Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty was a Scottish singer and songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street" and "Right Down the Line", and "Stuck in the Middle with You" with the band Stealers Wheel. Rafferty was born into a working-class family in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland died from liver failure he was , 63.. His mother taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy; growing up he was influenced by the music of The Beatles and Bob Dylan. He joined the folk-pop band The Humblebums in 1969, but left in 1971 and recorded his first solo album, Can I Have My Money Back. Rafferty and Joe Egan formed the group Stealers Wheels in 1972, producing several hits, most notably "Stuck in the Middle with You". In 1978, he recorded his second solo album, City to City, which includes "Baker Street", his most popular song.| (16 April 1947 – 4 January 2011) |
Early years
Rafferty was born on 16 April 1947 into a working-class family in Paisley, a son and grandson of coal miners.[1] He was a son of Mary Skeffington and Joseph Rafferty (died 1963);[2] and had two brothers, Jim and Joe (died 1995).[3] Rafferty grew up in a council house on the town’s Foxbar estate and was educated at St Mirin's Academy.[3] His Irish-born father, a violent alcoholic, was a miner and lorry driver who died when Rafferty was 16.[2] His mother was Scottish and taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy: "My father was Irish so growing up in Paisley I was hearing all these songs when I was two or three. Songs like 'She Moves Through the Fair', which my mother sings beautifully. And a whole suite of Irish traditional songs and Scots traditional songs."[4][5] Heavily influenced by folk music and the music of The Beatles and Bob Dylan, the young Rafferty started to write his own material.[3]Musical career
Rafferty left St. Mirin's Academy in 1963. He worked in a butcher's shop, as a civil service clerk, and in a shoe shop, although as he noted in a later interview: "But there was never anything else for me but music. I never intended making a career out of any of the jobs I did.".[6] On weekends he and a schoolfriend, Joe Egan, played in a local group named The Mavericks. In the mid 1960s Rafferty earned money, for a time, busking on the London Underground. In 1966 he was a member of the band The Fifth Column, along with future Stealers Wheel collaborator Joe Egan. The group released the single "Benjamin Day"/"There's Nobody Here" (Columbia 8068), but it was not a commercial success.The Humblebums/Stealers Wheel
In 1969 he became the third member of an existing folk-pop duo The Humblebums which featured future comedian Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey. Harvey left shortly afterwards and Rafferty and Connolly went on to record two acclaimed albums for Transatlantic Records as a duo. After the two decided to go their separate ways in 1971, Transatlantic owner Nathan Joseph signed Rafferty to a contract as a solo performer and Rafferty recorded his first solo album – Can I Have My Money Back. The album was a critical success but did not enjoy commercial success. In 1972, Rafferty and Egan formed Stealers Wheel, a group which was beset by legal wranglings, but did have a huge hit "Stuck in the Middle With You", which 20 years later was used prominently in the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs. Stealers Wheel also produced the lesser top 50 hits, "Everyone Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine", followed by "Star". The duo disbanded in 1975.[7]City to City/Night Owl
Legal issues after the breakup of Stealers Wheel meant that, for three years, Rafferty was unable to release any material.[7] After the disputes were resolved in 1978, he recorded his second solo album, City to City, with producer Hugh Murphy, which included the song with which he remains most identified, "Baker Street". The single reached #3 in the UK and #2 in the US.[8] The album sold over 5.5 million copies, toppling the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in the US on 8 July 1978.[9] "Baker Street" featured a distinctive saxophone solo played by Raphael Ravenscroft,[10] although written by Rafferty himself.[11] As the singer recalled in a 1988 interview with Colin Irwin: "When I wrote the song I saw that bit as an instrumental part but I didn’t know what. We tried electric guitar but it sounded weak, and we tried other things and I think it was Hugh Murphy’s suggestion that we tried saxophone."[4] The song remains a mainstay of soft-rock radio airplay[12] and, in October 2010, it was recognised by the BMI for surpassing 5 million plays worldwide. "Stuck in the Middle With You" has received over 4 million plays worldwide, and "Right Down The Line" has had over 3 million plays [13]Also from City to City, "Home and Dry" reached #28 in the US Top 40 in early 1979.[14] "Right Down the Line" is the third track from City to City. The song made #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts in the US, making this the only Rafferty song to ever reach #1 on any US or UK chart. It remained at the top of the adult contemporary chart for four non-consecutive weeks. One of the lesser known songs from that time is "Big Change in the Weather" (the B-side of "Baker Street").[15]
The irony of the success of "Baker Street" was that the lyrics reflected Rafferty’s disenchantment with certain elements of the music industry. This was elaborated by music journalist Paul Gambaccini for BBC World News:.[16]His next album, Night Owl, also did well. Guitarist Richard Thompson helped by performing on the track "Take The Money and Run", and the title track was a UK #5 hit in 1979. "Days Gone Down" reached #17 in the US. The follow-up single "Get It Right Next Time" made the UK and US Top 40.
