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Gerald Rafferty (16 April 1947– 4 January 2011) was a Scottish singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. He was a founding member of Stealers Wheel, whose biggest hit was "Stuck in the Middle with You" in 1973. His solo hits in the late 1970s included "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line" and "Night Owl".
Rafferty was born into a working-class family in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. His mother taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs when he was a boy; later, he was influenced by the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan. He joined the folk-pop group the Humblebums (of which Billy Connolly was a member) in 1969. After they disbanded in 1971, he recorded his first solo album, Can I Have My Money Back? Rafferty and Joe Egan formed the group Stealers Wheel in 1972. In 1978, he recorded his second solo album, City to City. A heavy drinker for much of his life, Rafferty died from liver failure in 2011.
Rafferty grew up in a council house in the town's Ferguslie Park, in Underwood Lane, and was educated at St Mirin's Academy. His Irish-born father, an alcoholic, was a miner and lorry driver who died when Rafferty was 16. Rafferty learned both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy. He recalled: "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". Heavily influenced by folk music and the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, Rafferty started to write his own material.
After the duo separated in 1971, Transatlantic owner Nathan Joseph signed Rafferty as a solo performer. Rafferty recorded his first solo album, Can I Have My Money Back?, with Hugh Murphy, a staff producer working for the label. Billboard praised the album as "high-grade folk-rock", describing it as Rafferty's "finest work" to date: "His tunes are rich and memorable with an undeniable charm that will definitely see him into the album and very possibly singles charts soon". Yet although the album was a critical success, it did not enjoy commercial success. According to Rafferty's daughter Martha, it was around this time that her father discovered, by chance, Colin Wilson's classic book The Outsider, about alienation and creativity, which became a huge influence both on his songwriting and his outlook on the world: "The ideas and references contained in that one book were to sustain and inspire him for the rest of his life." Rafferty later confirmed that alienation was the "persistent theme" of his songs; "To Each and Everyone", from Can I Have My Money Back?, was an early example.
In 1972, having gained some airplay from his Signpost recording "Make You, Break You", Rafferty joined Egan to form Stealers Wheel and recorded three albums with the American songwriters and producers Leiber & Stoller. The group was beset by legal wranglings, but had a huge hit with "Stuck in the Middle with You", which earned critical acclaim as well as commercial success: a 1975 article in Sounds described it as "a sort of cross between white label Beatles and punk Dylan yet with a unique Celtic flavour that has marked all their work". Twenty years later, the song was used prominently in the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs; Rafferty refused to grant permission for its re-release. Stealers Wheel also produced the lesser top 50 hits "Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine" followed by "Star", and there were further suggestions of Rafferty's growing alienation in tracks such as "Outside Looking In" and "Who Cares". The duo disbanded in 1975.
The album City to City sold over 5.5 million copies, toppling the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack from the top of the Billboard 200 album chart in the US on 8 July 1978. Rafferty considered this his first proper taste of success, as he told Melody Maker the following year: "...all the records I've ever done before have been flops. Stealers Wheel was a flop. 'Can I Have My Money Back?' was a flop. The Humblebums were a flop... My life doesn't stand or fall by the amount of people who buy my records."
"Baker Street" features a saxophone riff played by Raphael Ravenscroft, although the origins of the solo have been disputed. As the singer recalled in a 1988 interview with Colin Irwin:
In a 2006 interview with The Times, Ravenscroft said he was presented with a song that contained "several gaps":
In his interview with Colin Irwin, Rafferty disputed this and said that Ravenscroft had been his second choice to play the saxophone solo, after Pete Zorn, who was unavailable: "The only confusion at the time that I didn't enjoy too much was the fact that a lot of people believed that the line was written by Raphael Ravenscroft, the sax player, but it was my line. I sang it to him." When a remastered version of City to City was released in 2011, it included the original, electric guitar 'demo' version of the song as a bonus track, confirming Rafferty's authorship of the riff (which appears in the demo note-for-note, as an electric guitar solo). In the liner notes to the album, Rafferty's long-time friend and collaborator Rab Noakes commented: Michael Gray, Rafferty's former manager, agreed:
"Baker Street" remains a mainstay of soft-rock radio airplay 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. In a 2003 interview with The Sun (Scotland), Rafferty commented on how profitable his biggest song had been: "Baker Street still makes me about £80,000 a year. It's been a huge earner for me. I must admit, I could live off that song alone." Rafferty loathed the 1992 dance music cover version of "Baker Street" by Undercover, describing it as "dreadful, totally banal–it's a sad sign of the times". But it earned him another £1.5 million, selling around three million copies in Europe and America. He never let "Baker Street" be used for advertising, despite lucrative offers.
