Star - Stealers Wheel
Moving from sixties Scots pop to seventies Scots folk rock, in a short time Stealers Wheel, featuring Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan, achieved iconic status mainly on the strength of their single "Stuck in the Middle with You" and their live performances. "Star" was their other hit before splitting in 1973. Rafferty later cemented his almost mythical reputation as a singer/songwriter with the song "Baker Street".
After years struggling with alcoholism, Rafferty died of liver failure in 2011. Beneath the seemingly jaunty veneer of "Star" (even though written by Egan) and songs such as "Stuck in the Middle with You" and "Baker Street", careful listening reveals a premonition of the factor that exacerbated his drinking problem:
"You breeze through the door and when you take the floor you expect to have it all to yourself after all you've been through tell me what will you do when you find yourself back on the shelf"
We all have different ways of coping (or not) when we find ourselves "back on the shelf". The trick is to look for positive outcomes. Like the shimmering piano solo on this. What's yours?
"Ah tell me."