Gerry Rafferty - City to City
- FaceOff - עימות חזיתי
- 1 day ago
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Written By: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 20.01.1978
“Winding your way down on Baker Street, Light in your head and dead on your feet, Well, another crazy day, You’ll drink the night away, And forget about everything… And when you wake up, it’s a new morning, The sun is shining, it’s a new morning, And you’re going, you’re going home.”
In 1975, after three studio albums, the Scottish folk rock band "Stealers Wheel" broke up. The split was already a done deal even before the release of their final album, due to management problems and growing disagreements between the band’s two central members, Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty.
Rafferty, who had released his first solo album back in 1971, spent three years following the breakup in 1975 unable to release new material, due to unresolved disputes over the remaining contractual recording obligations tied to "Stealers Wheel".
“Everybody was suing each other, so I spent a lot of time on the overnight train from Glasgow to London for meetings with lawyers,” Rafferty recalled.“ I knew a guy who lived in a little flat off Baker Street. We'd sit and chat or play guitar there through the night.”
Out of the distress and loneliness he felt, Rafferty’s biggest hit "Baker Street" was born. The song ends with the light seen at the end of the tunnel and later became part of Rafferty’s second solo album, fittingly titled "City to City", released on January 20, 1978.
Rafferty also drew inspiration for "Baker Street" from "The Outsider" by Colin Wilson, a book that explores ideas of alienation and creativity, driven by the longing to feel connected to society. Rafferty openly admitted that alienation was a theme that occupied him throughout many of his songs over the years.
Gerry Rafferty was born in April 1947 in Paisley, Scotland, into a working class Irish Catholic family. Both his father and grandfather worked as coal miners.
He grew up on Irish and Scottish folk songs, something that can clearly be heard in the opening of the album "The Ark.“ 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,” Rafferty recalled.
He was educated at St Mirin’s Academy, and later worked in a butcher shop, as a civil service clerk, and in a shoe store. Beyond Irish and Scottish folk music, he was deeply influenced by "The Beatles" and Bob Dylan.
Early on, Rafferty collaborated with his future "Stealers Wheel" bandmate Joe Egan in a group called Maverix, which performed covers of "The Beatles" and "The Rolling Stones".
In 1969, he became the third member of the folk rock band "The Humblebums", with whom he recorded two albums. Shortly after the band’s breakup, he released a solo album, and not long after that reunited with his childhood friend Joe Egan to form Stealers Wheel, whose song "Stuck in the Middle with You" became their biggest hit.
Toward the final part of 1977, after finally managing to free himself from the contractual obligations tied to Stealers Wheel, Rafferty entered the studio with producer Hugh Murphy.
The remarkable Scottish songwriter lays his soul bare for all to see on this album, writing openly about his love for his family in "City to City" and "Mattie’s Rag", the latter dedicated to his daughter Martha, as well as "Right Down the Line", which he wrote for his wife.
Beyond the personal themes, the album is filled with music and melody that feel deeply intertwined, packed with special moments such as the piano and backing vocals at the opening of "Whatever’s Written in Your Heart", the harmonica on "City to City", and above all, the unforgettable saxophone riff by Raphael Ravenscroft, alongside the chilling bass line played by Gary Taylor on "Baker Street".
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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