"Right Down the Line" was the second single from City to City. The song made No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts in the US. It remained at the top of the adult contemporary chart for four non-consecutive weeks. The third single from the album, "Home and Dry", reached No. 28 in the US Top 40 in early 1979.Joel Whitburn, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (6th Edition)", p. 493.
The lyrics of "Baker Street" reflected Rafferty's disenchantment with certain elements of the music industry. This was elaborated on by music journalist Paul Gambaccini for BBC World News:.BBC World News (television), 5 January 2011
Rafferty's next album, Night Owl, also did well. Guitarist Richard Thompson performed on the track "Take The Money and Run", and the title track was a UK No. 5 hit in 1979. "Days Gone Down" reached No. 17 in the US. The follow-up single "Get It Right Next Time" made the UK and US Top 40.
In 1980, Rafferty and Murphy produced a record for Richard and Linda Thompson; though never released, it eventually evolved into their album Shoot Out the Lights.
In his next album, Sleepwalking (1982), Rafferty took a very different approach to his work. Christopher Neil replaced Hugh Murphy, Rafferty's usual producer, introducing synthesisers and drum machines that give the album a harder, less acoustic sound, and apparently eschewing the richly detailed arrangements notable on Rafferty's three previous records. According to Murphy, interviewed a decade later: "Gerry had made three albums on the trot and I think he was pretty jaded at that time and feeling the pressure and he just thought, 'Well, I'll try another tack,' which is understandable". Instead of a cover painting and hand-lettering by John Patrick Byrne, who had illustrated every previous Rafferty and Stealers Wheel album, Sleepwalking featured a simple, stark photograph of an empty road stretching to the sky. There was change too in the songs. The deeply introspective lyrics of Sleepwalking suggest Rafferty found success far from glamorous: tracks 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 – and continued his long-running theme of alienation. Liner notes for the compilation album Right Down the Line (prepared with Rafferty's close co-operation, Retrieved from Wayback Machine archive of www.gerryrafferty.com, 27 February 2011) 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".
Rafferty sang the Mark Knopfler-penned song "The Way It Always Starts" (1983) on the soundtrack of the film Local Hero. Also 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." Baker Street Legend Rafferty Dies at 63, Evening times , 5 January 2011
Based at 16th-century The Weald Database: Tye Farm . Retrieved 25 February 2011. 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 Musician Gerry Rafferty took refuge in farm at height of fame by Lee Moran, This is Kent, 11 January 2011. or with Murphy. In 1987, Rafferty and Murphy co-produced The Proclaimers first UK hit single "Letter from America".
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." His next album, North and South, was released in 1988. In an interview that year with Colin Irwin to promote the album, Rafferty mentioned that he was interested in doing more production work and writing film soundtracks, and even floated the idea of writing a musical about the life of Robert Louis Stevenson. Reviews of the album were mixed. In The Times, critic David Sinclair was particularly scathing: "On North and South, it sounds as if he has thumbed a lift up the road to a mock-Texan bar somewhere in his native Scotland. There is a mid-Atlantic blandness lurking behind the rococo roots veneer."
In the early 1990s, Rafferty recorded a cover version of the Bob Dylan song "The Times They Are a-Changin'" with Barbara Dickson, who had contributed backing vocals to both City to City and Night Owl. The track appeared on Dickson's albums Don't Think Twice It's All Right (1992) and The Barbara Dickson Collection (2006). Don't Think Twice It's All Right by Barbara Dickson. Columbia Records Catalogue Number: MOOD CD25, Released: 3 August 1992. (Retrieved 12 March 2012.)
Another World, released in 2000, was originally available only via direct order from his website,, Retrieved from Wayback Machine, 26 February 2011 but since 2003 has been available on the Hypertension label. Another World, almost an esoteric work, also with the assistance of Mark Knopfler and Egan, featured an album cover illustrated by John 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. You can take the boy out of Paisley... but you can't take Paisley out the boy! , Paisley Daily Express, 23 June 2000
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."News Release, PR Newswire, 27 November 2000. 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. Rafferty felt he had matured as an artist, as he told the Evening Standard at the time of the release: "At my time of life, I don't want to be talking to 23-year-old record executives who are just trying to sell their products to 19-year-olds. I'm older and my audience is older. They'll know where to find me." In the same interview, he said that the entire record had been made for approximately £200,000, with half spent on travel, the recording system costing £75,000, and the website and marketing adding £25,000.
