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This article refers to the cooking profession. For other uses, see Baker (disambiguation)

A baker moves a tray of hot, freshly baked rolls onto a cooling rack on a ship.

A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades. The place where a baker works is called a bakery.

Origin[link]

The first group of people to bake bread were ancient Egyptians, around 8000 BC. During the Middle Ages it was common for each landlord to have a bakery, which was actually a public oven; Housewives would bring dough that they had prepared to the baker, who would tend the oven and bake them into bread. As time went on, bakers would also sell their own goods, and in that some bakers acted dishonestly, tricks emerged: for example, a baker would have trap door(s) in the oven or other obscured areas, that would allow a hidden small boy or other apprentice to take off some of the dough brought in for baking. Then the dishonest baker would sell bread made with the stolen dough as their own. This practice and others eventually lead to the famous regulation known as Assize of Bread and Ale, which prescribed harsh penalties for bakers that were found cheating their clients or customers. As a safeguard against cheating, under-filled orders, or any appearance of impropriety, bakers commonly began to throw in one more loaf of bread; this tradition now exists in the phrase "baker's dozen", which is 13.

Modern bakers[link]

Today bakers work in varying environments both as employees and sometimes owning their own stores. Bakers can be found working in:

• Large factories. These produce bread and related products which are then transported to numerous selling points throughout a region. These normally include supermarkets, convenience stores, and the like. Bakers in these environments are largely there for quality control as machines take care of much of the labour intensive aspect of the job.
• Small Independent bakeries. These are largely family-run businesses. They may specialise in particular types of products, such as sourdough.
• Chain stores. Recent years have seen the rise of chain stores selling the same range of products. Bakers in these stores bake according to a pre-determined recipe book. This can lead to frustration as some bakers do not agree with techniques used by the franchising model. However, the recipes used tend to be well-founded, and popular with the paying public.

See also[link]

• Baker's percentage
• Bread machine
• Cake shop
• Chorleywood Bread Process
• Dough
• Knead
• Pastry chef
• Pâtisserie
• Peel
• Peeta Mellark

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Baker

Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker in her famous banana striptease costume.
Background information
Birth name	Freda Josephine McDonald
Born	(1906-06-03)June 3, 1906 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.[1][2]
Died	April 12, 1975(1975-04-12) (aged 68) Paris, France
Genres	Cabaret, Music hall, French pop, French jazz
Occupations	Dancer, singer, actress, Civil Rights Activist, spy
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1921–1975
Labels	Columbia, Mercury, RCA Victor
Website	Josephine Baker profile

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, she became a citizen of France in 1937. Fluent in both English and French, Baker became an international musical and political icon. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess".

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture,^[which?] to integrate an American concert hall,^{[citation needed]} and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down),^[3] for assisting the French Resistance during World War II,^[4] and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.

Early life[link]

Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri,^[1][2] the daughter of Carrie McDonald. Her estate identifies vaudeville drummer Eddie Carson as her natural father.^[5] A biography written by her foster son Jean-Claude Baker stated:

… (Josephine Baker's) father was identified (on the birth certificate) simply as "Edw" … I think Josephine's father was white—so did Josephine, so did her family … people in St. Louis say that (Josephine's mother) had worked for a German family (around the time she became pregnant). (Carrie) let people think Eddie Carson was the father, and Carson played along … (but) Josephine knew better.^[6]

Her mother, Carrie, was adopted in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1886 by Richard and Elvira McDonald, both of whom were former slaves of African and Native American descent.^[6] When Baker was eight she was sent to work for a white woman who abused her, burning Baker's hands when she put too much soap in the laundry. She later went to work for another woman.

Baker dropped out of school at the age of 12 and lived as a street child in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters and scavenging for food in garbage cans.^[7] Her street-corner dancing attracted attention and she was recruited for the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show at 15. She then headed to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, performing at the Plantation Club and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues Shuffle Along (1921) with Adelaide Hall and The Chocolate Dandies (1924). She performed as the last dancer in a chorus line, a position in which the dancer traditionally performed in a comic manner, as if she was unable to remember the dance, until the encore, at which point she would not only perform it correctly, but with additional complexity. Baker was then billed as "the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville".^{[citation needed]}

On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage. After a successful tour of Europe, she reneged on her contract and returned to France to star at the Folies Bergères, setting the standard for her future acts. She performed the Danse sauvage, wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas. Her success coincided (1925) with the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave birth to the term "Art Deco", and also with a renewal of interest in ethnic forms of art, including African. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion. In later shows in Paris she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar. The cheetah frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it terrorized the musicians, adding another element of excitement to the show.^{[citation needed]}

Rise to fame[link]

After a short while she was the most successful American entertainer working in France. Ernest Hemingway called her "… the most sensational woman anyone ever saw."^[8][9] In addition to being a musical star, Baker also starred in three films which found success only in Europe: the silent film Siren of the Tropics (1927), Zouzou (1934) and Princesse Tam Tam (1935). She also starred in Fausse Alerte in 1940.

Baker in a topless photo shoot.

At this time she also scored her most successful song, "J'ai deux amours" (1931) and became a muse for contemporary authors, painters, designers, and sculptors including Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Christian Dior. Under the management of Giuseppe Pepito Abatino — a Sicilian former stonemason who passed himself off as a count — Baker's stage and public persona, as well as her singing voice, were transformed.

In 1934 she took the lead in a revival of Jacques Offenbach's 1875 opera La créole at the Théâtre Marigny on the Champs-Élysées of Paris, which premiered in December of that year for a six month run. In preparation for her performances she went through months of training with a vocal coach. In the words of Shirley Bassey, who has cited Baker as her primary influence, "… she went from a 'petite danseuse sauvage' with a decent voice to 'la grande diva magnifique' … I swear in all my life I have never seen, and probably never shall see again, such a spectacular singer and performer."^{[citation needed]}

Despite her popularity in France, she never obtained the same reputation in America. Upon a visit to the United States in 1935-1936, her performances received poor opening reviews for her starring role in the Ziegfeld Follies and she was replaced by Gypsy Rose Lee later in the run.^{[citation needed]}

Baker returned to Paris in 1937, married a Frenchman, Jean Lion, who was Jewish, and became a French citizen.^[10] They were married in the French city of Crévecoeur le Grand. The wedding was presided over by the mayor at the time, Jammy Schmidt. During the ceremony, when she was asked if she was ready to give up her American citizenship, it has been claimed that she renounced it without difficulty.^{[citation needed]}

