Saturday, August 30, 2008

You used to think it was so easy

I've written before about how much I love Gerry Rafferty's album "City To City." Not a bad track on the whole recording, from "Baker Street" to "Right Down the Line" - it's all good.

Here's the great vintage video for "Baker Street", a song that still gives me little chills for reasons I can quite explain, thirty years later. Shoot, I was only twelve when I got hooked on his stuff!



Still pretty damn good, today, no?

Every once in a while I scan the Internet for musicians I've dug since childhood, to see if they're going on the road or have any new tunes available.

With Gerry Rafferty, I haven't really had that expectation. I read a couple of years ago about his serious problems with alcohol and public scenes he's created, including one where he had to be kicked off a commercial airliner. Sad, really.

For some reason, I decided to search for him again today, only to find more sad news - Rafferty is officially listed as a missing person after he vanished from a London hospital where he'd been undergoing treatment for liver failure. Apparently, he'd ended up there after what was described as an "alcohol and urine-soaked bender" in a posh London hotel, trashing a suite to pieces. And now, Rafferty is lost, for more than a month now. He left his belongings behind at the hospital and is gone.

Booze or drugs don't always enhance talent. Amy Winehouse is a poster child for that refrain.

Here's hoping Gerry finds his path.

Enjoy another song from "City To City", "The Ark":

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