Rafferty maintained his enthusiasm for this new approach to recording for the next three years. 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.", Retrieved from Wayback Machine archive of www.gerryrafferty.com, 21 February 2011 Only a handful of tracks were ever released, however, and the website eventually closed down without any explanation.
In September 2011, EMI issued a remastered collector's edition of City to City featuring previously unheard demo versions of "Baker Street", "Mattie's Rag", "City to City", and other tracks from the album.
Other artists continue to be inspired by Rafferty's work. In 2012, Cuillin Recordings issued Paisley Spin, a remix of three tracks from Can I Have My Money Back? by Celtic fusion artist Martyn Bennett. Bonnie Raitt recorded a reggae treatment of "Right Down the Line" for her Slipstream album released 10 April 2012. Barbara Dickson released a tribute album of 13 Rafferty songs, To Each and Everyone: The Songs of Gerry Rafferty, in September 2013, including cover versions of "Baker Street", "The Ark", and "Steamboat Row".
On 3 September 2021 Parlophone UK released Rest in Blue, an album on which Martha Rafferty completed a project started by her father from demos left by Rafferty. The collection of blues, rock, and folk demos had been planned for a new album before his death.
Generally an autobiographical writer, Rafferty returned to this theme often, in the lyrics of Stealers Wheel songs such as "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 co-operation, note his consistent refusal to tour the United States and "generally 'play the industry game'.", Retrieved from Wayback Machine archive of www.gerryrafferty.com, 21 February 2011 It was ironic that Rafferty—a lover and collector of religious , who would later name one of his publishing companies "Icon Music", Retrieved from Wayback Machine archive of www.gerryrafferty.com, 21 February 2011—was also an Iconoclasm. According to Michael Gray, Rafferty's personal manager at the height of his success, he turned down many opportunities to work with other artists: Gerry Rafferty Obituary , Michael Gray, 4 January 2011 "... 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." Death of Gerry Rafferty by Michael Gray, Bob Dylan Encyclopedia Blog, 5 January 2011
Rafferty never changed his mind about the music business; if anything, his views hardened. In 2000, he told the Paisley Daily Express that the second Stealers Wheel album, released in 1974, had been named Ferguslie Park, after a deprived Study shows 'most deprived' areas BBC News, 17 October 2006 area of Paisley, "to get as far away as possible from all the bullshit of the music industry in London." Monsignor John Tormey, celebrating Rafferty's funeral mass, 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."
After the completion of Another World in 2000, Rafferty planned to move back to Scotland and bought Eaglestone House, "a substantial listed 1860s mansion" in the Highland village of Strathpeffer, although he sold the property two years later and never actually moved in.
In 1995, Rafferty was deeply affected by the death of his older brother Joseph, an event from which family and friends said he never fully recovered.
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. While the news stories focused on Rafferty's binges, they revealed nothing of the impact on his family and friends. His girlfriend Enzina Fuschini said she: "felt that he was under some sort of evil spell. He felt crippled by it... I saw a man in despair". According to Rafferty's ex-wife Carla: "There was no hope. I would never have left him if there'd been a glimmer of a chance of him recovering."
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. No such missing persons report existed.
On 17 February 2009, The Guardian reported that Rafferty was in hiding in the south of England, being cared for by a friend. Subsequently, Rafferty's spokesperson Paul Charles told The Independent that he had been in touch with Rafferty a fortnight previously and that he was alive and well but had no plans to either record or tour. This was contradicted by a report in The Daily Telegraph on the following day, which quoted a statement his solicitors made 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." The album, titled Life Goes On, was released in November 2009.
After leaving St Thomas' Hospital, and while claiming he was in Tuscany, he was moving from one London hotel to another. During this time, he met Enzina Fuschini, an Italian artist living in Dorset. Rafferty and Fuschini rented a large home together in Upton, near Poole. Neighbours of Baker Street star Gerry Rafferty speak of shock at his collapse , Bournemouth Echo, 11 November 2010. Fuschini said she cared for the singer during 2009 and tried to help him overcome his alcoholism, and that he proposed to her at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on Christmas Eve that year. 'I lost my soulmate' says Gerry Rafferty's fiancee , Bournemouth Echo, 3 February 2011.
