solo artists: In 1971 Gerry Rafferty released an album of his own entitled Can I Have My Money Back? in collaboration with Egan; Despite the melodiously catchy folk-rock songs, it was not particularly successful commercially. Gerry Rafferty achieved international success in 1978 with the City to City LP . The decoupled song Baker Street reached top positions in the charts worldwide in a shortened and revised form and let the album rise further in the charts. Baker Street has one of the most famous saxophone solos in pop-rock history. The follow-up LP Night Owl reached the UK Top 10 in 1979, the single Get It Right Next Time reached the UK Top 40 , but overall it could no longer match the previous year's success.

Gerry Rafferty's subsequent releases - including his critically received album Snakes and Ladders (1980) - were no longer as financially profitable, which went hand in hand with the takeover of the record label Liberty-United Records by EMI Records. His 1982 album Sleepwalking , released again from the Liberty label, had the potential to become a bestseller. This critically acclaimed album was also played by radio stations less often than its previous albums, whereupon Rafferty withdrew into the family area. In 1983 he contributed to the soundtrack of the British comedy Local Hero starring Burt Lancaster with The Way It Always Starts .

With North and South (1988) a comeback seemed to be successful. The American market reacted only very cautiously. Rafferty's increasing reluctance to perform live and his taciturnity in dealing with the media also played a role; Nevertheless, the record label changed to Polydor . The mid-paced and for Rafferty atypical country number Don't Give Up on Me was also a song often played by BBC Radio 2 from the lavishly produced album On a Wing and a Prayer (1992), including some songs reunited with Joe Egan from Stealer's Wheel as a background singer, and ten years later a near reunion with Billy Connolly (The Humblebums) on his album Glasgow Accents (Stories and Songs) . On a Wing and a Prayer only sold unsatisfactorily, perhaps because this fully digitized production was mainly tailored for headphone use and could only partially develop its charms on older analog systems. Rafferty's brother Jim was also involved in the album as an accompanist, songwriter and album designer.

The bizarre and ambiguous Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway (first appeared on the album The Humblebums in 1969 ) on the 1994 album Over My Head was moderately successful, but could no longer build on its former heyday. Over My Head was Rafferty's first failure in a long time. His last attempts for a subsequent commercial success were the musically complex Another World (2000) and the compilation Please Sing a Song for Us (2004), which were initially only available on Gerry Rafferty's website, which was discontinued in 2006. The LP cover of Another World comes from John (Patrick) Byrne, who is also the cover of City to City , Night Owl and Snakes and Ladders , Can I Have My Money Back was designed and the first two albums by Stealers Wheel.

The last few years

Rafferty lived single in his house in the London borough of Hampstead until 2005 . After a breakdown caused by excessive alcohol consumption, he was admitted to a Church of Scotland rehab clinic. In July 2008 he rented a suite in a five-star hotel in London and received negative attention there. On July 25, he was admitted to London's St Thomas' Hospital with liver problems . From August 1, 2008, he was considered missing after disappearing from his hospital room without a trace. Until mid-February 2009 there was a suspicion of kidnapping, which the BBC was able to dispel; Rafferty is said to have lived the whole time in a country house in Tuscany and also worked on a new album. Some of the recordings for the poetic album Another World , which only appeared on CD in 2003 in a luxury edition of 15,000 copies worldwide, were made in Tuscany and on the Caribbean island of Barbados . On November 27, 2009, the new album Life Goes On was released. It includes new recordings of pieces from the previous three albums as well as new songs that are not exclusively from Rafferty's pen, such as a Beatles cover from the Abbey Road album or some Christmas carols (including Silent Night ).

Gerry Rafferty died on January 4, 2011 in Stroud, England, of liver and kidney failure .

Discography

See also : Stealers Wheel  and The Humblebums

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1978	City to city	DE3 (22 weeks) DE	AT8 (8 weeks) AT	-	UK6th gold (37 weeks)UK	US1 platinum (49 weeks)US
1979	Night Owl	DE18 (13 weeks) DE	-	-	UK9 gold (23 weeks)UK	US29 gold (21 weeks)US
1980	Snakes and Ladders	DE34 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	UK15th silver (9 weeks)UK	US61 (9 weeks) US
1982	Sleepwalking	-	-	-	UK39 (4 weeks) UK	-
1988	North & South	DE20 (16 weeks) DE	-	CH16 (6 weeks) CH	UK43 (4 weeks) UK	-
1992	On a Wing & a Prayer	DE87 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	UK73 (1 week) UK	-
2003	Another world	DE78 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

• 1971: Can I Have My Money Back?
• 1994: Over My Head
• 2009: Life Goes On

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1990	Right Down the Line The Best of Gerry Rafferty	DE62 (11 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1995	One More Dream The Very Best of Gerry Rafferty	-	-	-	UK17th gold (20 weeks)UK	-

