Gerry Rafferty (with the Humblebums and Stealers Wheel) - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1970-1972

Here's a collection of BBC studio sessions by singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. During this time, he was in two bands, the Humblebums and Stealers Wheel, while also putting out music as a solo artist. So this includes material from all of those bands.

Today, Rafferty is best known for the songs "Stuck in the Middle with You," "Right Down the Line," and "Baker Street." (You might not recognize the title "Baker Street," since it's only mentioned once in the song, but I'll bet you recognize the saxophone riff. Weirdly, the song didn't reach Number One in the U.S. despite being a massive hit in 1978, but it stayed at Number Two for six weeks!) But he was a very talented singer and songwriter who deserves to be known for a lot more than just those three songs. (I use the past tense, because he died in 2011 at the age of 63.)

 In 1969, Rafferty joined the band the Humblebums. The band had already existed for a few years, and was led by Billy Connolly. Connolly wouldn't have great success as a musician, but he would transition to becoming a world famous comedian and actor. When Rafferty joined, the Humblebums split between songs written and sung by Connolly and songs written and sung by Rafferty. The songs here generally are the Rafferty ones. By Connolly's own admission, Rafferty was leagues ahead of him musically, while Connolly excelled in comedic stage banter, which is missing here.

The Humblebums split in 1971. That same year, Rafferty put out his first solo album, "Can I Have My Money Back?" It was largely ignored due to poor record company support, but got good reviews. However, by the start of 1972, Rafferty joined another band, Stealers Wheel. This was a collaboration with singer-songwriter Joe Egan, with both of them writing and singing songs. I'll have more songs from Stealers Wheel in Volume 2. But for now, that band is represented by the last four songs on this album.

The songs here come from a variety of BBC sources, all of them unreleased. The first nine songs come from four different BBC radio shows in 1970. Four of those songs have "[Edit]" in their titles due to the common problem of BBC DJs talking over the music. As I usually do, I used the UVR5 program to wipe the talking while keeping the music.

Track 10, "Can I Have My Money Back," is from an appearance on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" in 1971. Then the last four tracks are from an appearance on the "Top Gear" BBC radio show in early 1972.

Two songs, "A Little of Your Time" and "Oh No," have been bumped down to mere bonus track status, due to poor sound quality. Both of those are from the same BBC studio session in 1970.

This album is 47 minutes long, not including the bonus tracks.

01 Rick Rack [Edit] (Humblebums)
02 Everybody Knows That [Edit] (Humblebums)
03 Mother [Edit] (Humblebums)
04 Please Sing a Song for Us [Edit] (Humblebums)
05 Mary of the Mountains (Humblebums)
06 Cruising (Gerry Rafferty)
07 Keep It to Yourself (Gerry Rafferty)
08 My Singing Bird (Gerry Rafferty)
09 All the Best People Do It (Humblebums)
10 Can I Have My Money Back (Gerry Rafferty)
11 We're on the Right Track (Stealers Wheel)
12 I Get By (Stealers Wheel)
13 Jose (Stealers Wheel)
14 Mary Skeffington (Stealers Wheel)

A Little of Your Time (Humblebums)
Oh No (Humblebums)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/UzwqhSKE 

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/Tp6dht2NBwqFrDT/file

The cover photo was taken in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1972. The original was in black and white, but I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program.