Gerry Rafferty - RIP

[ryoder 1,590]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkS169P_Eeo

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[david3 0]

Quote

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkS169P_Eeo

No shit. RIP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMAIsqvTh7g

[airtwardo 7]

Winding your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well another crazy day
You drink the night away
And forget about everything
This city desert makes you feel so cold
It's got so many people but it's got no soul
And it's taken you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it held everything
You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you're trying, you're trying now
Another year and then you'll be happy
Just one more year and then you'll be happy
But you're crying, you're crying now

Way down the street there's a light in his place
He opens the door, he's got that look on his face
And he asks where you've been
You tell him who you've seen
And you talk about anything
He's got this dream about buying some land
He's gonna give up the booze and the one night stands
And then he'll settle down
In this quiet little town
And forget about everything

But you know he'll always keep moving
You know, he's never gonna stop moving
Cause he's rolling, he's the rolling stone
When you wake up, it's a new morning
The sun is shining, it's a new morning
When you're going, you're going home

A 'coming of age' song about a young man finding, or figuring out his way in life.
He thinks that last year at this time, he thought he'd be somewhere else by now, not here.

He thought it would be easy to get out whenever he wanted-"just one more year, and then you'll be happy."

He happens upon the residence of a friend, an older friend, and he realizes that his friend was once young, and thought that he, too, would be somewhere better, different.

But, his dream about buying land and giving up booze and settling down never came to fruition, and the younger man knows that it will never happen, just as his dreams of moving onto a new chapter in life will never come true.

The song captured what many of us were going through when it came out, the guy struck a nerve in special way...first song I put on my 1st ipod~ RIP Gerry

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[Guest]

I can only think of one of his own songs as an epitaph--

"See the dark night has come down on us
The world is living in its dream
But now we know that we can wake up from this sleep
And set out on a journey
Find a ship
To take us all away"

RIP Gerry. You have no idea how much your music meant to me, especially Night Owl, and the the song you loved the best, "The Right Moment". Your moment has come. Go easy.

mh
.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[usedtajump 1]

After all these years, I'll still stop what I'm doing and happily listen when either "Baker Street" or "Right Down The Line" is played, good stuff, good times. Rock on Gerry, RIP.

The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

[MikeJD 0]

Yeah, that's one of those songs that everybody loves, I think. I remember hearing that the celebrated sax riff was originally meant to be a guitar line - wouldn't have been the same.

Sad that he died so young - only 63. And that he had his own problems trying to 'give up the booze.'

[tbrown 26]

So sorry to hear this. Some songs carry you straight back to a place in time. Baker Street takes me back to the 1978 Nationals Boogie in Richmond, jumping from Mr. Douglas, followed by my first days arriving on the west coast. BSBD Jerry & thanks.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[skydiver30960 0]

I have been listening to this song quite a bit lately. I know I'm not as old as some on the board, but at the age of 36 I'm (finally) beginning to get in touch with my own mortality. As I find myself trudging ever onward in my current struggle to meet my next life goal (flight nursing) the song gives me two separate and in some ways contradictory feelings:

1.) Life is short, get your ass in gear and meet your goals while you can;

and

2.) The search for happiness over the next horizon is fruitless. Find happiness where you are, it's the only way you'll ever be able to enjoy it.

I guess his death just adds to the emotional befuddlement I feel when I hear the song...

Elvisio "btw the original is way better than the Foo Fighters version you young wippersnappers have heard first" Rodriguez

[JohnMitchell 16]

Loved that song. What a great voice. Sounds like he drank himself to death. It's a shame to lose such a beautiful talent too early. RIP.

[freeflynick 0]

One truely great musician.

Little know fact - one of the funniest men alive, Billy Connelly, used to be in a band with Rafferty called the Humblebums.

RIP Gerry....

Hobbes: "How come we play 'War' and not 'Peace'?"
Calvin: "Too few role models."