There was, inside of Gerry Rafferty’s most famous album – and, as a solo artist, his most famous song – this sense of rebirth, of finding one’s way again: “When you wake up, it’s a new morning,” he sang on “Baker Street.” “The sun is shining, it’s a new morning – you’re going, you’re going home.”
Forget the way time has softened this tune, nearly filed it down into Muzak. “Baker Street,” and the bulk of Rafferty’s 1978 masterpiece City to City, still sounds like a very adult look back at weary-eyed adenoidal wonder.
Gerry Rafferty captured every teen’s overwrought personal manifest destiny – the record is a damn good excuse for driving too fast with the windows rolled down, because tomorrow’s got to be better and anywhere is better than here – even while he reconciled with finding, finally, what you are looking for.
Of course Rafferty’s voice, sad but hopeful, sounded familiar – even if nobody knew his name, since he’d had a 1973 hit with “Stuck in the Middle With You” as part of the band Stealers Wheel. But that project ended in a nest of legal problems, and it would be years before Rafferty could untangle himself for a solo career.
That time away, then, was part of what made City to City – powered by the singles “Baker Street” (No. 2 in the U.S. and No. 3 in Britain), “Right Down the Line” and “Home and Dry” – such a jolting surprise. The album eventually sold more than 5 million copies, and remained on the charts for 49 weeks.
I’ve always thought, too, that Gerry Rafferty’s City to City sold so well because it sounded like the great, lost Paul McCartney album of the period – filled with shuddering joy yet also a resigned majesty nearly unmatched that year by anyone, Beatle or otherwise.
“Right Down the Line” (No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; No. 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts) belied its lyrics with a refined sense of melodic melancholy. “Home and Dry” (No. 28 in the U.S. in early 1979), featured all of the studio tricks of the era – synths, strings, choirs of background vocalists – but transcended its time with an unabashed hopefulness that’s all but lost in the world of too-hip pop music anymore. The capstone, of course, arrived by way of this souring, almost mythical sax solo on “Baker Street” by Rapheal Ravenscroft (a sessions player who’d worked with Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Abba, and others).
There’s more to City to City, including the gospelly “Whatever’s Written In Your Heart,” the loopy “Mattie’s Rag,” the chugging title track, and the towering yet somehow intimate “Waiting for the Day.” Still, for whatever reason, Gerry Rafferty never settled back into this sweet spot. His next album, 1979’s Night Owl, produced “Days Gone Down” and “Get It Right Next Time” – but neither could get past No. 17 on the charts. Then, he sank again into a curious obscurity.
Until the end of his life, anyway. Stories of Rafferty’s descent into alcoholism became widespread in the late 2000s, and by 2011 he had died of liver failure. In between, reports out of London had Rafferty busking for tips, and trashing hotel rooms. No matter. Yearning yet forever young, my old vinyl version of City to City is a reverie that will always take me back.
Back to “Baker Street,” back to teenage dreams of flight but then, importantly, to our inevitable return. It’s appropriate, for me, then that I still must dust off the old turntable – carefully preserved, yet stored away from my every-day grownup life – to get there.
Gerry Rafferty brings me full circle.
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Yeah, in spite of myself when I hear something from this come on the radio I find that I turn it up. Half the time I end up singing along.
Gerry Rafferty's album City to City
Is my all time favourite.
This is the album that should be given a re-issue and re-master.
with some extras i'm sure it would chart.
To correct the statement above, the last time Gerry Rafferty busked in London was when he was about 20 years old. He is now 62. He can trash hotel rooms with the best of them it would appear, but he is definitely NOT having to busk for money on the streets of London or any other city of the World. He still makes around $150,000 from the Baker St Royalties alone. And it was a 5 star London hotel he trashed……