Snakes and Ladders/Sleepwalking/North And South
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, which he felt uncomfortable with.[11]The deeply introspective lyrics of the 1982 album Sleepwalking suggested Rafferty found success far from glamorous: songs like "Standing at the Gates", "Change of Heart", and "The Right Moment" suggest the singer was exhausted, burnt-out, and desperately seeking a new direction. Liner notes for the compilation album Right Down the Line (prepared with Rafferty's close cooperation[17]) confirmed this several years later, noting the singer was now "finding himself at the crossroads and looking to replace the treadmill with a new dimension in his life".[18] In 1983, Rafferty announced his intention to take a break and devote more time to his family: "It dawned on me that since Baker Street I had been touring the world, travelling everywhere and seeing nowhere. Whatever I do in the future, it's at my own pace, on my own terms."[19]
Based at 16th-century[20] Tye Farm in Hartfield, near the Kent-Sussex border, Rafferty installed electric gates to protect his privacy, built a recording studio, and worked largely by himself[21] or with Hugh Murphy.[4][22] According to his former wife Carla, who discouraged visitors: "He was just stalling for time. Maybe some new project would suddenly happen, but I knew he'd crossed the line as far as the record business went."[22] It was six years before he released his next record, North and South. In his 1988 interview with Colin Irwin, to promote the album, Rafferty mentioned that he was interested in doing more production work, writing film soundtracks, and even floated the idea of writing a musical about the life of Robert Louis Stevenson.[4]
Rafferty collaborated with several other artists during this time. In 1980, he and Murphy produced a record for Richard and Linda Thompson; though never released, it eventually evolved into their album Shoot Out the Lights.[4] It was also during this period that Rafferty sang the Knopfler-penned song "The Way It Always Starts" (1983) on the soundtrack of the film Local Hero, and co-produced The Proclaimers first UK hit single "Letter from America" in 1987 with Hugh Murphy.[23]
On a Wing and a Prayer/Over My Head
Rafferty released two further albums in the 1990s. On a Wing and a Prayer (1992) reunited him with his Stealers Wheel partner Egan on several tracks. It included three tracks cowritten with Rafferty's brother Jim, also a singer-songwriter, who had been signed to Decca Records in the 1970s. Rafferty recorded a new version of his Humblebums song "Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway" on the album Over My Head (1994).Another World/Life Goes On
By the end of the 1990s, new technology enabled Rafferty to distance himself even further from the conventional approach of the music industry and work entirely on his own terms. Now based in London, he employed sound engineer Giles Twigg to assemble a Digidesign mobile recording studio and, with Twigg's help, recorded the album Another World in London, Scotland, Barbados, France, and Italy with collaborators from previous albums, including Hugh Burns, Mark Knopfler, Kenny Craddock, and Mo Foster.[24][25] Through his company Icon Music, Rafferty promoted and sold the album independently on a website (www.gerryrafferty.com) created specifically for the purpose.Another World, released in 2000, was originally available only via direct order from his website[26] (no longer active), but since 2003 is available on the Hypertension label. Another World, almost an esoteric work, also with assistance of Mark Knopfler and Egan, featured an album cover illustrated by John 'Patrick' Byrne, who also illustrated the covers for Can I Have My Money Back?, City to City, Night Owl, and Snakes and Ladders, and all three Stealers Wheel albums. Byrne was also responsible for one of Rafferty's most prized possessions: a hand-painted Martin acoustic guitar bearing his portrait and the name 'Gerry Rafferty', which features in many photographs of the singer.[6][18]
