Gerry Rafferty - Nightowl (1979)

The best album of one of the mostly overlooked authors of the late seventies. This fusion of R&B, Rock and Pop with a slight touch of psychodelic elements combined with perfect performance, arrangments and lyrics is genuine and usually underrated masterpiece.
…In 1978 Rafferty signed to United Artists Records. That year, he cut City To City, a melodic yet strangely enigmatic album that topped the charts in America, put there by the success of the song "Baker Street." The song itself was a masterpiece of pop production, Rafferty's Paul McCartney-like vocals carrying a haunting central melody with a mysterious and yearning lyric, backed by a quietly thumping bass, tinkling celeste, and understated keyboard ornamentation, and then Raphael Ravenscroft's sax, which we've had a taste of in the opening bars, rises up behind some heavily amplified electric guitars-it was sophisticated '70s pop-rock at its best [and better yet, it wasn't disco! – author's note], and it dominated the airwaves for months in 1978, narrowly missing the No. 1 spot in England but selling millions of copies and taking up hundreds of cumulative hours of radio time…

…Although "Baker Street" (which appears on City to City) is his most famous song, for me "Night Owl" is his best all-round album. There really isn't anything which could be thought of as filler, anywhere from start to finish. Starting off with "Days Gone Down" and moving seemlessly to "It's Gonna Be A Long Night" it's a constantly high standard for 50 minutes or so. These 2 tracks offer all that is best from Gerry Rafferty, great melody, great arragement, great lyrics. Add to that a fine backing band which includes the backing vocals of Barbara Dickson on 3 tracks, the sax of Raphael Ravenscroft on 4 tracks, plus Richard & Linda Thompson showing up here and there and some great guitar from Hugh Burns & Richard Brunton. It is no surprise that things come out so wonderfully. The classics just roll off the tongue - "Already Gone", "Why Won't You Talk To Me" (Brilliant!), "Get It Right Next Time" (man, even typing this makes me smile!), "Already Gone" and the souring sax of RR on "The Tourist".

A sure-fire classic from someone who is now sadly ignored by those who should know better…

… David Cranson


The best album of one of the mostly overlooked authors of the late seventies. This fusion of R&B, Rock and Pop with a slight touch of psychodelic elements combined with perfect performance, arrangments and lyrics is genuine and usually underrated masterpiece. This CD sounds too good to be converted to MP3, sorry.