Rest in Peace - Gerry Rafferty

[Richard Singleton]

Very sad to hear that Gerry Rafferty passed away on Jan 4th at age 63. I love and own several of his old albums on vinyl. Many will remember him for Stealer's Wheel or "Baker Street" from his "City to City" album (an all around excellent album), but the album "Night Owl" was pretty good as well, and had Richard Thompson on mandolin on at least one cut. Rafferty had generated some controversy among Thompson fans who debate the merits of his production of an early version of Richard and Linda Thompson's classic "Shoot out the Lights " album, the version eventually recorded and released to great success was produced by Joe Boyd.

[Elliot Luber]

He was a talented musician and I understand he suffered from a drinking problem for many years. I enjoyed his work. I'm also a big fan of Richard Thompson's, but most of his solo work seems to suffer from poor production, including Shoot Out the Lights. Of course, if you can get past the rough edges, the songs are great. I like the raw quality of that album, much like a rough demo I'd do at home, but it's rough. For example Walking On A Wire is a great example of a fantastic song that just didn't know how or when to end.

[Mandotarian]

Gerry Rafferty is awesome. Can't not mention "Stuck in the Middle With You" my dad has a bunch of Stealer's Wheel and solo albums. He was great at bridging that pop/rock gap not many do that for me.

RIP