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THE BEAT GOES ON

LONDON—Gerry Rafferty is clearly a man who knows how to wait. It's been four years since his last hit with Stealers Wheel, the group he formed with fellow Scot Joe Egan. Most of those four years have been taken up with legal wrangles after that band's management went bankrupt.

September 1, 1978
Dave Laing

THE BEAT GOES ON

Gerry Rafferty: Stuck In The Middle Of Baker Street

LONDON—Gerry Rafferty is clearly a man who knows how to wait. It's been four years since his last hit with Stealers Wheel, the group he formed with fellow Scot Joe Egan. Most of those four years have been taken up with legal wrangles after that band's management went bankrupt. But this year, with a new label, Rafferty came back with "Baker Street," a hit constructed according to the old Stealers Wheel formula.

That formula includes high-pitched vocals with just a tinge of anguish or self-pity, but stopping well short of West Coast wimp. It includes a strong 60's pop melody line and, preferably, a welltried and trusty theme, in this case them old Big City Blues. But as Gerry Rafferty himself admits, "Any talent I have is probably in melodic things and I try to write lyrics that don't embarrass me when I listen to them a few years later. But words are the hard part for me."

Which is borne out all too well on some of the other songs on the current City To

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