Another World marked a new departure for the singer. 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."[27] Finally, thanks to the Internet, it seemed Rafferty no longer needed the music industry: technology was allowing him to put his music directly in the hands of an appreciative audience. In a blog posting dated 31 March 2004 he wrote: "Let's get back to music: after all that's the only reason that this website has been set up." Another posting announced that Rafferty would begin to release music regularly as free downloads: "In reality, Gerry could put a new track out every two weeks or so. We will keep you informed of developments as they happen."[28] Only a handful of tracks were ever released, however, and the website eventually closed down without any explanation.
In 2009 Rafferty released Life Goes On, again on Hypertension. This album features a mixture of new recordings, covers of Christmas carols and traditional songs that had previously been available as downloads on his web site, and edited tracks from his previous three albums.[29]
Attitude to the music industry
Rafferty drew a clear distinction between the artistic integrity of a musician, on the one hand, and the music industry's need to create celebrities and sell products, on the other. In an interview with Colin Irwin in 1988, he said: "There's a thin line between being a songwriter and a singer and being a personality... If you feel uncomfortable with it you shouldn't do it. It's not for me – there are too many inherent contradictions."[4] Two decades later, speaking to the press after Rafferty's funeral, Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers confirmed Rafferty's dislike of celebrity: "He was not entirely comfortable with fame. Even more so than most people who work in this business, he saw it as not a good thing".[30] Reid believed Rafferty was fundamentally unsuited to the pressures of celebrity: "He struck me as a very, very sensitive man and for someone like that, fame was probably not appropriate."[31]Generally an autobiographical writer,[6] Rafferty returned to this theme often, in the lyrics of Stealers Wheel songs such as "Star", "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). The liner notes to the compilation album Right Down the Line, written by Jerry Gilbert with Rafferty's close cooperation, note his consistent refusal to tour the USA and "generally 'play the industry game'."[18] It was ironic that Rafferty—a lover and collector of religious icons, who would later name one of his publishing companies "Icon Music"[32]—was also an iconoclast.[18] According to Michael Gray, Rafferty's personal manager at the height of his success, he turned down many opportunities to work with other artists:[22] "... he retained a healthy scepticism not just about the music industry but about society, money and politics in general. His background was soaked in Scottish socialism and poverty, his mind sharp and his personality acerbic, and he wasn't going to be dazzled by the glamour of success."[33]
Rafferty never changed his mind about the music business; if anything, his views hardened. In a November 2009 interview with the Sunday Express, he said: "The music industry... is something I loathe and detest. It conjures up images of a gigantic factory spewing out parts of the machine. In many respects, this of course is exactly what it is now. Pumping out s**t like there’s no tomorrow."[34] The last word came from Father John Tormey, celebrating Rafferty's funeral mass, who suggested the singer's attitude to fame was an indication of his spiritual integrity: "He always searched for a more authentic way to live his life, shunning the outward trappings of celebrity so that he might live as he chose to live his life."[30]
Personal life
Rafferty met Carla Ventilla (a 15-year-old apprentice hairdresser from an Italian family in Clydebank) at a dancehall in 1965—a story he later recounted in the song "Shipyard Town" on the album North and South. They married in 1970 and lived in Scotland with their daughter, Martha, before moving to the south of England in the late 1970s,[11] where they divided their time between their farm near the Kent-Sussex border and a home in Hampstead, London.[22] Rafferty's lengthy commutes from London to Scotland inspired a number of 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 a number of songs on North and South.Alcoholism
