R.I.P. Gerry Rafferty
 

The Night Owl has flown.

Aged 63, Gerry Rafferty died on Jan 4 after a long, downward alcoholic spiral. He wasn`t just the guy who did Baker Street ; his soft-rock successes grew out of some excellent folk song-writing, on albums like The New Humblebums and Open Up The Door .

He was never spectacular or innovative, never out to impress or shock his audience. Instead he won people over with the honesty of his lyrics and the charm of his melodies.
Here he is (I hope) doing what he did best; singing a song of gentle solace about the kind of pain most of us go through :



So anyone who wants to share a memory or ask a question can post here.

RIP. His work, both with Steeler's Wheel ("Stuck in the Middle With You") and solo, was good.

Tom Robinson is among those who were inspired by Steeler's Wheel.

I've never thought much of both Stealer's wheel and Gerry's solo work.
But his album 'city to city' has a couple of songs that are just brilliant.
And Mattie's Rag is severely underrated.

not known much of this.. i say R.I.P

I first got to know Gerry Rafferty's music in early 1971, when a good friend of mine brought the album "The New Humblebums" around to my house to listen to.

I instantly fell in love with his music, his voice, his lyrics.

The album was the Humblebums second album, and on it Gerry had replaced Tom Harvey as Billy Connolly's co-singer in the band, The Humblebums.

The songs were all written and sung by Connolly and Rafferty, and the Connolly songs were amusing, but from the beginning it was Gerry Rafferty's songs that I came to love.

There were a number of great Rafferty songs on this album, but my all time favourite (still is) was a beautiful song called . . . PATRICK.

It was and is a beautiful, sentimental song. It means a lot to me now, as it forever reminds me of the great friend who brought the album round to my house, and whose friendship I was to later lose. It was my fault that I lost my friend, and his trust and companionship, though I didn't mean to. I regret it to this day.

Back to Gerry Rafferty though, and these are the wonderful words from the song PATRICK. If you know the song . . sing along with me . . .


Patrick my primitive painter of art
You will always and ever be near to my heart
I will never cross water, never cross sea
We will always be with you, Jockie, Mally, and me.

The things that we have are all that we need
You have your painting, and I like to
Read books by people of feeling, someone sincere
They remind me of you and what we have here.

Patrick my primitive painter of art
You will always and ever be near to my heart
I will never cross water, never cross sea
We will always be with you, Jockie, Mally, and me.

If in our lifetime we find peace of mind
We'll remember the bad days that we left behind
Thinking only of love and what it can bring
You paint songs for the children, a song we'll always sing.

Patrick my primitive painter of art
You will always and ever be near to my heart
I will never cross water, never cross sea
We will always be with you, Jockie, Mally, and me.


RIP Gerry Rafferty.

What a loss. R.I.P.

Any time someone passes it's very unfortunate and sad, RIP...

It sounds like this album is well worth checking out; one review describes it as "melodic yet strangely enigmatic" and it`s probably his single most successful work.

Patrick is an extraordinarily moving song for me too. It was written 8 years before City to City, at a time when, to quote another review, "Rafferty's songs wandered sadly around the backyards of love, kicking cans and wondering where all the time went."
In his early years GR was a master at communicating feelings of nostalgia and remorse, as is shown in another song from The New Humblebums album, called Rick Rack. In this one, what starts out sounding like a harmless kid`s rhyme ends up by delivering a controlled but chilling emotional punch in the final chorus. It`s an exceptional song, so check it out if you can!

Yes, I love 'Rick Rack' too, and it very nearly got into my 'Top Ten' Gerry Rafferty songs of all time.

These ones are my own personal top ten . . .

1 – Patrick (1969)
2 – Shoeshine Boy (1970)
3 – Night Owl (1979)
4 – Look Over The Hill and Far Away (1969)
5 – Please Sing a Song for Us (1969)
6 – Baker Street (1978)
7 – Blood and Glory (1969)
8 – Keep It To Yourself (1970)
9 – My Singing Bird (1970)
10 – Stuck In The Middle With You (1972)

What I found was, that while the “top five” were clear and definite, the second five could have been any five from the next twenty or so, including Rick Rack.

I have been (as you would expect) playing them all over this last week or so, even more than I have done in the normal run of events, recently.

It has been sad and happy combined, playing these songs. Thinking about it, that is pretty much the way it always has been for me!! His songs are melodic, beautifully sung, and invoke happy and sad memories, now as always.

Remember, these are my own personal choices. I'm sure many others would pick a different ten.

Would be interesting to see other peoples choices?

Wow! This was like reading my own list, with most of the songs coming from those early albums ! I might`ve swapped Shoeshine Boy and Blood and Glory for a couple of his more from-the-heart songs like Her Father Didn`t Like Me and Family Tree, but otherwise I think we`re on the same track.

I`ve been trying to convey the special appeal of Rafferty`s songs, but you`ve done an excellent job of that yourself. Well done !