Her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Baker's agent's brother approached her about working for the French government as an "honorable correspondent", if she happened to hear any gossip at parties that might be of use to her adopted country, she could report it. Baker immediately agreed, since she was against the Nazi stand on race, not only because she was black but because her husband was Jewish. Her café society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in-the-know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and report back what she heard. She attended parties at the Italian embassy without any suspicion falling on her and gathered information. She helped in the war effort in other ways, such as by sending Christmas presents to French soldiers. When the Germans invaded France, Baker left Paris and went to the Château des Milandes, her home in the south of France, where she had Belgian refugees living with her and others who were eager to help the Free French effort led from England by Charles de Gaulle. As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral nations like Portugal, and returning to France. Baker assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music.^{[citation needed]}

She helped mount a production in Marseille to give herself and her like-minded friends a reason for being there. She helped quite a lot of people who were in danger from the Nazis get visas and passports to leave France. Later in 1941, she and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa; the stated reason was Baker's health (since she really was recovering from another case of pneumonia) but the real reason was to continue helping the Resistance. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain and pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear (counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search) and made friends with the Pasha of Marrakesh, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several) and emergency hysterectomy she had to go through in 1942. After her recovery, she started touring to entertain Allied soldiers in North Africa. She even persuaded Egypt's King Farouk to make a public appearance at one of her concerts, a subtle indication of which side his officially neutral country leaned toward. Later, she would perform at Buchenwald for the liberated inmates who were too frail to be moved.^{[citation needed]}

After the war, for her underground activity, Baker received the Croix de guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.^[11]

In January 1966, she was invited by Fidel Castro to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba. Her spectacular show in April of that year led to record breaking attendance. In 1968, Baker visited Yugoslavia and made appearances in Belgrade and in Skopje. In 1973, Baker opened at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation. In 1974, she appeared in a Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium.

Josephine Baker dancing the Charleston, 1926

Civil rights activism[link]

Although based in France, Baker supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. She protested in her own way against racism, adopting 12 multi-ethnic orphans, whom she called the "Rainbow Tribe."^[12] In addition, she refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States.^[4] Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in Las Vegas, Nevada.^{[citation needed]}

In 1951, Baker made charges of racism against Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in Manhattan, where she alleged that she'd been refused service.^[13][14] Actress Grace Kelly, who was at the club at the time, rushed over to Baker, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing never to return (and she never did). The two women became close friends after the incident.^[15] Testament to this was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by then was princess consort of Rainier III of Monaco). (However, during his work on the Stork Club book, author and New York Times reporter Ralph Blumenthal was contacted by Jean-Claude Baker, one of Josephine Baker's sons. Having read a Blumenthal-written story about Leonard Bernstein's FBI file, he indicated that he had read his mother's FBI file and using comparison of the file to the tapes, said he thought the Stork Club incident was overblown.^[16])

Baker worked with the NAACP.^[4] In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr.^[17] Baker was the only official female speaker and while wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur she introduced the "Negro Women for Civil Rights."^[18] Rosa Parks and Daisy Bates were among those she acknowledged and both gave brief speeches. After King's assassination, his widow Coretta Scott King approached Baker in Holland to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "too young to lose their mother".^[3]

Personal life[link]

Baker had 12 children through adoption. She bore only one child herself, stillborn in 1941, an incident which precipitated an emergency hysterectomy. Baker raised two daughters, French-born Marianne and Moroccan-born Stellina, and ten sons, Korean-born Akio, Japanese-born Jeannot (or Janot), Colombian-born Luis, Finnish-born Jari, French-born Jean-Claude and Noël, Israeli-born Moïse, Algerian-born Brahim, Ivorian-born Koffi, and Venezuelan-born Mara.^[19][20] For some time, Baker lived with her children and an enormous staff in a castle, Château de Milandes, in Dordogne, France, with her fourth husband Jo Bouillon (a French conductor).

Josephine Baker was married four times. Her first marriage was to pullman Willie Wells in 1918 when she was just 13, and which was reportedly a very unhappy marriage. It was short lived and they divorced a short time later. She married Willie Baker in 1921 but that marriage also was short lived. She retained that last name simply because her career began taking off during that time and that is the last name with which she became best known. In 1937 she married Frenchman Jean Lion, during which time she received French citizenship and became a permanent expatriate. She and Lion separated before he passed away. In 1947 she married French Composer Jo Bouillon. They also divorced. She was later involved for a time with artist Joe Brady, but they never married. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Baker was bisexual. Her son Jean-Claude Baker and co-author Chris Chase state in Josephine: The Hungry Heart that she was involved in numerous lesbian affairs, both while she was single and married, and mention six of her female lovers by name. Clara Smith, Evelyn Sheppard, Bessie Allison, Ada "Bricktop" Smith, and Mildred Smallwood were all African-American women whom she met while touring on the black performing circuit early in her career. She was also reportedly involved intimately with French writer Colette. Not mentioned, but confirmed since, was her affair with Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.^[21] Jean-Claude Baker, who interviewed over 2,000 people while writing his book, wrote that affairs with women were not uncommon for his mother throughout her lifetime.^[22] He was quoted in one interview as saying:

"She was what today you would call bisexual, and I will tell you why. Forget that I am her son, I am also a historian. You have to put her back into the context of the time in which she lived. In those days, Chorus Girls were abused by the white or black producers and by the leading men if he liked girls. But they could not sleep together because there were not enough hotels to accommodate black people. So they would all stay together, and the girls would develop lady lover friendships, do you understand my English? But wait wait...If one of the girls by preference was gay, she'd be called a bull dyke by the whole cast. So you see, discrimination is everywhere."

Death[link]

On April 8, 1975, Baker starred in a retrospective revue at the Bobino in Paris, Joséphine à Bobino 1975, celebrating her 50 years in show business. The revue, financed by Prince Rainier, Princess Grace, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, opened to rave reviews. Demand for seating was such that fold-out chairs had to be added to accommodate spectators. The opening-night audience included Sophia Loren, Mick Jagger, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross and Liza Minnelli.^[23]

Four days later, Baker was found lying peacefully in her bed surrounded by newspapers with glowing reviews of her performance. She was in a coma after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. She was taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died, aged 68, on April 12, 1975.^[23][24] Her funeral was held at L'Église de la Madeleine. The first American woman to receive full French military honors at her funeral, Baker locked up the streets of Paris one last time. She was interred at the Cimetière de Monaco in Monte Carlo.^[23]

Legacy[link]

Place Joséphine Baker in the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris was named in her honor. She has also been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and the Hall of Famous Missourians. Her name has also been incorporated at Paris Plage, a man-made beach along the river Seine "Piscine Joséphine Baker".

