CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Not Vanishing: Contemporary Expressions In Indigenous Art, 1977-2015 will be at the Missoula, Montana Art Museum through December 10th.
Now in Missoula, MontanaTHE OTHER NIGHT one of my Top Comments colleagues wrote about the convicted Massey Energy CEO, Don Blankenship— who was sentenced to one year for lack of safety standards at his mine where 29 workers lost their lives — and how he considers himself a “political prisoner”. He’s in good company:
Blankenship: “In fact, (I am) more than 100 percent innocent.”
Richard Nixon: "People have got to know ... whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook”.
And then, this from Sepp Blatter— former head of FIFA (soccer’s international governing body) just before he was thrown out …. and I don’t think you need to be fluent in German on this:
“I am not corrupt”, natchHAIL and FAREWELL to the Italian Nobel Prize-winning playwright Dario Fo— whose Accidental Death of an Anarchist was a delight to see (and laugh) at if you ever have the chance — who has died at the age of 90. Italy’s prime minister Matteo Renzi observed, “His satire, his research, his work on set design, his multi-faceted artistic activity remain the legacy of a great Italian in the world.”
THAT SAME DAY prime minister Matteo Renzi tweeted— "While we are at work on the budget numbers, we get the news of Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for literature. Poetry wins, always".
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Valentino the Cat— a kitteh who wandered into the library at Haverford College in Pennsylvania last December … and became a fixture around campus. Now, due to an injury: school officials are looking for a permanent home for the HaverCat.
Valentino the Haverford CatJEERS to the 88 year-old patriarch of the far-right xenophobic National Front party in France, Jean Le Pen— who has a telescope in the window of his house, expecting migrants to “submerge” France — who believes he paved the way for (and has endorsed) you-know-who … yet is resentful that his daughter Marine (who has tried to clean-up the party’s image, to some extent) might get the “credit”, so-to-speak, for the rise of xenophobia.
A NOTE on today’s poll …. until Election Day, I doubt that I will be listing the Trumpster as a choice. It looks like he will be the loser of each week, and so rather than do compilation work for a walk-over poll, I will ask “Who came in second place?” — unless circumstances dictate. My poll after the election will be rather short, I imagine. :-)
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Tink the Cat— an English kitteh who wandered into an auto repair/rental agency four years ago, and has become a favorite in the office and with customers.
Tink the CatBRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
JEERS to the conservative prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull— who is unwilling to hold a parliamentary vote on legalizing same-sex marriage (afraid of his right-wing caucus) and is instead only willing to hold a non-binding plebiscite — which his thin-majority caucus could ignore.
SEPARATED at BIRTH — Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) — now a manservant to you-know-who — and television character Robert "Bobby Bacala" Baccalieri (as portrayed by actor Steve Schirripa) — a manservant to Tony Soprano.
Gov. Chris Christie Steve “Bobby B.” Schirripa...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… yet again a hectic week, so am unable to do a full profile. Instead: a look at a solo of a song that has endured for over thirty-five years …. with a controversy only recently becoming relevant.
And this is the 1978 song by the late Scottish musician Gerry Rafferty that made it to #2 (in the US) and #3 (in Britain), Baker Street— and its memorable saxophone solo that is at the heart of this disagreement. First, a look at Gerry Rafferty’s life.
Born in Scotland in 1947, he first came to note in the UK in a band called The Humblebums— with one of his bandmates being Billy Connolly, whose comedy came to dominate the band, eventually leading to a break-up in 1971. Connolly went on to a major career as a comedian in Britain.
Out of this, Rafferty formed a band called Stealers Wheel ... which had the potential to be a major act in the UK (and beyond) after the huge success of their 1972 hit Stuck in the Middle with You— if you ask someone of-a-certain-age to complete the sentence “Clowns to the left of me … jokers to the right” …… odds are they can. Yet the band could not follow-up, disbanded in 1975 and three years of protracted legal battles kept Rafferty sidelined until 1978.