Rafferty told friends that his alcoholism dated back to his childhood,[35] though even people close to him had no idea how it would come to dominate his life; according to Michael Gray, Rafferty's personal manager in the early 1980s: "It never occurred to me in all the time I knew him that he was heading for alcoholism. Maybe I should have realised, but I didn't. I'm unsure whether he did."[33] As the 1980s progressed, Rafferty's growing drink problem placed his marriage under impossible strain[22] and his wife divorced him in 1990,[36] though they remained close.[22] In 1995, Rafferty was deeply affected by the death of his older brother Joseph, an event from which family and friends have said he never fully recovered.[37][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. And I don't plan to be in the public eye too much now either."[4] However, in the last decade of his life, having taken pains to shun the fame and celebrity that accompanied his musical achievements, Rafferty found himself making headlines once again as he struggled with alcoholism and depression and the increasingly erratic behaviour they spawned.[39]
In April 2005, Rafferty was admitted to St Mary's Hospital in London after collapsing at his Hampstead home. According to a later report in the Daily Mail, Rafferty quashed rumours that he had taken an overdose of prescription drugs[37] and revealed the cause "was actually a drunken fall down the stairs which produced a nasty head injury."[40]
Rafferty later sold his London home and moved to California, where his daughter was then living, but often flew back to the UK. In 2006, the Daily Mail reported that the singer had been taken by police in a wheelchair to a Church of Scotland drying-out clinic after arriving in Inverness drunk on a private plane flight after a "ten-hour bender".[41]
Disappearance
In 2008, Rafferty moved away from California and briefly rented a home in Ireland, where his drinking soon became a problem again.[22] In July that year, it was rumoured that his friend and former musical partner Billy Connolly had arranged for the singer to enter rehab.[42] But Rafferty apparently checked himself out and flew to London instead, where he holed up in the five-star Westbury Hotel in Mayfair and began a four-day drinking session that left his room extensively damaged. Speaking to the Telegraph later, the hotel's director, Alex Huggan commented: "It was such a shame. In person, Mr Rafferty was a really nice man, he kept himself to himself and didn't bother the other guests but he was clearly on a downward spiral. He was in self-destruct mode."[43]There were conflicting reports about what happened next. 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. The same report claimed that on 1 August 2008, Rafferty had disappeared, leaving his belongings behind, and that the hospital had filed a missing persons report.[12] However no such missing persons report existed.[43] On 17 February 2009, The Guardian reported that Rafferty was in hiding in the south of England, being cared for by a friend.[44] Subsequently, Rafferty's spokesperson Paul Charles told The Independent newspaper that he had been in touch with Rafferty two weeks previously and that he was alive and well but had no plans to either record or tour.[44] This was then contradicted by a further report in The Daily Telegraph on the following day which quoted from a statement by his solicitors issued to Channel 4 News: "Contrary to reports, Gerry is extremely well and has been living in Tuscany for the last six months… he continues to compose and record new songs and music… and he hopes to release a new album of his most recent work in the summer of this year [2009]".[45][46] The album, titled Life Goes On, was released in November 2009.[29]