Two of Baker's sons, Jean-Claude and Jarry (Jari), grew up to go into business together, running the restaurant Chez Josephine on Theatre Row, 42nd Street, New York, which celebrates Baker's life and works.^[25]

Portrayals[link]

Baker pictured in her most famous costume for the Danse banane

• In 2006, Jérôme Savary produced a musical, "A La Recherche de Josephine - New Orleans for Ever" (Looking for Josephine). The story revolved around the history of jazz and Baker's career.
• In 1991, Baker's life story, The Josephine Baker Story, was broadcast on HBO. Lynn Whitfield portrayed Baker, and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie—becoming the first Black actress to win the award in this category.
• In 2002, played by Karine Plantadit in Frida
• Josephine Baker appears in her role as a member of the French Resistance in Johannes Mario Simmel's 1960 novel, "Es Muss Nicht Immer Kaviar Sein" (On a pas toujours du caviar).
• The 2004 erotic novel Scandalous by British author Angela Campion uses Baker as its heroine and is inspired by Baker's sexual exploits and later adventures in the French Resistance. In the novel, Baker, working with a fictional black Canadian lover named Drummer Thompson, foils a plot by French fascists in 1936 Paris.
• Her influence upon and assistance with the careers of husband and wife dancers Carmen De Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder are discussed and illustrated in rare footage in the 2005 Linda Atkinson/Nick Doob documentary, Carmen and Geoffrey.^[26][27]
• Diana Ross famously portrayed Josephine Baker in both her Tony Award winning Broadway and television show "An Evening with Diana Ross". When the show was made into an NBC television special "The Big Event: An Evening with Diana Ross", she further embellished her role as Josephine. She worked for years to make a feature film of her life. Sadly, to no avail. Diana considers it a "lost dream". [(see "An Evening with Diana Ross" IMDB)]6 March 1977, Motown Productions.
• Beyoncé Knowles has portrayed Baker on various accounts throughout her career. During the 2006 Fashion Rocks show, Knowles performed "Dejá Vu" in a revised version of the Danse banane costume. In Knowles's video for "Naughty Girl", she is seen dancing in a huge champagne glass á La Baker. In I Am... Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas, Beyonce lists Baker as an influence of a section of her live show.
• In the 1997 animated film Anastasia, Baker appears with her cheetah during the musical number "Paris Holds the Key (to Your Heart)". A character clearly based upon Baker (topless, wearing the famous 'banana skirt') appears in the opening sequence of the 2003 animated film Les Triplettes de Belleville.
• A German submariner mimics Baker's Danse banane in the film Das Boot.
• In 2010, Keri Hilson portrayed Baker in her single "Pretty Girl Rock".
• Artist Hassan Musa portrayed Baker in a series of paintings called Who needs Bananas?^[28]
• In 2011, Sonia Rolland portrayed Baker in the film Midnight in Paris.

Film credits[link]

• La Sirène des tropiques (1927)
• Zouzou (1934)
• Princesse Tam Tam (1935)
• Fausse alerte (1940)
• Moulin Rouge (1941)
• An jedem Finger zehn (1954)
• Carosello del varietà (1955)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• The Josephine Baker collection, 1926–2001 at Stanford University Libraries
• Baker, J. C. & Chase, C. (1993). Josephine: The Hungry Heart. New York: Random House.
• Bonini, Emmanuel (2000). La veritable Josephine Baker. Paris: Pigmalean Gerard Watelet.
• Kraut, Anthea, Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham, Theatre Journal 55 (2003): 433–50.
• Jules-Rosette, Bennetta (2006). "Josephine Baker in Art and Life: The Icon and the Image". Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
• Schroeder, Alan, Ragtime Tumpie (Little, Brown, 1989), an award-winning children's picture book about Baker's childhood in St. Louis and her dream of becoming a dancer.
• Schroeder, Alan, Josephine Baker (Chelsea House, 1990), a young-adult biography.
• Theile, Merlind. "Adopting the World: Josephine Baker's Rainbow Tribe" Spiegel Online International, October 2, 2009.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Josephine Baker

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Josephine Baker

• Josephine Baker Official website
• Les Milandes- Josephine Baker's castle in France
• Josephine Baker at Allmusic
• Josephine Baker at the Internet Broadway Database
• Josephine Baker at the Internet Movie Database (self)
• Josephine Baker at the Internet Movie Database (character)
• Josephine Baker at Find a Grave
• A la recherche de Joséphine official site
• A Josephine Baker photo gallery
• Josephine Baker Photographs from the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri–St. Louis
• "Discography at Sony BMG Masterworks". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20070927195431/http://sonybmgmasterworks.com/artists/josephinebaker/. 
• Photographs of Josephine Baker
• The electric body: Nancy Cunard sees Josephine Baker (2003) -- review essay of dance style and contemporary critics
• Guide to Josephine Baker papers at Houghton Library, Harvard University

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2008)

Anita Baker
Baker performing at the 17th Annual Salute to Freedom
Background information
Born	(1958-01-26) January 26, 1958 (age 54) Toledo, Ohio, United States
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genres	R&B, soul jazz, smooth jazz, soul, quiet storm
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1978–present
Labels	Ariola (1979) Beverly Glen Records (1982-1984) Elektra (1985-1995) Atlantic (1996-2001) Blue Note (2004-present)
Website	Blue Note artist page

Anita Baker (born January 26, 1958, in Toledo, Ohio, and raised in Detroit, Michigan)^[1] is an American R&B/soul jazz singer-songwriter. To date, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards, and has four platinum albums and two gold albums to her credit.

Music career[link]

[edit] Chapter 8 (1979)

In 1975, Baker (Contralto) joined the Detroit-based band, Chapter 8, which featured Michael J. Powell, who would later produce her solo works. The band eventually got a record deal with Ariola, and their self-titled debut Chapter 8 came out in Fall 1979. Two singles hit the R&B charts: "Ready for Your Love," a duet between Baker and group member Gerald Lyles; and the Baker-led "I Just Wanna Be Your Girl."

Ariola Records was bought by Arista Records. Chapter 8 were subsequently dropped from the label roster.

[edit] The Songstress (1983)

Baker released her solo debut album, The Songstress, in 1983. Produced by Patrick Moten and Otis Smith, the album was released on the small independent label Beverly Glen Records. The album was initially not a success, but featured the moderate R&B hit "Angel".

