MLK
Sleep
Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thundercloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Rain down on him
Mmm…
So let it be
Mmm…
So let it be
Sleep
Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thundercloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Let it rain
Rain on him
Gerry Rafferty – the Scottish singer/songwriter of such 70s soft-rock staples “Baker Street” and “Right Down The Line” died of liver failure today – apparently after years of battling alcoholism. He was 61.
“Baker Street”, with its masterful, glistening saxophone intro and refrain, was a monster single – reaching #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1978 and still plays Adult Contemporary radio today. “Right Down The Line” reached #12 – both are from Rafferty’s #1 CITY TO CITY LP, which knocked the soundtrack to SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER off the top of Billboard’s Top 200, where it was securely perched for months.
The single version of “Baker Street” (shortened by 2+ minutes)
(2015 update): the original vid posted here was deleted from YouTube, so I had to update this post with a newer video):
“Right Down The Line”:
Rafferty was also a founding member of Steelers Wheel, whose classic “Stuck In The Middle” was immortalized during a torture scene in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 cult classic RESERVOIR DOGS.
The original video:
The graphic RESERVOIR DOGS scene:
Sad news for movie lovers: the great Irish actor Pete Postlethwaite – who Steven Spielberg (who directed him in AMISTAD) once proclaimed as “the best actor in the world” – passed away yesterday at 64 years old. He was battling cancer.
He started acting in TV and film later in life, beginning his career on stages and as director. Notable roles came in the 1996 Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET (he was the only actor in the film to actually speak his dialogue in iambic pentameter, the language of Shakespeare’s play), THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK, the wonderful BRASSED OFF, and more recently in INCEPTION and the Ben Affleck-directed THE TOWN. He’s probably most remembered by film goers for a movie I detested – the 1996 cult classic THE USUAL SUSPECTS, where he played Kobayashi. In 2004, he was honored by Queen Elizabeth with England’s OBE,
Always a force of nature, he was nominated for an Oscar for the 1993 film IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER.
2011’s “In Memoriam” is 12 months away, but the greats are already leaving us.
My New Boyfriend 