KV - A Tribute to Gerry Rafferty

The Humblebums 

Gerry Rafferty's daughter found some of her father's unfinished songs, which a record company has added some new arrangements to and plan to release them on a new album next month. So, I thought this might be a good a time to look at some of Gerry Rafferty's very earliest songs which he wrote when he was in a band called The Humblebums, which was a duo with Billy Connolly. The Humblebums were around in the late 60's and early 70's and their music was very middle of the road (MOR), but there was something quite unusual about their sound, especially with Gery Rafferty's songs

. 

I always had a fondness for acoustic guitars, which I realised only recently was due to David Bowie's, Starman and John I'm Only Dancing, which had these beautiful, elegant, and haunting acoustic guitars on. This love for acoustic guitars led me into folk music, which didn't really work out, but I did get into a band called Stealers Wheel, although things didn't start out very well at first, as I had previously thought that their first song, Stuck In The Middle With You, was one of the worst songs in the world, but when Star was released, a song written by Joe Egan, I was hooked, and soon after that came along the fabulous, Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine, which was a Gerry Rafferty song, and now I was a really a convert, plus I had started to like Stuck In The Middle too. 

Apart from Stealers Wheel, I was mainly into very heavy bands, like Hawkind and Can, but one day I was up London when I noticed a little record shop tucked away in a side street, so I took a look, and it was there that I saw this strange album I had never seen before by Gerry Rafferty, which was called the Humblebums. So snapped it up right away, and when I got home to listened to it I was really taken back as I never heard anything quite like it before, except maybe on Radio 3, a BBC classical music station, which I didn't like much. But I think the arrangements took me back in time to a distant past, and I realise that there was something really special about this album. But the album was only ever for private listening because none of my friends cared for it much, and it was certainly not cool or trendy, like David Bowie or Marc Bolan. This Gerry Rafferty Humblebums compilation album had no Billy Connelly tracks on it. 

I Can't Stop Now 

There are some beautiful acoustic guitars on this track and the arrangements are gorgeous. 

https://youtu.be/SylmkIm7heM

Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway ~ The Humblebums / Rafferty

https://youtu.be/XMw2h4NORx4

Look Over The Hill And Far Away 

https://youtu.be/p1x9k99pUG0

Rick Rack

https://youtu.be/0y3Q4lqxmGA

Patrick 

This was a hard choice but I decided to go for this later unreleased version of Patrick because it's so good and really shows off Gerry Rafferty's fine voice. 

https://youtu.be/hJA-zznTv3c

A good documentary about Gerry Rafferty. He was a very shy person, who sadly became an alcoholic in the end. When they recorded his albums everyone loved going down the pub all the time, plus they always had plenty of beer at the studios. Billy Connolly became an alcoholic too, but later managed to give up drinking. 

Gerry Rafferty was very shy, and after Baker Street came out lots of famous musicians wanted to work with him, but he never took up any of their offers and just carried on working by himself. 

https://youtu.be/55pNVKQLhiU

Part 2

https://youtu.be/ymtq9lRhInc