Gerry Rafferty, the Scottish singer/songwriter best known for '70s hits "Baker Street" and "Stuck in the Middle With You," has died at the age of 63 after a long battle with alcoholism and liver disease. Baker began his career busking on the London Underground before teaming up with Billy Connolly to form folk duo the Stumblebums. He later formed soft rock group Stealer's Wheel before launching a solo career.
Rafferty made more than $100,000 a year in royalties from "Baker Street," a song about his unhappiness with stardom, which, ironically, brought him even more fame, notes BBC presenter Paul Gambaccini. Rafferty "just wasn't of the constitution to deal with the music business, or to respect it," Gambaccini says. "Thus he found fame and artistic success incompatible, and he became a wanderer, a lonely man, allegedly a drinker. Now we have this unhappy end." Click for more on Rafferty's childhood and pop star years.
(More Gerry Rafferty dead stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
