R.I.P. Gerry Rafferty

I always liked him okay. "Baker Street" and "Right Down the Line" were decent chunks of '70s FM radio fodder.

I felt kind of bad for him, though, in that he's one of those poor souls who had a song that was completely transformed by inclusion in a movie, and now no one can hear "Stuck in the Middle With You" without thinking of Michael Madsen carving someone's ear off.

City to City and "Baker Street" were big hits in 1978, right at the time my family and I were moving from Colorado to Louisiana. So that album and song both bring back significant memories for me. They were part of the soundtrack of that relocation.

They're both fine work in their own right, and time has not diminished either of them for me. And "Stuck in the Middle with You" brings back no memories of Reservoir Dogs for me. I saw the movie just once, and that was enough. (In fact, whenever someone mentions that movie, I think of the funeral episode of the BBC comedy Coupling.)

BTW, City to City is significant historically: it's the album that ended the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack's five-month reign in the #1 spot on the Billboard chart.

Though Reservoir Dogs is one of the greatest and most influential movies (the only one for which I own two DVDs), I don't associate the song. Most probably do, I'd imagine. Still, it had a couple decades of non-association and classic radio status so who can complain? The guy made 100k per year on royalties from the two songs.

The commentary track on the Anniversary Edition of Dogs explains most people believe the scene with the ear is shown in the film but the camera actually pans away. Much more effective; as Quentin correctly surmised.

Genius use of a great song, though I remember at the time thinking Quentin had studied the Coens. (i.e. Blood Simple). Indie film was more incestuous at the time anyway; before Sundance blew up and indie became tiered.
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It wasn't until the 90s that I realized Stuck in the Middle was a poke at Dylan.
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Usually the album version of a track is better than the single version. Sometimes the mastering alone is better; on the 70s stuff the singles were mastered for radio or jukebox. But Baker Street's single version is superior. The album version is a slower take and when it comes on the radio, I've always bristled at the "wrong" sounding tempo, the reverb on the vox and the bongos.

It's one of the greatest arranged tracks of all time. Everything fit perfectly.
The middle eight is phonetically great (when you wake up it's a new morning). Rather than a chorus the opening sax riff repeats. Then, when you would expect the sax riff to repeat, a searing guitar solo rips through and -check it out- , it's off-quantized, giving it the feeling of a statement. When the solo winds down, the sax riff unexpectedly kicks in but it's a tease-to-fade. It's a definitive "late night vibe" track as well. But why? Is it the swells that occur at the end of the verse? Is it the rising and falling pulse?

Whenever I listen to Baker Street, I imagine some fat, bearded, hairy pimp daddy sitting on a chair on the beach surrounded by hot babes.

I've found "Baker Street" easier to appreciate than really enjoy.

"Right Down The Line," on the other hand, is pop-manna, and one of the rare love-songs that is directed at a life-long companion (rather than a new or broken love-affair.) It's one of the few resonant testaments to fidelity and marriage.

So it's a little ironic that Richard Thompson chose Rafferty to produce SOTL. Rafferty's Folly he called it- though most of those mixes have surfaced on comps and sound fine to me.



Post Edited (01-05-11 16:36)

I absolutely hate Baker's Street. To put it in TP terms...It's like the Eagles + Vampires Weekend to me. The funny thing is, I like Saxophone in rock music. It's just a cheesy soft rock POS.

I just meant the way yinz hate the eagles and vp...that how I hate Bakers street. Springsteen, the Stones and Bowie had some sax, all to a great affect. My favorite Thunder's song is She's So Untouchable, maybe due to the sax.

Raphael Ravenscroft is the perfect name for the sax player on BS(Baker's Street.) Very fitting.

Stuck in the Middle kicks all kindsa ass however.

Perhaps Hugh Murphy (producer) was influenced by Abba. It's got that kind of arrangement stamp on it.



Post Edited (01-26-11 17:06)

Um, it's not really a solo, more a refrain, don't you think?

Isn't the 70s version of Vampire Weekend Pablo Cruise?

Respectfully, Totaji, I have to disagree. We've all heard plenty of cheesy sax solos in rock songs. Some, in fact, were so bad that it's amazing the artists in question let those solos make it through to the final mix. The solo in "Baker Street" isn't in that category, IMO ... not by a long shot. (Unless you count the sax player's name: Raphael Ravenscroft. Ewww ... such a romance-novel-cover vibe to that guy's name. Worse than a fat, bearded, hairy pimp daddy, even.)

I got home from vacation and got around to pulling out my copy of City to City. Its best songs hold up very well, even though much of its production is dated. "Baker Street" still sounds great to me, and "Whatever's Written in Your Heart" remains a stark gem of a ballad. But "Island" takes win, place AND show in the International Smarmy Saxophone Derby.