[edit] Rapture (1985-1986)

She released her second album, Rapture, in 1986. Produced by her friend Michael J. Powell (from the Detroit soul band Chapter 8), Baker wrote several tracks for the album herself including "Been So Long" and "Watch Your Step", and co-wrote the single "Sweet Love" which became her first mainstream hit; it peaked at number eight on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number two on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, also making the Top 20 in the United Kingdom. "Caught Up in the Rapture", "No One in the World", and "Same Ole Love" also became major R&B and adult contemporary chart hits during 1986 and 1987. Rapture remains Baker's biggest-selling album and went on to sell nearly eight million copies worldwide. It also earned Baker two Grammy Awards in 1987: Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female for the album and Best Rhythm & Blues Song for "Sweet Love". A show from Baker's world tour, entitled A Night of Rapture, was filmed and released on home video (and DVD in 2007).

In 1987, Baker collaborated with The Winans on the single "Ain't No Need to Worry", which earned Baker her third Grammy Award the following year, in the Best Soul Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group, Choir or Chorus category.

[edit] Giving You the Best That I Got (1988)

Baker's third album, Giving You the Best That I Got, was released in October 1988. She again worked with Powell, and the album became a critical and commercial success, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 chart and selling five million copies worldwide (including three million in the U.S. alone). It featured such hits as "Just Because" and the title track, which became Baker's biggest pop hit, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 while topping both the R&B and adult contemporary charts.^[2] The album also won three more Grammy awards.

[edit] Compositions (1990)

Baker returned to the studio in 1990 for her fourth album (her third for Elektra), entitled Compositions. Once again produced by Powell, this time Baker became more involved in the songwriting and production process and began to experiment with jazz influences. Baker wrote or co-wrote seven of the nine songs on the album, including the hits "Talk to Me", "Fairy Tales", "No One to Blame", and "Whatever It Takes" (written with Gerald Levert). The album was mostly cut "live", in that the rhythm section was playing as Baker sang. The album included musicians Greg Phillinganes, Nathan East, Paulinho da Costa, Vernon Fails, Ricky Lawson, and Stephen Ferrone.

The three singles from Compositions all failed to reach the top forty of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart ("Talk to Me" came closest peaking at number forty-four). The singles became top twenty hits on the R&B singles chart and were also moderate adult contemporary hits. Compositions peaked at number five on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, number three on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and number four on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums, and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for one million units sold in the US. The album also earned Baker her seventh Grammy Award and her fourth in the category of Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (a category that she had won four times during five awards ceremonies between 1987 - 1991).

Following Compositions, Elektra Records secured the rights to Baker's debut album The Songstress from 1983, and re-released it with a new cover artwork in 1991.

After almost five years of touring, performing, and recording, Baker took a break, only entering the studio to record the jazz standard "Witchcraft" with Frank Sinatra for his 1993 Duets album.

[edit] Rhythm of Love (1994)

Baker's fifth album, Rhythm of Love, was issued in September 1994. After ending her production partnership with Powell, Baker produced most of the album herself along with many famous producers such as George Duke, Arif Mardin, Barry J. Eastmond, and Tommy LiPuma. Rhythm of Love was mainly recorded at Baker's home due to her pregnancy at the time, and she wrote five of the album's twelve songs. The album was a commercial success, peaking at number three on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and number one on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, and eventually being certified double platinum by the RIAA. The first single, "Body and Soul", became Baker's first US top forty hit in over five years. Baker won the award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the single "I Apologize" at the 1996 Grammy Awards, her fifth Grammy Award in this category and her eighth overall. Baker embarked on the Rhythm of Love World Tour in support of the album, on December 14, 1994 to November 14, 1995.

Recent career[link]

After Rhythm of Love, Baker largely withdrew from the public eye for many years to dedicate time to her new family. In June 2002, Rhino Records released The Best of Anita Baker (known as Sweet Love: The Very Best of Anita Baker in the UK, with a slightly different track listing), a compilation of Baker's material from 1983–2002.

Two years later, in March 2004, Blue Note Records announced that they had signed Baker to an exclusive recording contract that would result in at least two new albums. Bruce Lundvall, president and CEO of EMI Jazz & Classics, signed her after she approached him to record for Blue Note. At the same time Rhino Records released A Night of Rapture: Live, a compilation that contained nine live tracks and three multimedia videos recorded in the 1980s.

In September 2004, a decade after her last studio album, Baker released a new album, entitled My Everything. Co-produced by Barry J. Eastmond and Baker herself, she wrote or co-wrote nine of this album's ten tracks, including a duet with Babyface, "Like You Used to Do". Though she had been out of the limelight for some considerable time, the album was still moderately successful, peaking at number four on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The album was certified gold by the RIAA, denoting sales in excess of 500,000 units in the US.

In October 2005, Baker released her first Christmas album, Christmas Fantasy. Again produced by Baker and Eastmond, the album mixed traditional Christmas carols ("God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"), standards ("I'll Be Home for Christmas"), re-imagined classics ("Frosty's Rag"), Broadway show tunes ("My Favorite Things"), and three new songs by Baker and Eastmond ("Moonlight Sleighride", "Family of Man", and "Christmas Fantasy"). She received a Grammy Award nomination in 2007 for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for the song "Christmas Time Is Here", although she did not win.

In 2007, Baker appeared on Dave Koz's album At the Movies. She sang "Somewhere" from the Broadway musical West Side Story.^{[citation needed]}

Baker embarked on a concert tour in 2008, entitled An Evening with Anita Baker. Her performance at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan, on July 12, 2008, was recorded and Baker announced plans to release a new DVD and/or CD live album in early 2009.^{[citation needed]}

On September 19, 2008, BusyBoy Productions^[3] filmed her entire An Evening with Anita Baker concert at Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minnesota, for Baker's up-and-coming DVD and B-roll footage for promotional purposes.

On April 25, 2010, Baker performed at the New Orleans Annual Jazz Fest 2010 at the Congo Square Stage.^{[citation needed]}

On June 10, 2010, Baker sang the National Anthem at Game 4 of the NBA Finals in TD Garden. Her performance was criticized by viewers, and many began criticizing the performance on Twitter after she finished singing.^[4]

Baker was scheduled to release her seventh studio album in 2010, entitled 21st Century Love, on Blue Note Records/EMI.^[5] However, the album has yet to surface.