More compilations

• 1974: Gerry Rafferty Revisited
• 1978: Stuck in the Middle with You - The Best of Stealers Wheel (with Joe Egan )
• 1978: Gerry Rafferty
• 1981: Can I Have My Money Back?
• 1984: Baker Street
• 1984: The First Chapter (2 LPs)
• 1986: Early Collection - Songs taken from the Albums Gerry Rafferty and Can I Have my Money Back - TRACD 601
• 1988: Blood and Glory
• 1990: The Best Of ( Stealers Wheel feat. Gerry Rafferty)
• 1993: The Best of Gerry Rafferty (UK:gold)
• 1995: The Early Years
• 1995: The Collection
• 1996: Best of the Humblebums (with Billy Connolly ) (2 CDs)
• 1997: Clowns to the Left, Jokers to the Right 1970–1982
• 1997: Gerry Rafferty and Stealers Wheel (with Stealers Wheel)
• 1997: Baker Street / The Best of Gerry Rafferty (UK:gold)
• 2000: Can I Have My Money Back? The Best Of (with The New Humblebums )
• 2006: Days Gone Down: The Anthology 1970–1982
• 2007: City to City / Night Owl (2 CDs)
• 2011: Essential
• 2011: Collected (with Stealers Wheel) (3 CDs)
• 2012: Snakes and Ladders / Sleepwalking (2 CDs)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1978	Baker Street City to City	DE3 (28 weeks) DE	AT4 (24 weeks) AT	CH2 (17 weeks) CH	UK3 gold (20 weeks)UK	US2 gold (20 weeks)US
	Right Down the Line City to City	-	-	-	-	US12 (15 weeks) US
	Home and Dry City to City	-	-	-	-	US28 (13 weeks) US
1979	Night Owl Night Owl	-	-	-	UK5 silver (13 weeks)UK	-
	Days Gone Down (Still Got the Light in Your Eyes) Night Owl	-	-	-	-	US17 (10 weeks) US
	Get It Right Next Time Night Owl	-	-	-	UK30 (9 weeks) UK	US21 (13 weeks) US
1980	Bring It All Home Snakes and Ladders	-	-	-	UK54 (4 weeks) UK	-
	The Royal Mile (Sweet Darlin ') Snakes and Ladders	-	-	-	UK67 (2 weeks) UK	US54 (8 weeks) US
1992	Don't Give Up on Me On a Wing & a Prayer	DE51 (17 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1994	A New Beginning Over My Head	DE67 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-

More singles

• 1971: Can I Have My Money Back?
• 1972: Make You, Break You
• 1973: Everything Will Turn Out Fine (with Joe Egan )
• 1973: Didn't I
• 1977: City to City
• 1978: Whatever's Written in Your Heart
• 1978: The Ark
• 1978: Stuck in the Middle with You ( Stealers Wheel feat. Gerry Rafferty & Joe Egan)
• 1978: Mary Skeffington
• 1978: Who Cares (with Joe Egan)
• 1978: Mattie's Rag
• 1982: Sleepwalking
• 1982: A Change of Heart
• 1982: Standing at the Gates
• 1988: Shipyard Town
• 1988: Hearts Run Dry
• 1988: Last July
• 1990: Baker Street (remix)
• 1992: It's Easy to Talk
• 1992: I Could Be Wrong
• 1992: Get Out of My Life Woman
• 2003: All Souls

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Canada 1978: for Single Baker Street  Netherlands 1978: for the album City to City

Platinum record  Canada 1979: for the album Night Owl 2 × platinum record  Canada 1979: for the album City to City

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Canada (MC)	-	gold1	2 × platinum2	350,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	gold1	-	50,000	nvpi.nl
United States (RIAA)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	2,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	2 × silver2	6 × gold6th	-	1,310,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	2 × silver2	10 × gold10	3 × platinum3

swell

1. ↑ Nick Wakefield: Baker Street singer Gerry Rafferty died at daughter's Stroud home. In: Stroud News. January 24, 2011 (accessed October 21, 2014).
2. ^ Douglas Martin: Gerry Rafferty, Songwriter, Dies at 63. In: The New York Times . January 4, 2011:
   “Reviewing“ City to City ”In: Rolling Stone . Ken Emerson said Mr. Rafferty "writes with the sweet melodiousness of Paul McCartney and sings with John Lennon 's weary huskiness."
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Michael Gray: Gerry Rafferty obituary. In: The Guardian . January 4, 2011.
4. ↑ Can I Have My Money Back? at Allmusic (English)
5. ↑ City to City on Allmusic (English)
6. ↑ Snakes and Ladders at Allmusic (English)
7. ↑ Sleepwalking at Allmusic (English)
8. ↑ North and South at Allmusic (English)
9. ↑ On a Wing and a Prayer at Allmusic (English)
10. ↑ Music Obituaries: Gerry Rafferty. In: The Telegraph. January 4, 2011
11. ^ "On A Wing and A Prayer," Album Credits
12. ↑ Over My Head at Allmusic (English)
13. ↑ Another World at Allmusic (English)
14. ↑ Trip Pictures: Psychedelic Painter Connell Patrick Byrne Draws on Prog Rock, Weird Science, and a Lot of Stuff In Between ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
15. ↑ Jerome Taylor: The lonely road from 'Baker Street' to skid row. ( Memento of March 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Independent . February 17, 2009
16. ^ Sarah Knapton: Celebrity news. Gerry Rafferty happily stuck in the middle of Tuscany. In: The Daily Telegraph . February 18, 2009.
17. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: Singles Albums US
18. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7

Web links

• Gerry Rafferty in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Literature by and about Gerry Rafferty in the catalog of the German National Library
• Gerry Rafferty at Allmusic (English)
• Gerry Rafferty at Discogs (English)
• Gerry Rafferty obituary. in: The Guardian , January 4, 2011 (obituary)
• The lonely road from Baker Street to skid row. ( Memento of March 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in: The Independent , February 17, 2009 (on the hotel affair)
• VH1 Biography ( Memento from February 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
• Gerry Rafferty on Last.fm (German)