It should come as no surprise to any of the readers here that I love me some Gerry Rafferty. Anytime I can fit him into a post, I do. "Whatever's Written In Your Heart" is the stand-out track from the second side of his 1978 sophomore solo release* City to City. As much as I love "Baker Street" and "Right Down The Line," this may be the track that I find myself looking forward to on the album the most.
*He had released his first solo album Can I Have My Money Back? in 1971 following the break-up of The Humblebums, his band with future comic Billy Connolly. He then spent 1972-1975 in Stealers Wheel and spent the three years following their break-up unable to release anything as a result of legal ramifications of the band's dissolution before finally being able to move forward with his solo career.
And while we're on the subject of deeper Gerry Rafferty cuts*, here is the second track off of his follow-up to City to City, 1979's Night Owl: "Days Gone Down (Still Got The Light In Your Eyes)," which was recently featured in 50/50. It was his highest charting US single off of Night Owl, although the title track was a much bigger hit in the UK.
*For some, anything past "Baker Street" and the Stealers Wheel hit "Stuck In The Middle With You" are deep cuts.
It's entirely possible that I've put this video up before.
This matters little to me.
I get weird about Gerry Rafferty. A few years back, I bought City to City on a lark, having found a copy for about $4.00 at Half-Price Books on North Lamar. It's the sort of record that can be found at just about every store that has a bunch of old records for less than $5.00.
I bought it because "Baker Street" was on it, and I sort of thought that it'd be funny to have that in the arsenal.
Instead, I found myself the proud owner of a fucking great album with this song striking an even deeper chord with me than the outstanding "Baker Street." One listen will explain it all. "Right Down the Line" is mind-blowingly good and is one of my favorite songs ever recorded. In the history of music.
Unfortunately for the world, Gerry Rafferty died last year. The world lost an angel. An angel who wrote this sweet-ass song.
The criminally underrated musical genius of yesteryear, Gerry Rafferty succumbed to liver and kidney related illness at 63 in Dorset, England. The Scottish singer-songwriter who was once in a band with comic Billy Connolly (in The Humblebums), is probably best known for having co-written "Stuck in the Middle with You" with Stealers Wheel bandmate Joe Egan and having released 1978 album City to City, which yielded the pop song featuring the best sax solo ever* "Baker Street" and the even better pop gem "Right Down the Line."
*One likely responsible for the entire sax solo binge that happened in decade that followed.
Rather than wax ecstatic about the genius that was Gerry Rafferty, I'll let his music do the speaking. First, the stirring "Whatever's Written in Your Heart" from City to City.
Here is a link to one of the three singles off of his follow-up to City to City, "Get it Right Next Time" from Night Owl, and here is a session video for its title track.
And last but not least, one of my favorite songs ever...
I can say with confidence that I'll be wearing my Gerry Rafferty shirt in remembrance of you, Gerry. Now if I can only dig up that photo of me at the Baker Street Underground station...
All right. I really did not want to have to do this. I'm not a big fan of having to do this as a commenter on other sites, but as a result of the often R-rated nature of this blog, I have had to change the comments sections a bit.
Where before there was no need for word verification to post a comment, now there is. I was simply getting too many spam comments. I wish this weren't the case, but when you are one of the top Google results for searches for "Soapy Cock Shots"* and you've got "Prick" in the name of the blog and you liberally toss around the word "fuck" and you have multiple posts tagged with the descriptor "Defecation Sweeping the Nation" and, well, you write a lot of things that end up getting hits that normal well-adjusted bloggers simply do not have to deal with.
*At the time of this post's writing, this blog was the fifth result on Google when a search for "soapy cock shots" was done. I'm sure this post changed that, for better or worse. At the very least, you soapy cock shot purveryors must surely be disappointed. My apologies, fans of lathered up dicks. I can surely point you in the direction of a certain Steve Guttenberg star-vehicle called Can't Stop the Music that will absolutely sate your appetite.
So, my apologies. I assure you that I want you to comment. I really wish you would comment more here. I know more of you read this blog than comment on it. I certainly do not think myself so interesting as to warrant your input/feedback/related story on every post I write, but please, readership, comment.
Now this post has been little more than an explanation for a minor blog change, and for that I am sorry. To make amends, I would like to provide you with a bit of a treat in the way of a video.
And this:
And in three parts, the first time the word "condom" was used on network television:
