Gerry Rafferty dies, aged 63

[Radioman1]

Gerry Rafferty dies, aged 63

The Scottish singer and songwriter Gerry Rafferty has died following an illness. He was 63.

The Paisley-born musician was best known for his 1972 hit Stuck in the Middle With You with his band Stealers Wheel.

He tasted more success in 1978 with the song Baker Street which reached number 3 in the UK charts and number 2 in the US.

The song was recognised by musicians rights organisation the BMI at an awards ceremony London last October, for having been played over 5 million times worldwide.

Stuck in the Middle With You came to prominence again in 1992 when it featured in Quentin Tarantino's Resevoir Dogs .

Rafferty, who battled alcoholism for many years, was admitted to hospital in Bournemouth in November with suspected liver failure.

He is survived by daughter Martha, granddaughter Celia, and his brother Jim.

[Lenny Lovett]

RIP.

Did Bob(I'll hav a P Please) Holness actually play sax on Baker Street? Or is that a myth?

[Tabasco]

Sad to hear this.

I'm also sad when I hear stations play the short, speeded-up version of Baker Street.

The original, full version is 6:35 long as I recall, and not easy to get.

Its the only version Zenith plays!

Who played sax? Raphael (Raf) Ravenscroft.

T.

[jolishan]

As I mentioned on another thread a truly fine writer and performer taken from us R.I.P.. While his work with his ex partner Joe Egan in Steelers Wheel was excellent his solo work was also in some ways ground breaking and was aways a pleasure to listen to. The full version of Baker Street is freely available on the album City To City and although it is a standout track most of the other efforts on the album are also wonderful examples of his writing and production skills.
The follow up album Night Owl continued the trend but the standard of the following two albums were below par and his radio play suffered because of it. He had several radio hits over the years but his last chart hit was The Royal Mile in 1980. A remix of Baker Street gave him a small hit ten years later and of course an awful dance version of the song was popular in 1992 for Undercover. On A Wing And A Prayer in 1993 was his last entry on the U.K. album charts. His one time partner Joe Egan never had much success after they split although his album Out Of Nowhere did produce a fine radio hit called Back On The Road which sounded so much like Rafferty it was hardly worth while splitting.
Jim

[Gadfly]

An older school friend introduced me to his music when I was a young teenager and I've been a fan since.

'Whatever's Written in Your Heart' is one of his best.

[Tabasco]

The full version of Baker Street is freely available on the album City To City

With respect Jim, the version on City to City is 6:11 long and the full version that we have is 6:29!

Sorry for being pedantic!

:)

[jolishan]

I quite happily stand corrected, to be honest I never knew there was a longer version than the album. Could the version you have be the 12" remix version that was rleased in 1990?. There was very little difference between the original and the remix in overall sound but maybe they extended it for the 12" as was quite common?. Anyway you are only being correct and correct is cool ta:)
Jim

[Tabasco]

Well I don't know where our ver came from to be honest, I just searched once for the full ver and found it on the interweb.

I havn't compared the album ver with it, we have the album too, but I think the end is just longer.

I'm sure it'll be played on Z over the weekend a few times!

T.

[AndrewLooby]

It's hard to imagine Baker Street without the sax but isn't it true that the sax solo was a last minute decision by Rafferty when the guitarist did'nt turn up in studio ? I'm working off memory here so I'm not 100% about that ' but I'm sure I read it somewhere many years ago .

[Gadfly]

It's hard to imagine Baker Street without the sax but isn't it true that the sax solo was a last minute decision by Rafferty when the guitarist did'nt turn up in studio ? I'm working off memory here so I'm not 100% about that ' but I'm sure I read it somewhere many years ago .

It would be hard to imagine Baker Street without the sax.

I'm not of fan of brass generally but I love the bit in Phil Lynotts 'Old Town'. It gives me the goose pimples every time.

[AndrewLooby]

" the solo was played by Scottish musician Raphael Ravenscroft, who was in the studio to record a brief soprano saxophone part and, when he heard that the guitarist would not be available to play the solo, suggested that Rafferty record it using the alto saxophone he had in his car.
Ravenscroft's fee was, reportedly, a cheque for £27, which he says bounced anyway and was framed and hung on his solicitor's wall. He received no further payment for his session-playing, adding: "If I had received pots of money, I wouldn't have known what to do. It might have destroyed me."