Gerry Rafferty - City To City (1978) {1995 DCC GZS-1075}
Flac+cue+log | 360 MB | Covers
Flac+cue+log | 360 MB | Covers
| “ | Like a lot of the reviewers, I first heard this album when it came out and of course, the magical, mythic megahit, "Baker Street," was what prompted me to buy the album. After opening with "The Ark," followed by "Baker Street" and "Right Down the Line," the rest of the song lineup -- which has the tunes placed in perfect sequence, by the way -- is great all the way through. Everyone who loves the album has their own memories and mine began with the anthemic sax intro of "Baker Street" as I drove through southern Idaho on my way to Colorado on a blistering hot day in 1978. The Idaho AM radio stations must've played that song every hour as I drove along I-80N as it was known then. The lyrics resonated with me then and still do to this day. I always like to play it when I'm driving on remote, lonely roads in the West -- I always get that old vibe time after time. In fact, I never get tired of hearing "Baker Street," or the rest of the tunes on the album -- which is a pretty rare thing, considering that I've listened to consistently for 26 years! Why Gerry Rafferty didn't become a superstar is kind of a mystery to me, but this album will always stand out as one of the very best rock albums recorded. A desert island disc for sure. Five stars plus. Amazon.com | ” |
| “ | Even in his mother's womb, Gerry Rafferty must have expected the worst. This Scotsman entitled his melancholy 1971 solo album Can I Have My Money Back? (the answer was "No!"). And when Stealers Wheel, the group he subsequently formed with Joe Egan, became an overnight success with the hit single "Stuck in the Middle with You," only to lapse into morning-after obscurity, he probably said, "I told you so." On City to City, his first LP in three years, Rafferty sticks grimly to his guns. Not only does he use the same producer (Hugh Murphy) and several of the same musicians, but a similar un-self-pitying fatalism pervades the record. However, there is a slight but significant change for the better that makes City to City as eloquently consoling as the spirituals Rafferty echoes in "Whatever's Written in Your Heart." Indeed, there's a prayerful quality to the entire LP, a quality reminiscent of the dim dawn after a dark night of the soul. "The Ark" begins as a Highland death march, complete with doleful bagpipes, but swells into a stirring hymn to love. And, after etching a relationship stalemated by the inability of two lovers to express their feelings, the somber "Whatever's Written in Your Heart" (whose only instruments are a piano and a hushed synthesizer) concludes with a coda of vocal harmonies that sing of sublime forgiveness. Hope, in almost all these songs, lurks on the horizon. And when it springs fully into view -- as on "City to City," with its rollicking train tempo, and on the jaunty "Mattie's Rag" -- the music almost burbles with anticipation. Gerry Rafferty still writes with the sweet melodiousness of Paul McCartney and sings with John Lennon's weary huskiness, and his synthesis of American country music, British folk and transatlantic rock is as smooth as ever. But his orchestrations have acquired a stately sweep. For all their rhythmic variety -- from the suave Latin lilt of "Right down the Line" to the thump of "Home and Dry" -- these are uniformly majestic songs. The instrumental refrain on one of the best of them, "Baker Street," is breathtaking: between verses describing a dreamer's self-deceptions, Rapheal Ravenscroft's saxophone balloons with aspirations only to have a synthesizer wrench it back to earth with an almost sickening tug. If City to City doesn't rise to the top of the charts, its commercial failure will be equally dismaying. And our loss will be greater even than Rafferty's. After all, when was the last time you bought an album boasting more than fifty minutes of music? And great music at that. Ken Emerson, Rolling Stone, 1-15-78 | ” |
Track List:
1. The Ark (5:42)
2. Baker Street (6:10)
3. Right Down The Line (4:31)
4. City To City (5:07)
5. Stealin' Time (6:00)
6. Mattie's Rag (3:31)
7. Whatever's Written In Your Heart (6:40)
8. Home And Dry (4:59)
9. Island (5:18)
10. Waiting For The Day (5:45)
Total Playing Time: 53:43
Personnel:
Gerry Rafferty – vocals, acoustic guitar 1 4 5, backing vocals 1 7, piano 10
Gary Taylor – bass 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10, backing vocals 4
Henry Spinetti – drums 1 3 4 5 6 8 10
Hugh Burns – guitar 2 3 4 5 8 9 10
Tommy Eyre – piano 1 3 6 7 8, electric piano 5 9 10, grand piano 5, Moog synthesizer 2 5 7 8, organ 3 9 10, keyboards 2 4, brass arrangements 10
Graham Preskett – fiddles 1 4 6 10, string arrangements 2 6 8, string machine 5 6, brass arrangements 6, mandolin 1
Jerry Donahue – guitar 1
Glen LeFleur – tambourine 1 5, percussion 2 3 10, drums 9
Barbara Dickson – backing vocals 1 7
Liam Genockey - drums 2
Nigel Jenkins – guitar 2 8
Raphael Ravenscroft – saxophone 2 9
Brian Cole – steel guitar 3 4 5 9, dobro 6
Roger Brown – backing vocals 4
Vivian McAuliff – backing vocals 4
John McBurnie – backing vocals 4
Rab Noakes – backing vocals 4
Paul Jones – harmonica 4
Hugh Murphy – tambourine 4
Micky Moody – acoustic guitar 5
Willy Ray – accordion 6 9
Joanna Carlin – backing vocals 7
Andy Fairweather-Low – rhythm guitar 10
Links:
http://rapidshare.com/files/200319648/GRC2Cdcc.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/200321032/GRC2Cdcc.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/200322197/GRC2Cdcc.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/200323173/GRC2Cdcc.part4.rar
Recovery record included in rar files.
http://rapidshare.com/files/200321032/GRC2Cdcc.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/200322197/GRC2Cdcc.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/200323173/GRC2Cdcc.part4.rar
Recovery record included in rar files.
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