Baker was scheduled to perform at VH1 Divas Celebrates Soul taped December 18 2011: she was to sing "Sweet Love" during a salute to Detroit R&B music. However Baker dropped out of the show at the last minute: rumors claimed there had been friction between Baker and Divas 2011 performer Jill Scott but Baker attributed her leaving the show to its producers refusing to allow her to properly rehearse her number with the other Divas performers who'd be singing with her - presumably Marsha Ambrosius and Ledisi who performed "Sweet Love" on the finalized Divas 2011 broadcast.^[6]

Personal life[link]

She married Walter Bridgforth Jr. on Christmas Eve 1988. As of October 2007 they were finalizing their divorce.^[7] They have two sons, Walter Baker Bridgforth (born January 1993) and Edward Carlton Bridgforth (born May 1994).^[8] Baker currently lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.^[9]

Selected awards and accolades[link]

Grammy Awards[link]

American Music Awards[link]

Other honors[link]

• Baker received a "Legend Award" at the 2010 Soul Train Music Awards, where she also performed and was honored.^[11]

Discography[link]

• 1983: The Songstress
• 1986: Rapture
• 1988: Giving You the Best That I Got
• 1990: Compositions
• 1994: Rhythm of Love
• 2004: My Everything
• 2005: Christmas Fantasy

Tours[link]

• A Night of Rapture Tour (1986/87)
• Giving You The Best Tour (1988)
• Compositions World Tour (1990)
• The Rhythm of Love Tour (1994/95)
• An Evening with Anita Baker Tour (2008)

References[link]

External links[link]

	Book: Anita Baker
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Official Website
• Anita Baker on Blue Note Records
• Anita Baker at Allmusic
• Anita Baker at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography and note to fans at SoulTracks
• Official Myspace Page

Gerry Rafferty
Rafferty performing at Dublin's National Stadium 6 September 1980
Background information
Birth name	Gerald Rafferty
Born	(1947-04-16)16 April 1947 Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Died	4 January 2011(2011-01-04) (aged 63) Stroud, Gloucestershire, England
Genres	Rock, pop, folk rock, blues rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, saxophone
Years active	1966–2000, 2009–2010
Labels	Transatlantic Records United Artists Records London Records Hypertension
Associated acts	The Humblebums Stealers Wheel

Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty (16 April 1947 – 4 January 2011) was a Scottish singer-songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "Days Gone Down", "Night Owl", "Get It Right Next Time", and with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Rafferty was born into a working class family in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. His mother taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy; later, he was influenced by the music of The Beatles and Bob Dylan. He joined the folk-pop group The Humblebums in 1969. After they disbanded in 1971, he recorded his first solo album, Can I Have My Money Back? Rafferty and Joe Egan formed the group Stealers Wheel in 1972, producing several hits, most notably "Stuck in the Middle with You". In 1978, he recorded his second solo album, City to City, which included "Baker Street", his most popular song.

Early years[link]

Rafferty was born on 16 April 1947 into a working-class family in Paisley, a son and grandson of coal miners.^[1] He was a son of Mary Skeffington and Joseph Rafferty (died 1963);^[2] and had two brothers, Jim and Joe (died 1995).^[3] Rafferty grew up in a council house on the town’s Foxbar estate and was educated at St Mirin's Academy.^[3] His Irish-born father, a violent alcoholic, was a miner and lorry driver who died when Rafferty was 16.^[2] His mother was Irish/Scottish and taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy: "My father was Irish so growing up in Paisley I was hearing all these songs when I was two or three. Songs like 'She Moves Through the Fair', which my mother sings beautifully. And a whole suite of Irish traditional songs and Scots traditional songs."^[4][5] Heavily influenced by folk music and the music of The Beatles and Bob Dylan, the young Rafferty started to write his own material.^[3]

Foxbar in Paisley, Renfrewshire, where Gerry Rafferty grew up.

Musical career[link]

Rafferty left St. Mirin's Academy in 1963. He worked in a butcher's shop, as a civil service clerk, and in a shoe shop, although as he noted in a later interview: "But there was never anything else for me but music. I never intended making a career out of any of the jobs I did."^[6] On weekends he and a schoolfriend, Joe Egan, played in a local group named The Mavericks. In the mid 1960s Rafferty earned money, for a time, busking on the London Underground. In 1966 he was a member of the band The Fifth Column, along with future Stealers Wheel collaborator Joe Egan. The group released the single "Benjamin Day"/"There's Nobody Here" (Columbia 8068), but it was not a commercial success.

The Humblebums/Stealers Wheel[link]

In 1969 he became the third member of an existing folk-pop ensemble The Humblebums that was composed of future comedian Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey. Harvey left shortly afterwards and Rafferty and Connolly continued as a duo. They recorded two acclaimed albums for Transatlantic Records. In his own stand-up shows, Connolly has often talked about how Rafferty made him laugh and remembered the crazy things they would get up to while on tour. On one occasion Rafferty decided to look up the local Berlin telephone directory to see if there were any Hitlers registered.^[7] After the two decided to go their separate ways in 1971, Transatlantic owner Nathan Joseph signed Rafferty to a contract as a solo performer and Rafferty recorded his first solo album – Can I Have My Money Back. The album was a critical success but did not enjoy commercial success. In 1972, Rafferty and Egan formed Stealers Wheel, a group which was beset by legal wranglings, but did have a huge hit "Stuck in the Middle With You", which 20 years later was used prominently in the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs. Stealers Wheel also produced the lesser top 50 hits, "Everything'll Turn Out Fine", followed by "Star". The duo disbanded in 1975.^[8]

City to City/Night Owl[link]

A street sign from Baker Street in central London, the inspiration for Rafferty's famous song.

Legal issues after the breakup of Stealers Wheel meant that, for three years, Rafferty was unable to release any material.^[8] After the disputes were resolved in 1978, he recorded his second solo album, City to City, with producer Hugh Murphy, which included the song with which he remains most identified, "Baker Street". The single reached #3 in the UK and #2 in the US.^[9] The album sold over 5.5 million copies, toppling the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in the US on 8 July 1978.^[10] "Baker Street" featured a distinctive saxophone solo played by Raphael Ravenscroft,^[11] although the origins of the solo have been disputed.^[12][13]

As the singer recalled in a 1988 interview with Colin Irwin: "When I wrote the song I saw that bit as an instrumental part but I didn’t know what. We tried electric guitar but it sounded weak, and we tried other things and I think it was Hugh Murphy’s suggestion that we tried saxophone."^[4]

Ravenscroft said differently, saying he was presented with a song that contained "several gaps". "In fact, most of what I played was an old blues riff," stated Ravenscroft. "If you're asking me: 'Did Gerry hand me a piece of music to play?' then no, he didn't."^[14] Ravenscroft, a session musician, was in the studio to record a brief soprano saxophone part and suggested that he record the now famous break using the alto saxophone he had in his car.

