‘Stuck in the Middle with You’

Stealers Wheel

Even before he became a successful and respected musician, Gerry Rafferty had developed a loathing for the often underhanded machinations of the pop music industry.

A Boomer Blast To The Past

By RANDAL C. HILL

He was born in 1947 in Paisley, Scotland, a town that borders Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. Rafferty came from a working-class family, where his mother taught him Scottish and Irish folk songs. As he grew into his teens, he became influenced by the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan.

His father was a hot-tempered alcoholic who died in 1963, when Gerry was 16. That year, young Rafferty left school to work in a butcher store and a shoe shop, although deep down he wanted only to earn a living by making music. On weekends, he and best pal, Joe Egan, played in a local rock band called the Maverix, primarily offering up covers of Beatles and Stones hits.

Rafferty later joined a folk pop

Mortal medical mistakes

By CECIL SCAGLIONE

Mature Life Features

When we’re sick, injured or close to dying, we look for aid and assistance from the medical community — doctors, nurses, pharmacists and medical technicians.

Yet more than 250,000 people are killed every year by these same people, not on purpose, but because of errors in judgement and treatment. That’s more than six times the number who die in traffic accidents.

While medical and health care personnel are dedicated to keeping their patients alive and well, errors occur simply because they’re human, and humans make mistakes.

Death due to medical error is defined as one caused by inadequately skilled staff, error in judgment or care, a system defect or a preventable adverse effect. This includes computer breakdowns, mixups with the doses or types of medications administered to patients and surgical complications that go undiagnosed.

Mature Life Features Copyright 2023 group called the Humblebums, which included future comic star Billy Connolly. The Humblebums cut a pair of albums for Transatlantic Records, which received critical appreciation but sold poorly.

When the Humblebums disbanded in 1971, Rafferty continued with Transatlantic as a solo performer and recorded his first album, “Can I Have My Money Back?” His creation received enthusiastic praise but was ignored by the record-buying public.

In 1972, he and Egan reunited, this time to form a soft rock outfit called Stealers Wheel. They promptly struck gold with “Stuck in the Middle with You,” which became a Top 10 single in America, the UK and Canada. That hit 45 gave Rafferty a chance to vent his spleen against the negative forces that controlled the music business. In a voice that mimicked his idol Bob Dylan, Rafferty set the scene for his tune at a record company party that made him uncomfortable being in the midst of the power people he always preferred to avoid:

“Well, I don’t know why I came here tonight.

“I got the feeling that something ain’t right.”

Rafferty just wanted to make music, revel in the satisfaction of its creation and ignore that part of the picture that included insensitive bean counters and friends who were supposedly furthering his career:

“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.

“Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”

He found his frustrations maddening:

“Trying to make some sense of it all.

“But I can see that it makes no sense at all.

“Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor?

“‘Cause I don’t think that I can take anymore.”

Stealers Wheel cut a trio of albums, but by the time the first one was issued, Rafferty had already left the outfit. Stealers Wheel officially disbanded in 1975, and for three years Rafferty’s creative hands were tied by legal hassles that prevented him from releasing new material.

Wheel

In 1978, his 6 million-selling LP “City to City” featured his signature song, the worldwide hit, “Baker Street.” As a result,