The last album he recorded, Life Goes On, was recorded and released in 2009.City to City is the second solo studio album by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, released on 20 January 1978 by United Artists Records. Gerry Rafferty died of liver failure in 2010 after a lifelong struggle with alcoholism. It’s much more effective than taking Prozac!” For me, singing and writing is very therapeutic. It has been through some of my darkest moments that I have written some of my best songs. “There have been periods in my life where I have experienced depression. Rafferty himself said as much, during an interview taken not long before his death in 2009: The rest of the album doesn’t stray drastically from the sounds of these key tracks, save for a few moments, such as the Mellotron-laced intro to “Family Tree”, recalling earlier Rafferty incarnations until the snare kicks in, anyhow, but 40 years on, it proves itself a crucial entry into Rafferty’s catalog – one defined by the consistency of Rafferty’s hangdog persona, and fleeting moments of True Grace™ which suggest a scrubby genius often undone by a melancholy that wasn’t an act at all. Strangely, Thompson’s contributions to the modal-minor key burner aren’t all that ostentatious or especially highlighted apart from some brief chorus or Leslie-rotator-soaked soloing, but the point gets across, and if the track itself sticks out as being maybe a little eager to be used in buddy-cop film, it doesn’t drag, and at worst it’s a bit of a “Baker Street” rewrite with a few moments of inventive guitar slinging.ĪUDIO: Gerry Rafferty – “Take The Money and Run” It also helps that Rafferty was hipper than your average album rock journeyman– a fact well-evidenced by his employing Fairport vet and by then legendary guitar picker Richard Thompson on Night Owl ’s biggest hit, “Take The Money And Run”, crucially not to be mistaken with the earlier Steve Miller number with the memorable drum intro. In fact, it’s that selfsame gravitas that ballasts most of the album, and what makes Rafferty a compelling figure whose music still resonates, despite its sometimes near-bland AOR trappings. The opening funk-lite of the intro threatens to undo the plaintive melodicism of the verse and melody, but Rafferty’s gravitas- probably his greatest, if most ineffable gift as a songwriter and performer- rescues it from being a throwaway on the order of your typical Eagles album cut. “Days Gone Down”’s muted melancholy stumbles into the title track, a behind-the-beat groove with locking, harmonizing bass and guitar riffage recalling slightly Michael McDonald Doobies or Steely Dan over which Rafferty opines effectively on the lonesome grace of the sleepless and obsessive. Gerry Rafferty Night Owl, United Artists 1979 The album opens with “Days Gone Down,” a slightly sour days-passed lament that manages to channel latter-day Jackson Browne without being too slick about it- though the album- with its muted but crisp drum sound, fluid bass, and tight arrangements is indeed state-of-the-art for 1979. Plus, looking back on its 40 th birthday, it’s aged considerably better than City To City, many would say. Recorded and released a full year after the mega-selling City To City, the album wasn’t quite the success that City was, but it still managed to go gold in both America and Britain, and platinum in Canada. Then came Night Owl in the summer of ’79. Both the song and the album it was on, City to City, were gigantic hits, with the album knocking–of all things–the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack off the #1 spot. Yet when Rafferty finally returned in 1978, he finally hit pay dirt with the instantly-recognizable moody sax showcase “Baker Street,” a song which probably deserves screenwriting credits in half a dozen ’80s cop action flicks. But there was a problem–both Rafferty and Egan each were contractually barred from releasing any new music for three years- a lifetime when you’re a modestly successful pop artist trying to sustain a career trajectory. Stealer’s Wheel broke up somewhat acrimoniously in 1975. Rafferty then joined up with fellow Scotsman Joe Egan to form Stealer’s Wheel- eventually nabbing a hit with the Dylanesque, Tarantino-tainted “Stuck In The Middle With You.” Rafferty and Egan followed it up with “Star” to modest chart success, but that would be their last taste of the Billboard hot 100. AUDIO: Gerry Rafferty’s first band, The Humblebums with “Shoeshine Boy”Īfter the Humblebums disbanded in 1971, Rafferty released his first solo album- the well-liked but poor-selling Can I Have My Money Back?
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