In his interview with Colin Irwin, Rafferty disputed this and noted that Ravenscroft had actually been his second choice to play the saxophone solo, after Pete Zorn, who was unavailable: "The only confusion at the time that I didn’t enjoy too much was the fact that a lot of people believed that the line was written by Raphael Ravenscroft, the sax player, but it was my line. I sang it to him."^[4] When a remastered version of City to City was released in 2011, it included the original, electric guitar version of the song, confirming Rafferty's authorship of the riff. In the liner notes to the album, Rafferty's long-time friend and collaborator Rab Noakes commented: "Let's hope [the Baker Street demo] will, at last, silence all who keep on asserting that the saxophone player came up with the melody line. He didn't. He just blew what he was told by the person who did write it, Gerry Rafferty.^[13] Michael Gray, Rafferty's former manager, agreed: "The audible proof is there from the demos that Rafferty himself created the riff and placed it within the song's structure exactly where it ended up."^[15]

The song remains a mainstay of soft-rock radio airplay^[14] and, in October 2010, it was recognised by the BMI for surpassing 5 million plays worldwide. "Stuck in the Middle With You" has received over 4 million plays worldwide, and "Right Down The Line" has had over 3 million plays^[16]

"Right Down the Line" was the second single from City to City. The song made #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts in the US. It remained at the top of the adult contemporary chart for four non-consecutive weeks. The third single from the album, "Home and Dry", reached #28 in the US Top 40 in early 1979.^[17] One of the lesser known songs from that time is "Big Change in the Weather" (the B-side of "Baker Street").^[18]

An irony of the success of "Baker Street" was that the lyrics reflected Rafferty’s disenchantment with certain elements of the music industry. This irony was elaborated on by music journalist Paul Gambaccini for BBC World News:.^[19]

His next album, Night Owl, also did well. Guitarist Richard Thompson helped by performing on the track "Take The Money and Run", and the title track was a UK #5 hit in 1979. "Days Gone Down" reached #17 in the US. The follow-up single "Get It Right Next Time" made the UK and US Top 40.

Snakes and Ladders/Sleepwalking/North And South[link]

Several of Gerry Rafferty's solo albums, including City to City and Night Owl and parts of Snakes and Ladders and Sleepwalking, were recorded at Chipping Norton Recording Studios, which occupied this grade II listed building at 28/30 New Street, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire from 1972 until its closure in 1999.^[20]

Subsequent albums, such as Snakes and Ladders (1980), Sleepwalking (1982), and North and South (1988), fared less well, perhaps due partly to Rafferty's longstanding reluctance to perform live, which he felt uncomfortable with.^[12][21]

The deeply introspective lyrics of the 1982 album Sleepwalking suggested Rafferty found success far from glamorous: songs like "Standing at the Gates", "Change of Heart", and "The Right Moment" suggest the singer was exhausted, burnt-out, and desperately seeking a new direction. Liner notes for the compilation album Right Down the Line (prepared with Rafferty's close cooperation^[22]) confirmed this several years later, noting the singer was now "finding himself at the crossroads and looking to replace the treadmill with a new dimension in his life".^[23] In 1983, Rafferty announced his intention to take a break and devote more time to his family: "It dawned on me that since Baker Street I had been touring the world, travelling everywhere and seeing nowhere. Whatever I do in the future, it's at my own pace, on my own terms."^[24]

Based at 16th-century^[25] Tye Farm in Hartfield, near the Kent-Sussex border, Rafferty installed electric gates to protect his privacy, built a recording studio, and worked largely by himself^[26] or with Hugh Murphy.^[4][27] According to his former wife Carla, who discouraged visitors: "He was just stalling for time. Maybe some new project would suddenly happen, but I knew he'd crossed the line as far as the record business went."^[27] It was six years before he released his next record, North and South. In his 1988 interview with Colin Irwin, to promote the album, Rafferty mentioned that he was interested in doing more production work, writing film soundtracks, and even floated the idea of writing a musical about the life of Robert Louis Stevenson.^[4]

Rafferty collaborated with several other artists during this time. In 1980, he and Murphy produced a record for Richard and Linda Thompson; though never released, it eventually evolved into their album Shoot Out the Lights.^[4] It was also during this period that Rafferty sang the Knopfler-penned song "The Way It Always Starts" (1983) on the soundtrack of the film Local Hero, and co-produced The Proclaimers first UK hit single "Letter from America" in 1987 with Hugh Murphy.^[28] In the early 1990s, Rafferty recorded a cover version of the Bob Dylan song "The Times They Are a-Changin'" with Barbara Dickson, who had contributed backing vocals to both City to City and Night Owl. The track appeared on Dickson's albums Don't Think Twice It's All Right (1992) and The Barbara Dickson Collection (2006).^[29]

On a Wing and a Prayer/Over My Head[link]

Rafferty released two further albums in the 1990s in what musician Tom Robinson later described as "a major return to form".^[30] On a Wing and a Prayer (1992) reunited him with his Stealers Wheel partner Egan on several tracks. It included three tracks cowritten with Rafferty's brother Jim, also a singer-songwriter, who had been signed to Decca Records in the 1970s. Rafferty recorded a new version of his Humblebums song "Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway" on the album Over My Head (1994). These were the last two records Rafferty produced with Hugh Murphy, who died in 1998. According to guitarist Hugh Burns, Murphy's death was "a great blow to Gerry"^[30] and marked the end of a creative partnership that had lasted almost 30 years.

Another World/Life Goes On[link]

By the end of the 1990s, new technology enabled Rafferty to distance himself even further from the conventional approach of the music industry and work entirely on his own terms. Now based in London, he employed sound engineer Giles Twigg to assemble a Digidesign mobile recording studio and, with Twigg's help, recorded the album Another World in London, Scotland, Barbados, France, and Italy with collaborators from previous albums, including Hugh Burns, Mark Knopfler, Kenny Craddock, and Mo Foster.^[31][32] Through his company Icon Music, Rafferty promoted and sold the album independently on a website (www.gerryrafferty.com) created specifically for the purpose.

Another World, released in 2000, was originally available only via direct order from his website,^[33] but since 2003 is available on the Hypertension label. Another World, almost an esoteric work, also with assistance of Mark Knopfler and Egan, featured an album cover illustrated by John 'Patrick' Byrne, who also illustrated the covers for Can I Have My Money Back?, City to City, Night Owl, and Snakes and Ladders, and all three Stealers Wheel albums. Byrne was also responsible for one of Rafferty's most prized possessions^[34]: a hand-painted Martin acoustic guitar bearing his portrait and the name 'Gerry Rafferty', which features in many photographs of the singer.^[6][23]

Another World marked a new departure for the singer. As he explained in a press release heralding the new record in November 2000: "My heart and soul have gone into this album, and by releasing it in this way my creative influence has not been diluted in any way."^[35] Finally, thanks to the Internet, it seemed Rafferty no longer needed the music industry: technology was allowing him to put his music directly in the hands of an appreciative audience. In a blog posting dated 31 March 2004 he wrote: "Let's get back to music: after all that's the only reason that this website has been set up." Another posting announced that Rafferty would begin to release music regularly as free downloads: "In reality, Gerry could put a new track out every two weeks or so. We will keep you informed of developments as they happen."^[36] Only a handful of tracks were ever released, however, and the website eventually closed down without any explanation.