He was finally able to release his seminal album City to City— which topped the album charts in the US in the first half of 1978 (and which I recall being a radio staple in my last semester of college). One of the album’s singles was Right Down the Line— reaching #12 in the US charts — yet it was Baker Street that had the potential to make Gerry Rafferty a household name around the world.
He did not become so … because Gerry Rafferty did not launch a North American tour in support of the album — a product if his being “iconoclastic and reclusive”, according to the All-Music Guide’s Bruce Eder. His next few albums (from 1979-1982) did not sell as well (also without touring) and after a few year’s hiatus came back from 1988-1994 with some modestly-selling albums in the UK.
His final album was released in 2000, and he spent his remaining years as a recluse and alcoholic. Gerry Rafferty died in January, 2011 (of liver failure) at the age of 63.
Gerry Rafferty (in the 70’s) … and Gerry later in lifeWhen it came to the 1978 recording of the song Baker Street: here is where the controversy begins. According to the Scottish session guitarist Hugh Burns (whom I saw perform with Jack Bruce in New York a year earlier in 1977), he says that Gerry Rafferty had recorded a rough demo of the song, with the famous solo played (more-or-less) how it was later heard. Yet when Burns played it in rehearsals, he and Rafferty agreed it didn’t work as a guitar part — and thought a tenor saxophone was called for.
Session guitarist Hugh BurnsEnter a then-unknown session musician Raphael Ravenscroft— who claims the song that was presented to him had gaps, and that he did not play a transcribed solo. However, a 2011 re-release of City to City contained the early demo, with Rafferty sketching-out the solo (again, more-or-less).
Either way, Ravenscroft was only paid £27 for his work (while the song made millions) although he denied a story reported later that his check had bounced. Based on the notoriety of his playing — which some music writers consider the most famous saxophone solo in pop music history — Raphael Ravenscroft went on to a session career that included recording with the likes of Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, Kim Carnes, Robert Plant, Daft Punk and Bonnie Tyler before his death in October, 2014 at the age of 60.
Raphael Ravenscroft (70’s) … Ravenscroft later in lifeI have already noted the controversy over who conceived the solo (Rafferty or Ravenscroft) although — either way — it was Ravenscroft’s searing tone that made it special, as Rafferty and High Burns imagined. Then, an extensive article in the Atlantic magazine last December suggests an even earlier antecedent, some ten years before the recording of Baker Street.
A 1968 album by the jazz saxophonist Steve Marcus entitled Tomorrow Never Knows— yes with its title track being the Beatles song — contains a song entitled Half a Heart— whose first 1/2 minute sounding somewhat like the riff made famous by Gerry Rafferty’s song.
x YouTube VideoSteve Marcus died in 2005, and so is not around to weigh-in. But to add even more intrigue: Marcus lists as the song’s composer the legendary jazz musician and Berklee College of Music president Gary Burton— whom I profiled in a Top Comments essay two years ago — and Burton seemed baffled (when contacted by the Atlantic essayist Adam Chandler) as to why Marcus had credited him with writing the song — perhaps as a gift (for Burton having used him as a sideman?)
Then, in the course of several e-mail conversations, Burton wavered a bit before allowing that maybe Rafferty or Ravenscroft had heard Marcus’s song — or not? If you’re interested, read the entire Atlantic article— it is a wonderful piece of detective work by Adam Chandler.
To conclude: the song is about Gerry Rafferty’s travelling from Scotland to London (via overnight train) during the legal battles about the dissolution of the band Stealers Wheel. He stayed at a friend’s home on Baker Street in London, and often drank to get over the pain — perhaps the most sentimental of all of Gerry Rafferty’s songs.
In 2010, the song was honored by music rights organization BMI for surpassing five million radio performances worldwide — and below you can hear it.
Way down the street there's a light in his place You open the door, he's got that look on his face And he asks you where you've been, you tell him who you've seen And you talk about anything He's got this dream about buyin' some land He's gonna give up the booze and the one night stands And then he'll settle down, it's a 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 rollin — He's the rolling stone And when you wake up it's a new morning The sun is shining, it's a new morning And you're going, you're going home
x YouTube Video