Always a big fan of Gerry Rafferty - more for the Glaswegian reggae of "Right Down the Line" than for "Baker Street" - I was bound for Stealers Wheel. Rafferty is part of a world of music I think of as being heard over crappy speakers at "the rec park." It includes the great and gross cigar-smoker Bob Welch, a post on him is surely just around the bend. Long before Scotland became famous for Gang of Four emulators and crumpet crumblers, there was Stealers Wheel and the mighty Nazareth (don't get me started). As I got to the end of Ken Emerson's Brill Building book Always Magic In the Air, I was taken aback when I read that Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, after abandoning the fallow field of teen pop, took on the big project of producing Stealers Wheel's first two records. "Stuck in the Middle With You" may have had all of its charm rubbed off by repeated handling, but "Inside Me" shows genetic fragments of what would go on to be heard in Teenage Fanclub. Like "Love Train," this one can make you feel a little unclean, too. "You put something better inside me."
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Well, this site certainly fills a niche. What to call it? "Bad/Good, Good/Bad Music"? "Soft Rock, and Other Things." No irony, though, right?
Is it true that when you look into the void the void looks into you? Oh well, it's your soul, I guess.
Right On! regarding Bob Welch. Dirty, Lord that man is dirty. I've been trying to sell people on him since I picked up a scratched copy of "French Kiss" a few years ago. Can prepubescence be sexy? Bob, says yes. Anyway, I've found in my efforts to proselytize that most folks say "No" to Bob. Maybe times will change. Be sure to give Bare Trees by the Bobbed version of F'wood Mac a try. Not his best effort, but it has the original version of Sentimental Lady. And a song where he does that weird high-singing thing.
You guys are champs.
Best,
Sister Nettie Potts
P.S., I don't understand the exchange between Mr. and Mrs. Lefty a few posts back. Will an annotated version be available?
P.P.S., Thanks for the High Atmosphere. I've carried that one with me for years. I wasn't able to listen to the song from Children of the Heavenly King. Was it "What a Time We're Living In" (or something like that)? Bring on the eschatological raunch!
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