Stealers Wheel

From page 91 of Classic Rock Magazine May 2004



Cover of May 2004 issue.
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‘Stealers Wheel’

(Lemon)

Stealers Wheel were a proper, honest-toGod one-hit wonder band. Although Gerry Rafferty is now arguably better known for ‘Baker Street’ and the most famous sax break in the history of pop music, their one hit came back to haunt us a decade ago in Reservoir Dogs as Michael Madsen sliced the ear from a cop while dancing to ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’. Odd choice and an odd postscript to the career of a comparatively obscure UK folk-rock act. They released three albums, though this, their debut, still stands as their best work. It’s an oddly enduring slice of 60s pop that somehow never turned up until 1972 and was produced, as it happens, by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

The partnership of Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty could have rivalled Simon and Garfunkel or Crosby, Stills & Nash; ‘Stuck In The Middle With You’ is an aberration, their finest songs being the surreal ballad ‘Next To Me’, the harmoniumdriven opener ‘Late Again’ and the haunting ‘Jose’. These are lightweight pop songs with a strong undercurrent of celtic pathos.

★★★ ★★

Tommy Udo

The Nice
W.A.S.P.






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