In 2009 Rafferty released Life Goes On, again on Hypertension. This album features a mixture of new recordings, covers of Christmas carols and traditional songs that had previously been available as downloads on his web site, and edited tracks from his previous three albums.^[37]

Posthumous[link]

Rafferty's death in January 2011 rekindled interest in the singer's work. According to his daughter Martha, interviewed by Glasgow's Sunday Mail some months later: "What surprised me most was the reaction on the internet. "Baker Street" had two million hits in the two days after his death and he was the third most talked about subject on Twitter."^[21] In May 2011, Martha Rafferty launched an official Facebook page named "The REAL Gerry Rafferty Page" as a tribute to her father.^[38] In September 2011, EMI issued a remastered, collector's edition of City to City featuring previously unheard demo versions of "Baker Street", "Mattie's Rag", "City to City", and other tracks from the album.

Attitude to the music industry[link]

Rafferty drew a clear distinction between the artistic integrity of a musician, on the one hand, and the music industry's need to create celebrities and sell products, on the other. In an interview with Colin Irwin in 1988, he said: "There's a thin line between being a songwriter and a singer and being a personality... If you feel uncomfortable with it you shouldn't do it. It's not for me – there are too many inherent contradictions."^[4] Two decades later, speaking to the press after Rafferty's funeral, Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers confirmed Rafferty's dislike of celebrity: "He was not entirely comfortable with fame. Even more so than most people who work in this business, he saw it as not a good thing".^[39] Reid believed Rafferty was fundamentally unsuited to the pressures of celebrity: "He struck me as a very, very sensitive man and for someone like that, fame was probably not appropriate."^[40]

Generally an autobiographical writer,^[6] Rafferty returned to this theme often, in the lyrics of Stealers Wheel songs such as "Star", "Stuck in the Middle With You", and "Good Businessman", and later solo tracks like "Take the Money and Run" (from Night Owl), "Welcome to Hollywood" (from Snakes and Ladders), and "Sleepwalking" (from the album of the same name). The liner notes to the compilation album Right Down the Line, written by Jerry Gilbert with Rafferty's close cooperation, note his consistent refusal to tour the USA and "generally 'play the industry game'."^[23] It was ironic that Rafferty—a lover and collector of religious icons, who would later name one of his publishing companies "Icon Music"^[41]—was also an iconoclast.^[23] According to Michael Gray, Rafferty's personal manager at the height of his success, he turned down many opportunities to work with other artists:^[27] "... he retained a healthy scepticism not just about the music industry but about society, money and politics in general. His background was soaked in Scottish socialism and poverty, his mind sharp and his personality acerbic, and he wasn't going to be dazzled by the glamour of success."^[42]

Rafferty never changed his mind about the music business; if anything, his views hardened. In 2000, he told the Paisley Daily Express that the second Stealers Wheel album, released in 1974, had been named Ferguslie Park, after a deprived^[43] area of Paisley, "to get as far away as possible from all the bullshit of the music industry in London."^[6] In a November 2009 interview with the Sunday Express, he said: "The music industry... is something I loathe and detest. It conjures up images of a gigantic factory spewing out parts of the machine. In many respects, this of course is exactly what it is now. Pumping out s**t like there’s no tomorrow."^[44] The last word came from Monsignor John Tormey, celebrating Rafferty's funeral mass, who suggested the singer's attitude to fame was an indication of his spiritual integrity: "He always searched for a more authentic way to live his life, shunning the outward trappings of celebrity so that he might live as he chose to live his life."^[39]

Personal life[link]

Rafferty met Carla Ventilla (a 15-year-old apprentice hairdresser from an Italian family in Clydebank) at a dancehall in 1965—a story he later recounted in the song "Shipyard Town" on the album North and South. They married in 1970 and lived in Scotland with their daughter, Martha, before moving to the south of England in the late 1970s,^[12] where they divided their time between their farm near the Kent-Sussex border and a home in Hampstead, London.^[27] Rafferty's lengthy commutes from London to Scotland inspired a number of songs on the album City to City (including the title track and "Mattie's Rag", which recounted his delight at being reunited with his daughter), while the later move south inspired "The Garden of England" (from the album Snakes and Ladders) and a number of songs on North and South. After the completion of Another World, Rafferty planned to move back to Scotland and bought "a substantial listed 1860s mansion" in the Highland village of Strathpeffer,^[45] although he sold the property two years later and never actually moved in.^[46]

Alcoholism[link]

Rafferty had always enjoyed alcohol^{[12][21][30][47]} and early songs, such as "One Drink Down", "Baker Street", and "Night Owl", freely mention the subject. He told friends that his alcoholism dated back to his childhood,^[48] though even people close to him had no idea how it would come to dominate his life. Martha Rafferty believes her father started drinking heavily to cope with the pressures of playing on stage, but says his problem "wasn't obvious" for many years.^[21] According to Michael Gray, the singer's personal manager in the early 1980s: "It never occurred to me in all the time I knew him that he was heading for alcoholism. Maybe I should have realised, but I didn't. I'm unsure whether he did."^[42] As the 1980s progressed, Rafferty's growing drinking problem placed his marriage under impossible strain^[27] and his wife divorced him in 1990,^[49] though they remained close.^[27] In 1995, Rafferty was deeply affected by the death of his older brother Joseph, an event from which family and friends have said he never fully recovered.^[47][50]

In the late 1980s, Rafferty had told journalist Colin Irwin "I was always very conscious about keeping a low profile because that's the way I like to go about it. And I don't plan to be in the public eye too much now either."^[4] However, in the last decade of his life, having taken pains to shun the fame and celebrity that accompanied his musical achievements, Rafferty found himself making headlines once again as he struggled with alcoholism and depression and the increasingly erratic behaviour they spawned.^[51]

In April 2005, Rafferty was admitted to St Mary's Hospital in London after collapsing at his Hampstead home. According to a later report in the Daily Mail, Rafferty quashed rumours that he had taken an overdose of prescription drugs^[50] and revealed the cause "was actually a drunken fall down the stairs which produced a nasty head injury".^[52]

Rafferty later sold his London home and moved to California, where his daughter was then living, but often flew back to the UK. In 2006, the Daily Mail reported that the singer had been taken by police in a wheelchair to a Church of Scotland drying-out clinic after arriving in Inverness drunk on a private plane flight after a "ten-hour bender".^[53]