The mystery surrounding Rafferty's disappearance was only clarified later. In November 2009, Rafferty told a journalist from the Sunday Express that he had been living in Florence, Italy, splitting his time between a home in Dorset and visits to Scotland each year.[34] But a slightly different story emerged after his death. After leaving St Thomas' Hospital, and while claiming to be in Tuscany, he was quietly moving from one London hotel to another. It was during this time that he met Enzina Fuschini, an Italian artist and designer from Dorset. Rafferty and Fuschini fell in love and rented a large home together in Upton, near Poole.[47] During 2009, Fuschini cared for the singer and tried to help him overcome his alcoholism, and Rafferty proposed to Fuschini at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on Christmas Eve 2009.[35][38]
Death
In November 2010, Rafferty was admitted to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, where he was put on a life-support machine and treated for multi-organ failure. After being taken off life-support, Rafferty rallied for a time and it seemed that he might survive and recover.[48][49] He died at his daughter Martha's home in Stroud, Gloucestershire[50] [51] on 4 January 2011 of liver failure.Tributes
Newspapers printed lengthy obituaries for the singer; in The Guardian, Michael Gray charted Rafferty's long downward spiral into alcoholism,[22] while a full-page obituary in The Times summarized his career more positively: "As well as being a singer of considerable talent who at one time had the pop world at his feet, Gerry Rafferty was also a consummate songwriter, blessed with sensitivity and an enviable melodic flair that at its best recalled Paul McCartney."[54]Other entertainers also paid tribute to Rafferty, with comedian and ex-bandmate Billy Connolly calling him "a hugely talented songwriter and singer who will be greatly missed" and musician Tom Robinson saying, "His early work with Stealers Wheel was an inspiration to a whole generation of songwriters in the 70s, including me."[55] 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. He did it really well and he was respected in both camps."[31] Barbara Dickson also paid tribute to her friend, whom she described as a "luminous, glorious Scottish musician."[5] A spokesperson for Rafferty's last record label, Hypertension, commented that he "was a major talent. His songwriting, production and the way he sang his songs, with that beautiful voice of his, was truly wonderful and inspiring."[56]
The reaction of younger artists suggests Rafferty's music has also inspired a new generation of fans. Shortly after news of the singer's death, Lily Allen tweeted the message "Rest in Peace Gerry x" with a video link to the song "Right Down the Line",[57] reputedly one of her favourite music tracks.[58] Electropop star LaRoux described "Right Down the Line" as "my favourite track of all time. It makes me think of home, nostalgia and happiness."[58]
Discography
Albums
| Year | Title | US Chart | UK Albums Chart[59] | RIAA Certification | BPI Certification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | Can I Have My Money Back | — | — | — | — |
| 1978 | City to City | 1 | 6 | Platinum | Gold |
| 1979 | Night Owl | 29 | 9 | Gold | Gold |
| 1980 | Snakes and Ladders | 61 | 15 | — | Silver |
| 1982 | Sleepwalking | — | 39 | — | — |
| 1988 | North and South | — | 43 | — | — |
| 1992 | On a Wing and a Prayer | — | 73 | — | — |
| 1994 | Over My Head | — | — | — | — |
| 2000 | Another World | — | — | — | — |
| Compilations | |||||
| 1974 | Gerry Rafferty (Rafferty's 1969 & 1970 Humblebums recordings - plus one 1971 solo track) | — | — | — | — |
| 1984 | First Chapter | — | — | — | — |
| 1984 | Baker Street | — | — | — | — |
| 1989 | Right Down the Line: The Best Of Gerry Rafferty | — | — | — | — |
| 1995 | One More Dream: The Very Best of Gerry Rafferty | — | 17 | — | — |
| 2006 | Days Gone Down: The Anthology: 1970–1982 | — | — | — | — |
| 2009 | Life Goes On | — | — | — | — |
| 2011 | Collected: Gerry Rafferty/Stealers Wheel/The Humblebums - 54 Tracks on 3 CDs | — | — | — | — |
[edit] Chart singles
| Year | Title | US Hot 100[60] | UK Singles Chart[61] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | "Baker Street" | 2 | 3 |
| "Right Down The Line" | 12 | - | |
| "Home and Dry" | 28 | - | |
| 1979 | "Night Owl" | - | 5 |
| "Days Gone Down" | 17 | - | |
| "Get It Right Next Time" | 21 | 30 | |
| 1980 | "Bring It All Home" | - | 54 |
| "Royal Mile (Sweet Darlin')" | 54 | 67 | |
| 1990 | "Baker Street" (remix) | - | 53 |
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