(2019) Gerry Rafferty – Who Knows What the Day Will Bring?: The Complete Transatlantic Recordings 1969-1971
Review:
The complete, early recordings of the Stealers Wheel and “Baker Street” singer-songwriter are collected on this new 2-CD set including both albums from The Humblebums and Can I Have My Money Back? for the first time on CD in its original form. Throw in copious bonus tracks including B-sides, outtakes, and eight previously unreleased alternates taken directly from the Transatlantic multi-tracks and you have the definitive chronicle of Rafferty’s early years. Whether recording as a solo performer, a member of Stealers Wheel or as one half of The Humblebums (the other half, of course, being Billy Connolly), the late Gerry Rafferty was always a master craftsman, leaving behind a dazzling portfolio of songs headed by huge hits ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ and the equally timeless ‘Baker Street’. Although early success eluded him, it was during his time with the nominally folk-oriented Transatlantic label that Gerry learnt his craft, sharing space with Connolly on two Humblebums albums before the superb 1971 solo set “Can I Have My Money Back?” As most fans will be only too aware, those early recordings have been repackaged on a regular basis over the last four decades or so with varying degrees of care and attention. What makes the 2-CD set Who Knows What The Day Will Bring? different from the pack is that, for the first time, a full anthology of Gerry’s early years is available under one roof. In addition to every album track, stray B-side and remixed single, we’ve added a cache of previously-unreleased songs and alternative versions (including two early versions of ‘Who Cares’, a song that would later turn up in substantially different format on the second Stealers Wheel LP) taken from a bunch of multi-track masters that have been gathering dust in Transatlantic’s archives for the last fifty years. With a host of hitherto-unheard songs and performances, the first-ever complete reissue of “Can I Have My Money Back?” (previous attempts have substituted an unauthorised overdubbed ‘Mary Skeffington’ in place of the original, far superior album version), Who Knows What The Day Will Bring? is nothing less than a complete, unexpurgated document of Rafferty’s adventures in the recording studio between 1969 and 1971, with all tracks taken from the master tapes. — cherryred.co.uk
Track Listing:
DISC ONE
1. LOOK OVER THE HILL AND FAR AWAY
2. PATRICK
3. RICK RACK
4. HER FATHER DIDN’T LIKE ME ANYWAY
5. PLEASE SING A SONG FOR US
6. BLOOD AND GLORY
7. COCONUT TREE
8. I CAN’T STOP NOW
9. ALL THE BEST PEOPLE DO IT
10. STEAMBOAT ROW
11. SHOESHINE BOY
12. KEEP IT TO YOURSELF
13. SONG FOR SIMON
14. MY SINGING BIRD
15. HALF A MILE (Church version)
16. HALF A MILE (backing track)
17. CONTINENTAL SONG
18. CONTINENTAL SONG (backing track)
DISC TWO
1. NEW STREET BLUES
2. DIDN’T I?
3. MR. UNIVERSE
4. MARY SKEFFINGTON
5. LONG WAY ROUND
6. CAN I HAVE MY MONEY BACK?
7. SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE
8. MAKE YOU, BREAK YOU
9. TO EACH AND EVERYONE
10. ONE DRINK DOWN
11. DON’T COUNT ME OUT
12. HALF A CHANCE
13. WHERE I BELONG
14. SO BAD THINKING
15. MARY SKEFFINGTON (overdubbed version)
16. WHO CARES* (demo version)
17. BERNARD*
18. IN LOVING MEMORY*
19. MAKE YOU, BREAK YOU* (alternative version)
20. DON’T COUNT ME OUT* (alternative version)
21. MR. UNIVERSE* (alternative version)
22. MARTHA*
23. WAY OF KNOWING*
24. WHO CARES (finished master)
*PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
Media Report:
Genre: folk-rock, soft rock
Country: Scotland
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
