Gerald Rafferty The Musician, Songwriter and Singer Is No More. He died earlier today of liver failure after a long illness.
Goodbye Gerry, your music gave me a lot of pleasure over the years http://bit.ly/dQSk9J
"Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty (16 April 1947 – 4 January 2011) was a Scottish singer and songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street" and "Right Down the Line", and "Stuck in the Middle" with the band Stealers Wheel."
It was publicly known that Rafferty was battling with alcoholism.[11] In November 2010, Rafferty was admitted to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Bournemouth, Dorset, suffering from liver failure. He died at home on 4 January 2011, of liver disease.[19] He is survived by his daughter, Martha.[20]
The irony of the success of "Baker Street" was that the lyrics reflected Rafferty’s disenchantment with certain elements of the music industry. This was elaborated by music journalist Paul Gambaccini for BBC World News:[11]
| “ | His song "Baker Street" was about how uncomfortable he felt in the star system, and what do you know, it was a giant world hit. The album City to City went to no. 1 in America, and suddenly he found that as a result of his protest, he was a bigger star than ever. And he now had more of what he didn’t like. And although he had a few more hit singles in the United States, by 1980 it was basically all over, and when I say ‘it’, I mean basically his career, because he just was not comfortable with this. |
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Rafferty
"Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street provided a welcome relief from the wall-to-wall disco that dominated the UK charts in the late 1970s." ..... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11728112