While the news stories focused on Rafferty's binges, they revealed nothing of his private struggle with alcohol or the impact on his family and friends. His fiancee Enzina Fuschini said he "felt that he was under some sort of evil spell. He felt crippled by it... I saw a man in despair",^[47] while his daughter Martha, interviewed by Graham Stellard after her father's death, revealed that Rafferty had "tried all the normal routes of abstaining or getting help but he wasn't able to do it... I tried everything I could. It was extremely painful to see him live out his life through alcoholism... It tore me apart on a daily basis."^[21]

Disappearance[link]

In 2008, Rafferty moved away from California and briefly rented a home in Ireland, where his drinking soon became a problem again.^[27] In July that year, it was rumoured that his friend and former musical partner Billy Connolly had arranged for the singer to enter rehab.^[54] But Rafferty apparently checked himself out and flew to London instead, where he holed up in the five-star Westbury Hotel in Mayfair and began a four-day drinking session that left his room extensively damaged. Speaking to the Telegraph later, the hotel's director, Alex Huggan commented: "It was such a shame. In person, Mr Rafferty was a really nice man, he kept himself to himself and didn't bother the other guests but he was clearly on a downward spiral. He was in self-destruct mode."^[55]

There were conflicting reports about what happened next. The newspaper Scotland on Sunday reported that Rafferty had been asked to leave the hotel and had then checked himself into St Thomas' Hospital suffering from a chronic liver condition, brought on by heavy drinking. The same report claimed that on 1 August 2008, Rafferty had disappeared, leaving his belongings behind, and that the hospital had filed a missing persons report.^[14] However no such missing persons report existed.^[55] On 17 February 2009, The Guardian reported that Rafferty was in hiding in the south of England, being cared for by a friend.^[56] Subsequently, Rafferty's spokesperson Paul Charles told The Independent newspaper that he had been in touch with Rafferty two weeks previously and that he was alive and well but had no plans to either record or tour.^[56] This was then contradicted by a further report in The Daily Telegraph on the following day which quoted from a statement by his solicitors issued to Channel 4 News: "Contrary to reports, Gerry is extremely well and has been living in Tuscany for the last six months… he continues to compose and record new songs and music… and he hopes to release a new album of his most recent work in the summer of this year [2009]."^[57][58] The album, titled Life Goes On, was released in November 2009.^[37]

The mystery surrounding Rafferty's disappearance was only clarified later. In November 2009, Rafferty told a journalist from the Sunday Express that he had been living in Florence, Italy, splitting his time between a home in Dorset and visits to Scotland each year.^[44] But a slightly different story emerged after his death. After leaving St Thomas' Hospital, and while claiming to be in Tuscany, he was quietly moving from one London hotel to another. It was during this time that he met Enzina Fuschini, an Italian artist and designer from Dorset. Rafferty and Fuschini fell in love and rented a large home together in Upton, near Poole.^[59] During 2009, Fuschini cared for the singer and tried to help him overcome his alcoholism, and Rafferty proposed to Fuschini at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on Christmas Eve 2009.^[47][48]

Death[link]

In November 2010, Rafferty was admitted to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, where he was put on a life-support machine and treated for multiple organ failure. After being taken off life support, Rafferty rallied for a short time, and it seemed that he might recover.^[60][61] Rafferty died at his daughter Martha's home in Stroud, Gloucestershire^[62][63] on January 4, 2011, of liver failure.

Wikinews has related news: Over 400 attend Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty's funeral

A Requiem Mass was held for Rafferty at St Mirin's Cathedral in his native town of Paisley on Friday 21 January 2011. Politicians in attendance were the First Minister of Scotland the Right Honorable Alex Salmond MSP, Wendy Alexander MSP, Hugh Henry MSP, and Robin Harper MSP. Musicians present included Craig and Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers, former bandmates Joe Egan and Rab Noakes, Barbara Dickson, and Graham Lyle. The eulogy was given by Rafferty's longtime friend John Byrne. His remains were then cremated at the Woodside Crematorium in Paisley^[64] and his ashes scattered on the island of Iona.^[65] He is survived by his daughter, granddaughter Celia and brother Jim.^[2]

Tributes[link]

Newspapers printed lengthy obituaries for the singer; in The Guardian, Michael Gray charted Rafferty's long downward spiral into alcoholism,^[27] while a full-page obituary in The Times summarized his career more positively: "As well as being a singer of considerable talent who at one time had the pop world at his feet, Gerry Rafferty was also a consummate songwriter, blessed with sensitivity and an enviable melodic flair that at its best recalled Paul McCartney."^[66]

Other entertainers also paid tribute to Rafferty, with comedian and ex-bandmate Billy Connolly calling him "a hugely talented songwriter and singer who will be greatly missed" and musician Tom Robinson saying, "His early work with Stealers Wheel was an inspiration to a whole generation of songwriters in the 70s, including me."^[67] Speaking after the funeral, Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers said: "I think Gerry Rafferty was one of the few people who really successfully straddled the worlds of both folk and popular music. He did it really well and he was respected in both camps."^[40] Barbara Dickson also paid tribute to her friend, whom she described as a "luminous, glorious Scottish musician".^[5] A spokesperson for Rafferty's last record label, Hypertension, commented that he "was a major talent. His songwriting, production and the way he sang his songs, with that beautiful voice of his, was truly wonderful and inspiring."^[68]

The reaction of younger artists suggests Rafferty's music has also inspired a new generation of fans. Shortly after news of the singer's death, Lily Allen tweeted the message "Rest in Peace Gerry x" with a video link to the song "Right Down the Line",^[69] reputedly one of her favourite music tracks.^[70] Electropop star Elly Jackson described "Right Down the Line" as "my favourite track of all time. It makes me think of home, nostalgia and happiness."^[70] Bonnie Raitt recorded a reggae treatment of "Right Down the Line" for her Slipstream album released 10 April 2012.

Will and legal dispute over estate[link]

In October 2011, newspapers reported that Rafferty's immediate family were the beneficiaries of his £1.25 million estate: his daughter Martha inherited a house and its contents in California, while his granddaughter Celia inherited, in trust, the rights to Rafferty's songs and any future royalties. Rafferty had apparently not changed his will after meeting his fiancee Enzina Fuschini in the autumn of 2008 and left her nothing.^[71][72] Several months later, in January 2012, the Daily Mail reported^[73] that Fuschini had launched a High Court legal action against Martha and Celia Rafferty seeking a share of the will under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975^[74], which allows financial dependents of a deceased person to claim "reasonable financial provision".

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Chart singles[link]

References[link]