A requiem mass was held for Rafferty at St Mirin's Cathedral in his native town of Paisley on 21 January 2011. The mass was streamed live over the Internet. Politicians in attendance were the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond MSP, Wendy Alexander MSP, Hugh Henry MSP, and Robin Harper MSP. The musicians present included Craig and Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers, former bandmates Joe Egan and Rab Noakes, Barbara Dickson, and Graham Lyle. The eulogy was given by Rafferty's longtime friend John Byrne. His remains were then cremated at the Woodside Crematorium in Paisley Mourners' Farewell To Singer Gerry Rafferty by James Matthews, Sky News, 21 January 2011 and his ashes scattered on Iona. He is survived by his daughter Martha, granddaughter Celia, and brother Jim.
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." 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." Barbara Dickson also paid tribute to her friend, whom she described as a "luminous, glorious Scottish musician". Tributes paid to Gerry Rafferty by John Kilbride, STV, 5 January 2011 Finbar Furey, who knew Rafferty for over 40 years, said he "was in a different league completely. He didn't know how good he was. He was one of the most talented musicians and singers I ever knew but he completely underestimated his own talent. He was a very humble man."
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", reputedly one of her favourite music tracks. La Roux: Soundtrack of My Life by Gareth Grundy, The Guardian, 25 April 2010 Electropop star Elly Jackson described "Right Down the Line" as "my favourite track of all time. It makes me think of home, nostalgia and happiness."
In November 2012, Rafferty's hometown of Paisley paid tribute to the singer by naming a street in the Shortroods area "Gerry Rafferty Drive". Gordon Laurie, director of the housing association behind the project, commented: "It is a fitting tribute to a brilliant musician who lives on through his music."
In January 2013, BBC Radio 2 re-broadcast their 2012 programme "Bring It All Home – Gerry Rafferty Remembered", which had been recorded live at Celtic Connections in Glasgow and was presented by Ricky Ross. Contributing artists included his friend Rab Noakes, The Proclaimers, Barbara Dickson, Ron Sexsmith, Jack Bruce, Paul Brady, Emma Pollock, James Vincent McMorrow and Betsy Cook. Rafferty's guitarist Hugh Burns, multi-instrumentalist Graham Preskett and saxophonist Mel Collins, were also featured.
Death
In November 2010, Rafferty was admitted to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital where he was put on a life-support machine and treated for multiple organ failure. After being taken off life support, Rafferty recovered for a short time, and doctors thought that he might recover. Hope for family as Rafferty is taken off life support machine by Brian Donnelly, The Herald (Glasgow), 12 November 2010 Rafferty died of liver failure at the home of his daughter Martha in Stroud, Gloucestershire, on 4 January 2011. He was 63.
Will and legal dispute over estate
In October 2011, newspapers reported that Rafferty's immediate family were the beneficiaries of his £1.25 million estate. Rafferty had apparently not changed his will after meeting Enzina Fuschini in 2008 and left her nothing. Fuschini contested the will, but it was later reported that she had lost her case and £75,000 legal costs were awarded against her.
Tributes and legacy
Newspapers printed lengthy obituaries for the singer; in The Guardian, Michael Gray charted Rafferty's long downward spiral into alcoholism, while a full-page obituary in The Times summarised 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."Obituary, Gerry Rafferty. The Times, Wednesday 5 January 2011.
Discography
Studio albums
External links
Categories: Official, 1947 Births, 2011 Deaths, 20th-century Scottish Male Singers, 20th-century British Guitarists, Alcohol-related Deaths In England, British Blues Rock Musicians, British Soft Rock Musicians, Deaths From Liver Failure, 21st-century Scottish Male Singers, Scottish Male Guitarists, Musicians From Paisley, Renfrewshire, People Educated At St Mirin's Academy, Scottish Buskers, Scottish Expatriate Musicians In The United States, Scottish Folk Musicians, Scottish People Of Irish Descent, Scottish Pop Singers, Scottish Rock Guitarists, Scottish Rock Singers, Scottish Roman Catholics, Scottish Male Singer-songwriters, Scottish Singer-songwriters, Scottish Tenors, Transatlantic Records Artists, United Artists Records Artists, Stealers Wheel Members, The Humblebums Members, People From Renfrewshire
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